The Telegraph is reporting comments from the head of the top performing school in this year’s league tables – Colyton grammar in Devon – as saying that the future of England’s grammar schools is under threat because education funding is being diverted towards deprived pupils with poor exam results…
…Paul Evans, the head of Colyton grammar in Devon, said tackling underperformance in poor areas was a “laudable aim” but insisted it had “serious unintended consequences” for schools such as his.
Colyton alone faces losing around quarter of a million pounds in coming years, he said, meaning the “viability of this school is questionable” beyond 2017.
The comments were backed by the Grammar School Heads Association – representing the country’s 164 academically-selective state schools – which claimed that provision for bright pupils was being eroded.
It comes just a day after Colyton was named as the top-performing school in league tables covering more than 4,000 state-funded and private secondaries in England. Pupils at the school scored the equivalent of around 15 A* grades each, it emerged.
Last night, the Department for Education insisted that school funding had been protected in recent years.
But Mr Evans told the Telegraph: “Schools like ours, with able children, are being squeezed.
“And it’s not just our school. I went to a grammar school heads’ conference in the summer and I know some are saying that they just can’t see where the future lies.”
This week, the head teacher wrote to three local Conservative MPs, claiming a number of funding changes were having a damaging effect on state grammars, particularly those in rural areas.
He highlighted a series of reforms including the cost of meeting staff pay rises from a “flat budget settlement” and the loss of cash for “specialist school” status, which is now consumed into the national education budget.
In his letter, he said changes had “significantly diverted funds toward students from deprived families and with low prior attainment”, adding: “These laudable aims have, however, had serious unintended consequences on the budgets of schools, selective or comprehensive, serving significant populations of able students.”…
More at: Funding cuts ‘threaten future of England’s top schools’
Do you have any sympathy with these comments from Paul Evans? Is an unintended consequence of attempts to close the gap for disadvantaged students an erosion of provision for the most able? Please give us your views in the comments or via Twitter…
