New grammar schools would be 'step back' says MP Pat McFadden

Pat McFadden hit out at the possibility of the expansion of grammar schools after Theresa May said she wanted 'an element of selection' in Britain's schools.

The Wolverhampton South East MP said: "The job of education in the 21st century is to maximise opportunity for the maximum number of children whatever their background.

"Ofsted's chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, said this week that a return to grammar schools would not do that.

"He said it would be a 'profoundly retrograde step that would actually lead to overall standards sliding back not improving'."

Mr McFadden said evidence showed that few poor pupils get a place at grammar schools.

He added: "Where there is failure and disadvantage, the answer should not be this festival of bring-backery but instead a focus on expanding opportunity for all schools right across the system."

The Prime Minister is reported to have told the Tories' 1922 Committee that she was not going to 'turn the clock back' to general exams for children at 11, but suggested that some of the 500 new free schools announced by David Cameron before he left office could be grammars.

Grammar schools are state secondary schools that select their pupils by means of an examination taken by children at age 11, known as the '11-plus'.

There are around 163 grammar schools in England out of some 3,000 state secondaries, and a further 69 grammar schools in Northern Ireland. She also argued that 'selection by house price' already exists within the state school system.

Education Secretary Justine Greening said Britain's education system has transformed 'beyond all recognition' since grammar schools were first introduced.

She said: "What we now need to do is look at how we can have a 21st century education policy that takes a pragmatic look at the role of grammars and, of course, across the whole of the system."

Labour's top team is vehemently opposed to grammar school expansion, although many of them attended grammars themselves.

They include leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was educated at Adams' Grammar School in Newport, Shropshire.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell is also grammar school educated, as are shadow health secretary Diane Abbott, leader of the Commons Paul Flynn and shadow business secretary Jon Trickett.

Alan Milburn, who chairs the Government's social mobility watchdog, said grammar schools risk creating an 'us and them divide'. He said: "This is not selection educationally, it is selection socially. If that is what is being talked about, it will not provide a social mobility dividend, it will be a social mobility disaster."