To give preference to students on free school meals in the admission border zone.
To ensure the 11+ reading test does not have a ‘middle-class’ bias.
To set a test that restricts the benefit of an 11+ tutor.
These policies have increased the proportion of childnre on free school meals who attend the school from 6% to 8% in 2015. So, it can be done.
I suppose to me the most important issue is not about equality of opportunity but fairness, which is part of the criteria that the department are said to have considered. Is it fair that every child gets the same education rather than the education that its them? We don’t have a failing system. All the schools are doing very well, or so we’re told.
So, why would we want to throw everything up in the air and hope that a bespke untried system will work better, when we don’t know what better is? That is the issue for me. I don’t have a strong ideological viewpoint, but I wish I did as it would make it so much easier. I just don’t see that getting rid of the 11+, or selection generally, will lead to Nirvana.
For that reason I can’t support Amendment 1 but will support Amendment 2.]]>
