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Record interest in grammars as parents save on school fees
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent23 Oct 2009
Record numbers of Londoners are sending their children to state grammar schools as they seek to save on private school fees in the recession, figures show today.
Grammar schools in Barnet, Bexley and Kent, which achieve some of the best A-level and GCSE results in the country, have all seen more applications this year. Analysts said parents who would normally pay to send their children private were keeping their options open.
Today is the deadline for applications for state school places starting in September next year. Figures obtained by the Standard showed:
Barnet's three grammar schools attracted 5,115 applications for next year.
The Henrietta Barnett School in Barnet saw a 10 per cent rise.
Bexley's four grammar schools have seen a four per cent rise in demand this year, with 4,686 children sitting the 11-plus exams.
In Kent, 11,987 children registered for grammar school admissions, a rise of more than 300 on last year.
Sue Fieldman, from the Good Schools Guide, said: "This is really a symbol that the financial climate has hit home.
"Barnet is the heart of middle-class London. Grammar schools there such as Henrietta Barnett and Queen Elizabeth's are at the top of the tree and compete very well with private schools."
But the Independent Schools Council said applications to private schools for next September were "holding up".
Reader views (3)
Scarcity is the issue. The demand is there, the supply is not. Fairness will return with sufficient volume of school supply in a differentiated system with true choice. Fair to the able with academic apsirations and equivalent ability, fair to those in the middle ground and fair to those for who, for whatever social or cultural reason, just leaving school numerate and literate is a challenge. It is scarcity that is creating ghettoes of the advantaged, and such ghettoes include many good comps as well as grammars. In Northern Ireland the results speak for themselves with a consistent near 10% difference in A and A* at GCSE and A Level between them and England, and over 40% of the school population attend a Grammar. Your own research demonstrates the differential impact for the better that Grammars have compared to Comps on like ability chidlren.
The answer is more places for able children. Oh and while we are at it, please fix the primary school system so that it produces more able children. That is the real thing that condemns so many to poor performance at age 16.
- Stephen Mcmillan, Gloucester, England, 02/11/2009 23:28
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I went to a Grammar school.I went to it because I passed my Eleven plus.There as no money involved. Places at the school were not for sale.
If people are noe paying for grammar places then these scholls are no longer Grammars.
- Andrew, Ely UK, 26/10/2009 08:21
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This article adds considerable weight to the Tory, David Willetts', view that Grammar schools no longer serve the 'deserving poor' as originally intended. His view, expressed a couple of years ago, was that they were in danger of becoming 'ghettoes of the advantaged'. This is precisly what is now happening in the examples given.
The 'fairness' issue will notgo away however, because, if those with the wealth to 'buy' grammar school places exclude those without this advantage - to what extent is this system 'serving the needs of the community?' Is it not simply increasing polarisation within society - with all its attendant evils - and defeating one of the major arguments (which still exist) for supporting the continuance of the remaining grammar schools?
Should there not be a moratorium on the selection process which has, in the past couple of years, seen a cynical growth in relatively wealthy parental pre-emption of the right to gain a grammar school place, over and against those who would have gained entry under earlier conditions?. There's not a great deal of 'equality of opportunity here' - which is what I thought state education was all about.
This was the Tory R A Butler's description in 1944: 'we will create an education system meeting the needs of pupils by age, aptitude and ability'. How far are these examples from that?
- David Jesson, York England, 23/10/2009 15:36
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