Education Datalab has today submitted its response to the government’s Schools that work for everyone consultation.
The green paper consulted on:
- the identification of those families who are ‘just about managing’;
- the contribution which independent schools can make to the state sector;
- conditions that should be met if existing selective schools are to be allowed to expand and new selective schools established;
- the involvement of universities in provision of school places;
- the removal of the 50% faith-based oversubscription criteria for faith free schools.
Among the points which Datalab makes in its response are that:
- the expansion of selectivity in England’s education system is not the right way to raise standards for all;
- currently, selective schools admit disproportionately few children from low income households. We do not have confidence that policies proposed in the consultation document would address this issue satisfactorily;
- we should not assume that all universities will make for good sponsors of state schools. We do, though, believe that universities could play a role in continuing professional development for experienced teachers who aspire to be masters of their discipline;
- we have concerns that all four of the safeguards proposed as a replacement for the 50% faith free school oversubscription criteria are weak.
Download Datalab’s full response here [PDF].
Find more of Datalab’s research and analysis on grammar schools here.
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