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May targets private schools as she unveils grammar expansion plans Theresa May says private schools must do more to keep tax breaks
(35 minutes later)
Private schools are “divorced from normal life”, Theresa May has said while unveiling her plans to make Britain “the great meritocracy of the world” with a raft of strict new regulations. Private schools will have to do more to help the state sector if they want to keep their tax breaks, Theresa May has said, as she claimed her major changes to education would make Britain a “great meritocracy”.
The prime minister said independent schools would face more rigorous tests before qualifying for charity status, and could be forced to set up separate, free-access schools to guarantee wider access to places. The prime minister has put creating new grammar schools at the heart of her plans for a substantial shakeup of the education system.
She announced wide-ranging plans for the “radical expansion” of grammar schools, saying the government would encourage universities and other providers to set up new selective institutions for the first time since 1998. In well-trailed proposals, she said parents would be able to set up selective free schools, existing state schools would be allowed to convert in the right circumstances and current grammars permitted to expand.
In her first major policy speech since becoming leader, May insisted there would be “no return to secondary moderns”, the “sink schools” of the pre-comprehensive era which were blamed for consigning the majority of children to academic failure. But in a speech in central London, May also set out new proposals to force independent schools to contribute more to the state sector if they want to keep the charitable status that brings sizeable tax advantages.
Instead, she said, her reforms were designed to provide “a good school place for every child and one that caters for their individual needs”. She said major private schools would have to sponsor or set up new state schools and smaller institutions would need to provide direct teaching support or put their leaders on the board of state schools.
She set out a series of measures intended to ensure that new and expanded grammars made places available to children from disadvantaged backgrounds and helped improve standards in non-selective schools. This could involve taking a proportion of pupils from lower-income backgrounds or opening a “feeder” primary school in disadvantaged areas. “Most of the major public schools started out as the route by which poor boys could reach the professions. The nature of their intake may have changed today – indeed these schools have become more and more divorced from normal life,” May said.
“Between 2010 and 2015 their fees rose four times faster than average earnings growth, while the percentage of their pupils who come from overseas has gone up by 33% since 2008. But I know that their commitment to giving something back to the wider community remains.”
She also set out a series of measures intended to ensure that new and expanded grammars make places available to children from disadvantaged backgrounds and help improve standards in non-selective schools. This could involve taking a proportion of pupils from lower-income backgrounds or opening a “feeder” primary school in disadvantaged areas.
“This is not a proposal to go back to a binary model of grammars and secondary moderns, but to build on our increasingly diverse schools system,” May said in her speech at the British Academy in London.“This is not a proposal to go back to a binary model of grammars and secondary moderns, but to build on our increasingly diverse schools system,” May said in her speech at the British Academy in London.
“It is not a proposal to go back to the 1950s, but to look to the future, and that future I believe is an exciting one. It is a future in which every child should have access to a good school place. And a future in which Britain’s education system shifts decisively to support ordinary working class families.” “It is not a proposal to go back to the 1950s, but to look to the future, and that future I believe is an exciting one. It is a future in which every child should have access to a good school place. And a future in which Britain’s education system shifts decisively to support ordinary working-class families.”
Asked how many new grammars she wanted to see opened, May said: “I’m not setting a quota for the number of schools that are suddenly going to become grammar schools.Asked how many new grammars she wanted to see opened, May said: “I’m not setting a quota for the number of schools that are suddenly going to become grammar schools.
“This is about local circumstances, it’s about what parents want locally. There will be institutions that will come forward, there may be groups of parents who want to set up a new free school as a selective school. This is about opening the system up to a greater diversity.”“This is about local circumstances, it’s about what parents want locally. There will be institutions that will come forward, there may be groups of parents who want to set up a new free school as a selective school. This is about opening the system up to a greater diversity.”
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