Pupils caught in middle of drive to expand Kent’s grammar schools
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Version 0 of 1. Georgia Lane is 13. She’s hoping to do well at GCSE and would like to go to Cambridge to study law. She’s smart and ambitious, but she vividly remembers the day she found out she had failed her 11+. Georgia lives in Kent, where secondary schools are selective and in the runup to the general election have become a political battleground over controversial plans to expand the grammar system in the county. Like thousands of Kent schoolchildren, Georgia sat what is known as the Kent test which results in 20% of pupils going to grammar school. “The whole process was very, very stressful,” she says. “I had lots and lots of tutoring and a lot of pressure on me to pass. “We started preparing for it in year 5. In the beginning of year 6, it was all practice for the 11+. On top of that I did tutoring for two hours every Saturday. I remember sitting the test in the lunch hall. We did it over three days. I thought I did really well.” Georgia did do well. Just not quite well enough to get into grammar school. “I remember I went home and my mum had an email and she read it out to me and I was absolutely gutted.” The pass mark was 360, which she got, exactly, but she failed the overall test because she was 10 marks short of passing maths. “Obviously everyone went into school the next day and they said they’d passed and they were talking about which schools they would go to. I remember crying. For the rest of the year, I felt like one of the dumber ones.” The education secretary, Nicky Morgan, is expected to announce shortly whether plans for a new grammar school building in Sevenoaks – which has no grammar school at the moment – have been given the go-ahead. Parents in Sevenoaks have long campaigned for a grammar school as their children have to travel to neighbouring towns, but under current legislation no new selective schools can be built. According to Kent county council, the new building is an annexe of an existing girls’ grammar school, Weald of Kent in Tonbridge, and therefore legal because grammars are still allowed to expand. It will have the same head teacher, the same curriculum and the same philosophy. Opponents say the new building is 10 miles away from the existing school and cannot be considered as an expansion, but is a new school and therefore illegal. Morgan either has to decide by the end of the month when pre-election “purdah” prevents the government from making new or controversial announcements or hold off until after 7 May. But pressure is mounting with Ukip promising a grammar school in every town and interest from the prime minister who, when he visited Kent two weeks ago, said he supported the expansion of all good schools, including grammars. Those who support grammars argue that they provide opportunities to talented children from less well-off backgrounds. David Bower is chair of governors at Weald of Kent, an attractive school situated up above the town of Tonbridge. The son of a Ukrainian ship’s barber-turned-chiropodist, he believes his life chances were transformed by a grammar education at Ilford County High. His only child, a daughter, in turn went to Tonbridge grammar school, one of a small number of “super-selective” grammars that cream off children that get the highest marks in the Kent test. “Here in west Kent, we’ve always had a strong tradition of selective education at secondary level,” says Bower. “My personal view is there was a lot of social mobility that stemmed from grammar schools.” But he acknowledges that may have changed. “Whether it’s the same now is hard to say.” Bower admits there are many girls from wealthy backgrounds at Weald of Kent. Official statistics show that 1.3% of pupils were eligible for free school meals in 2011, compared with the national average of 15.9%. A Sutton Trust report in 2013 said grammar schools were monopolised by affluent pupils, with an average 2.7% of pupils eligible for free school meals, a position echoed by Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw who said grammars had failed to improve social mobility. Bower, a member of the Labour party, believes however that grammar schools have a place in the education system and thinks new grammars should be allowed, rather than schools having to go through all this “jiggery pokery” to comply with the law. “If the country permits selective education, let’s stop this nonsense we are going through and allow new grammar schools.” Competition to get into a grammar is intense and there is a lot of help available if parents can afford it. A quick trawl on the internet reveals a thriving private tuition industry in Kent. At the Eleven Plus Academy, parents pay £23 for weekly classes of 90 minutes; August revision classes are £48 for three hours and mock exams cost £85. “The route to grammar school needs careful planning,” warns the Bright Young Things website, “ideally from year 4 or early year 5 at the latest. Parental support and hard work are essential.” For some families, that is not early enough. There are stories of parents – who have often gone through the Kent system themselves – getting their children coached from the age of four or five. There have been attempts to make the test more tutor-proof, but critics are not convinced it has made any difference. Down the road from Weald of Kent, a two minute drive away, is Hillview School for Girls, a highly successful performing arts college which in an another time would have been known as a secondary modern. On one of a number of school tours that morning is Karen Tissington and 11-year-old daughter Victoria who put Hillview as her first choice and found out this week she had got a place. “She’s really happy she got in,” says Tissington. Victoria sat the Kent test, attending extra group classes for 11+ coaching. “Unfortunately, it was a relatively new business and it went bust five or six months before the 11+, so she didn’t pass,” says Victoria’s mother. But both mother and daughter were always keen on Hillview and say they could not be happier with the outcome. Tissington is still in favour of selective schools. “People move to Kent for the grammars,” she says. Her sister went to a grammar and became a solicitor. Tissington went to a comprehensive and seems to feel she has done less well. “We weren’t that different,” she says. The deputy head at Hillview, Aurelie Landier, originates from France where most children go to their local school and the 11+ doesn’t exist. “To me, it looks like it’s affecting the confidence of the students,” she says. “We have children who have sat the 11+ and failed; some have succeeded but still make the choice to come here. The crunch point is probably in primary school. By the time they come to us, a lot of them have come to terms with it.” Over in Sevenoaks, a half hour drive away, Mary Boyle is principal of Knole Academy. It is an all-ability school, but attracts ambitious parents and children with its so-called “grammar stream”, which enables children to study academic subjects rigorously and in depth. Boyle finds it slightly galling having to use the word “grammar” but she says it has an irresistible allure. “It’s this kind of magic word. It has this almost transformational effect on parents. It’s like a halo shining.” It has a dark side, too. “I’ve seen it divide families. I used to teach piano to two girls across the road,” says Boyle. “The older one didn’t get into grammar school and the younger one did. It completely wrecked the family. “I know someone who is in their 60s who failed the 11+ and it’s never left her” Of the children who arrive at Knole, about half will have sat the 11+ in the September of year 6. Some will have passed and chosen Knole ahead of grammar, many will have failed. “They have got this bit of paper saying at the age of 11 you failed a test, so there’s a lot of building up of confidence.” The risk for Knole is that if a grammar annexe opens up in Sevenoaks, it could lose a significant proportion of its most academic intake to the new/extended grammar. “What is an annexe? Can an annexe be 10 miles away? How would they manage options and extra-curricular activities?,” says Boyle. “It takes me half an hour to get to Weald of Kent from here. Would staff be driving up and down the A21? There are a lot of unresolved questions.” The shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, opposes the expansion. “David Cameron is chasing Ukip’s tail. Let’s be very clear – this proposal is for the establishment of a new grammar school. “David Cameron once said that selective education was unpopular with parents and that parents did not believe it was right for children to be divided into successes and failures at 11. “But now his government looks set to sign off on the first new grammar school in 50 years. Not even Margaret Thatcher approved the expansion of selective education. This is more evidence that he has abandoned the centre ground of British politics.” As for Georgia Lane, she’s thriving at Knole Academy. She is in the grammar stream and is enjoying her options. Her little brother Freddie sat the Kent test, too and, like her, just missed out. Now she wishes she had never done the 11+. “It’s completely pointless,” she says. “It would be quite a good idea if it was abolished.” |