Create new grammars to help poor, white pupils says report by Labour Council
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...t-commissione/
Create new grammars to help poor, white pupils says report commissioned by Labour Council
Quote:
Originally Posted by Telegraph
New grammar schools will improve the prospect of white working-class boys in Britain’s worst-performing area, a report commissioned by a Labour council has suggested.
A major study, commissioned by Knowsley Council, Merseyside, said the introduction of selective schools in the area should be adopted to transform the performance among an ethnic group that has the lowest level of educational attainment.
Knowsley, on the outskirts of Liverpool, is the second-poorest borough in England, and over 95 per cent of the resident population is white British.
With roughly 150,000 residents, it is also the worst-performing area in the country for educational attainment with fewer than 50 per cent of pupils achieving the Government’s benchmark of five A*-C-grade GCSEs.
ResPublica, the think tank which led the report, said white British children are the least likely to do well in school out of all pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The report said Knowsley has a white, working-class "monoculture", with strong bonds of extended families but little contact with others from different social backgrounds or ethnicities and "narrow horizons" for local youngsters.
While the study focuses on Knowsley, wholesale change is needed across the education sector nationally, from the way teachers encourage pupils to achieve, to how heads work collaboratively and how schools are funded and run at local and national level, the authors of the report said.
Phillip Blond, director of ResPublica, said: "For too long white working-class children have been left behind by an education system which is not working properly.
“With a new Education Secretary we have the chance to implement change, not only in Knowsley where we know that improvements need to be made, but across the whole of the country.
"Reintroducing grammar schools is potentially a transformative idea for working-class areas where there are little or no middle classes to game the admission system.
“We know that selection improves the performance of those white working-class children selected - the trouble is too few of them are.
"We recommend that new grammars in the first instance are exclusively focused on the needs of white working-class children."
Well strike me down. Didn't I post a few months ago when the government announced new grammar schools that for them to properly work and make a difference to social mobility you'd have to have them in areas like Knowsley rather than Buckinghamshire? Now an official report backs me up even mentioning the very area I mentioned as an example.
I could have told Knowsley Council this for a tenth of the price no doubt. Let's hope they act on its conclusions.
Thoughts?
