Labour's social mobility

If Labour really wants to help 130,000 of the "brightest" young people from poorer families, it should promise to create new Grammar schools in the poorest parts of the UK.

Unfortunately, political dogma trumps common sense across the political spectrum...

Cracking The Glass Ceiling

How do you create ambition amongst the poorest members of society when their immediate needs are already met by the welfare state!?!

Is it merely a coincidence that social mobility has declined as the welfare state has increased!?!

Educational challenges?

Will Gordon Brown's education proposals allow new Grammar schools in area where parents overwhelmingly support them!?!

BBC on grammar schools?

If 81.8% of parents think Grammar schools are "much better" than other state schools and 62.5% of parents think there should be more Grammar schools, is it surprising that some parents prepare their children for the 11+!?!

Does the BBC have an educational agenda opposing Grammar schools when so many BBC employees have been privately educated?

School admissions

Would "school admission problems remain" if pupils were required to sit an exam to determine which secondary school they should attend!?!

Silence of the Lammys!

When David Lammy wonders why there are still "too few black students studying for a degree in England", does he blame a lack of scholarships to former grammar schools that have retained a degree of academic excellence!?!

"He won an Inner London Education Authority choral scholarship to The King's School, Peterborough."

Poor Grammar Schools?

Is anyone surprised that Grammar schools "take relatively fewer bright, poor pupils than schools that do not select by ability" when they tend to be situated in broadly middle class areas!?!

The best way to overcome this would be to create new Grammar schools in the poorest parts of the country.

It would also have the unintended but beneficial consequence of arresting the current decline in social mobility!

Postcode education?

If Labour introduced Grammar schools in the most deprived parts of England & Wales, would Oxford University need to "identify the brightest students with the greatest potential to succeed" or would they already have succeeded!?!

Northern Ireland's exam success

Did Northern Ireland's students "outperform[ ] those elsewhere, as is usual, with 98.2% of entries passing and 35.4% awarded A grades" because they still have Grammar schools!?!

Will they continue to outperform when academic selection is abolished?

Poor Grammar Schools

Is Gordon Brown "a child of the first great wave of post-war social mobility" because he was selected for a fast track academic education at Kirkcaldy High School!?!

Assuming the "experiment" worked, Gordon Brown is Prime Minister afterall (!), why not offer other children the benefits of academic selection through the creation of new Grammar schools in the most deprived parts of Britain!?!

Educational food for thought?

Are "white working class boys" failing at school because there are too many grammar schools or too few!?!

No one would suggest that the quality of food at McDonalds could be improved by shutting down the 164 most exclusive restaurants across England & Wales!

Passing off failure?

How many schools would be below the "floor target" for GCSE attainment if GCSE pass rates could not be manipulated!?!

When the best school at GSCE level nationally last year was a grammar school, why are no politicians promising to create more of them!?!

Educational nightmare

Would a "growing proportion of middle-class parents" be giving up on a state education if secondary schools were rising up an international league table of reading and maths standards?

How many working class parents would want their children to be educated privately if they could afford it but are condemned to a state education!?!

"In 2000, the UK was placed eighth in maths and seventh in reading - the UK in the latest table is in 24th place for maths and 17th for literacy."

"In 1996 the government spent £27.2bn in the UK on education, by 2006 yearly spending had risen to £49.5bn, the ONS said"

Correct Grammar?

If Grammar schools are "ghettos for the advantaged" that are "potentially beneficial" for those attending from higher and lower income groups, when will the Conservative Party offer to create more of them?

Stannard and Deliver!

Will John Stannard, the new "Champion for gifted and talented children", condemn proposals to close the most successful school in Stoke-on-Trent that just happens to be a Grammar School!?!

Good news for the middle classes!

Your future's bright!

"The gap between [] independent and comprehensive schools is growing among the highest achieving pupils".

As no political party is prepared to remedy the situation by creating more grammar schools, there will be fewer candidates competing for higher paying jobs in the future!

Ha, Ha, It's Harriet!

How come Labour Party members overlooked Harriet Harman's support of grammar schools when they voted her deputy leader of the Labour Party?

Her son attends a grammar school in Kent, no doubt an unwilling victim who would far rather attend an inner city comprehensive!

Harriet Harman - sent her son to a grammar school outside the borough where they lived.

Reluctant Pushy Parent!

Let's hope the "reluctant pushy parent" who turned her back on London's education system for Grammar Schools in leafy Buckinghamshire is not some middle class Liberal Democrat or Labour supporter!

PS Why don't state primary schools teach pupils how to tackle the 11+ examination so they are not at a disadvantage to private pupils?

Selective Grammars?

Are Grammar schools dominated by middle class families because there are so few of them across the UK!?!

Are the Conservatives now following the Labour Party in abandoning the middle class vote?

The willingness of ambitious middle-class parents to put time and money into extra tuition for their children means that it is impossible to create a fair test to select children at the age of 11, Mr Willetts will say.

It's another reason to stop supporting the Conservative Party...

Summer learning

If summer schools will help gifted and talented pupils in England to "meet their potential", why do most of them have to pay fees for the courses!?!

Grammar schools would help "gifted and talented pupils" "meet their potential" throughout the rest of the year regardless of where they live, their background or their parental income!