By Sheila Mckenie-
Selective grammar schools are expected to rise under the government of Lizz Truss to raise the standard of education altogether in Britain.
The quality of secondary school education in Britain varies across the country, with the best performing pupils in G.C.S.E’s and A levels often coming from private school, a grammar school, or catholic schools.
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State schools also have pupils who perform very well, but those schools are far fewer in proportion to all state schools as a whole in the Uk. The main difference between state schools and either private or grammar schools is that state schools have more disruptive and unambitious students from unambitious backgrounds than children attending grammar schools, where they would have had to satisfy for the eleven plus requirements before gaining admission
When talking about top school leaving grades, apart from private schools, grammar school pupils perform better than state pupils. The reasons are obvious. The environment is a lot more academic, and every student in a grammar school has had to be serious at least in the final year of their primary school.
Many of those pupils benefited from the hired nurturing of private tuition and come from family backgrounds that support their education. Parents of grammar school pupils can generally be rest assured their children attend a school with class mates all of whom are serious about receiving an education, and most of whom aspire to have higher education. Grammar school pupils have generally been serious in their primary school.
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Selective schools guarantee the admission of a majority of their pupils who know what education is, and who are not in school to disrupt other children. They are surrounded by other serious children, with parents who want the best for their children.
Truss previously told the Conservative Home website: “My two daughters now attend a grammar school, and I want people around the country to have the choice that we have to be able to send our daughters to a grammar school.”
She went on to say it is “about parents and children having the choice of that range of good schools. And the more good schools we have the more choice people have.”
Any government bid to open new grammar schools would require primary legislation to lift the ban on new selective institutions, which was introduced in 1998.
Truss pledged during the campaign to expand high-performing academies and replace those failing with new free schools and grammars, suggests this prime minister will seek to expand the number of grammar schools in the Uk.
Truss has said she wants a “laser-like focus” on improving maths and literacy standards. She has also said she supports schools opening for “longer hours”.
Many state schools provide reading time for their pupils in school libraries, besides lessons taught in schools, meaning all pupils are exposed to a lot of reading material, except that the level of focus of children in terms of learning and its application, often depends on their prior exposure and reading habits in primary school.
The hire focus of children in grammar schools makes the idea of increasing selective schools.
One of the problems with the idea is that if too many schools become selective, children who fail to meet those standards may be forced to travel far out of their borough to find secondary schools to attend, and their morale could become very low, once they are aware they can’t attend school because they did not meet the requirements, making them feel inferior to their neighbour classmate who makes the entry requirement. The result will still be more hardworking primary schools pupils than at present.
But the new prime minister faces an in-tray brimming with more pressing issues facing the education sector and wider country.
Truss in the meantime faces the challenge schools and their staff have before them in relation to a growing cost-of-living crisis, driven by energy price rises which will see bills skyrocket.
Truss has pledged to announce a plan to deal with soaring energy prices within a week, but it is not yet known whether this will include any relief for schools.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT leaders’ union, said it was “vital that any action taken to address inflated household energy prices must also apply to schools”.
Geoff Barton, from the ASCL leadership union, said there were “many pressing issues facing education, but the immediate crisis is the soaring cost of energy bills both for households and for schools and colleges”.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said Truss “inherits a whole set of challenges in need of urgent attention”.
“The cost-of-living crisis affects every citizen, every public service, every business. To survive this period will require significant governmental support and swift action.”
Truss previously told the Conservative Home website: “My two daughters now attend a grammar school, and I want people around the country to have the choice that we have to be able to send our daughters to a grammar school.”She said it is “about parents and children having the choice of that range of good schools. And the more good schools we have the more choice people have.”
Any government bid to open new grammar schools would require primary legislation to lift the ban on new selective institutions, which was introduced in 1998.
This presents more of an issue in the House of Lords, where the government does not hold a majority.
Truss said she would aim to get legislation through before the next general election by “making the case to the country that this is the right thing to do, and I will encourage the Lords to support the will of the democratically elected House of Commons”.
During the campaign, Truss also pledged to guarantee Oxbridge interviews for all A-level students with top A-level grades, although there is some confusion about whether she means As or A* grades.
She also pledged to look at introducing post-qualification admissions, something the government abandoned earlier this year.
The new PM has also spoken of the need for children to have access to mental health support in schools, and for better support for SEND children.
She also said she supported schools “opening for longer hours…to help children get the skills they need but also to make sure they are less prey to potential alternatives”.
The government has already said it expects schools to offer a 32.5 hour week by 2023, but stopped short of mandating a longer day.
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