.@jldeasley interviews historian Professor Peter Mandler about the history of academic selection and what we can learn from the post-war education system. He busts those popular myths about grammar schools and social mobility. youtu.be/L2oNS9eknRI?si…

“If selection doesn’t improve social mobility, why are we doing it?”

Professor Peter Mandler discusses the history — and consequences — of the 11+ and academic selection in Britain.

New interview with Jack Deasley for Comprehensive Future.

Watch: youtu.be/kfXmDse3yO8

This morning at 11am. Is it time up for grammar schools? We think so! @nualaburgess and @SmithCarl19530 discuss the 11-plus and selective education on @TTRadioOfficial.

This should be good. @nualaburgess in conversation with @SmithCarl19530 on @TTRadioOfficial. Is it time up for grammar schools? Yes! They're a relic of the past.

Listen in to @TTRadioOfficial tomorrow (Friday) at 11am. @SmithCarl19530 and @nualaburgess discuss the grammar school problem. Is it time up for selective education?

Thanks to our fantastic speakers @WayneNorrie @SmithCarl19530 and chair @nualaburgess. At our 'educators against the 11-plus' event school leaders spelled out the damage selective education causes to their schools and communities.

✍️ Teachers, governors & education professionals: sign our open letter to phase out the 11-plus. Children deserve equal, inclusive schools. comprehensivefuture.org.uk/educators-agai…

This September, children across England face the 11-plus. Kent & Bucks (11th), Warwickshire (13th), Medway (16–17th), Lincolnshire (13th & 20th) plus many more tests around the country. One high-stakes test shouldn’t decide a child’s future.

Parents know the hidden cost of the 11-plus: stress, anxiety, and lost confidence. Share your story anonymously at 11+ Anonymous.👉 11plusanonymous.org

Research shows the 11-plus harms wellbeing and damages academic confidence. High-stakes tests have no place in primary school. comprehensivefuture.org.uk/research-about…

Half the children in this community are disadvantaged. But the local selective school admits almost none of them. This is how the 11-plus creates unfairness. Check out our new #fairadmissions project to learn more. 👉comprehensivefuture.org.uk/fair-admission…

💸 £1,504 for an 11+ summer course. Not for riding lessons or theatre camp. Just hours of verbal reasoning and foundation algebra for 10-year-olds.
Is this what childhood should look like?

The crazy pressure to pass the 11-plus. Stressed parents, stressed children, and all so unnecessary. 😔thetimes.com/life-style/par…

Well done to @Dan4Barnet for asking a very good question, and the copy paste reply is so disappointing! Sadly 11+ tuition causes huge inequality. A pat answer about 'a brilliant education for every child' isn't going to fix that. theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2025…

The story of (never) ending selection. @InfoRightsJames on government decisions that led to 'a chaotic mess which is neither selective nor comprehensive. It satisfies no-one in a bitter debate normally contended on anecdotal ideological grounds' comprehensivefuture.org.uk/never-ending-s…

Interesting article about the film Kes. A film that should be dedicated to all those who failed the 11-plus. bbc.com/culture/articl…

Thanks to all supporters who attended our AGM last night, and special thanks to our excellent speakers @natalieben and @Robin_Neu2. There was good discussion and plenty of ideas for our campaign in 2025.

Some excellent tips on summer prep for secondary transitions from Laura.

.@nualaburgess shares quotes from the 11plusanonymous.org website, which has doubled its views in recent months. This is the time the 11+ is being taken around the country.

Join a free webinar tomorrow at 1pm with @MariaLivanou1 @nualaburgess and more. This important discussion will focus on mental wellbeing and transitions to secondary school. us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

It's 11+ season, and our 11plusanonymous.org is accepting comments. Why do we put children through this? 😔

This short passage in the @UKLabour manifesto is easy to overlook, but it does show commitment to admission reform and inclusive education. Too many schools fail to serve their communities, let's hope a new government will look at that.

Interesting detail from the excellent @suttontrust fair school admissions webinar yesterday. Not a huge difference between those grammars that offer Pupil Premium priority and those that don't. The barrier is the 11-plus test itself.

Dame Sheila Hancock on the "shameful" division of grammar schools and secondary moderns. youtu.be/ZNCfxDhoctc?si…

Watch a replay of our webinar. @Melissa_Benn in conversation with @DanielKebedeNEU. As a General Election approaches: What now for comprehensive education? Daniel discusses school admissions, the inequality caused by selection, and more.

youtu.be/QafGUSYchRM?si…

An extract from our recent webinar. @Melissa_Benn in conversation with @DanielKebedeNEU. The 11-plus "entrenches inequality."

Not long to go until our webinar. @DanielKebedeNEU in conversation with @Melissa_Benn. We're so looking forward to this. 🙂Register now --> eventbrite.com/e/melissa-benn…

There's still time to register for our free webinar with @DanielKebedeNEU this Wednesday at 6pm. @Melissa_Benn in conversation with the @NEUnion General Secretary. With an election approaching what next for comprehensive education? eventbrite.com/e/melissa-benn…

Our webinar is a week today!
@DanielKebedeNEU in conversation with
@Melissa_Benn. As a General Election approaches: What next for Comprehensive Education? Register now >> eventbrite.com/e/melissa-benn…?

Interesting new paper on higher education participation in selective areas. It finds FSM pupils are more likely to leave grammars at 16, and those pupils who leave grammars before sixth form have disadvantages for university participation. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

We're starting the new year with an exciting online event. Book your free ticket now! @Melissa_Benn in conversation with @DanielKebedeNEU. As a General Election approaches: what next for Comprehensive Education? Register here -> eventbrite.co.uk/e/melissa-benn…

Prep schools boasting about 11+ pass rates, state primary schools told they shouldn't coach for the 11-plus... This is the reality of selective education. Pay £6,000 a term and a prep school will secure a pass and a grammar school place.

Do you know anyone who can help with this important research? The project particularly welcomes volunteer pupils and teachers. Please get in touch if you'd like more details. @nualaburgess

Can you help with this research opportunity? We're assisting psychologists from two leading universities to study the transition from primary to secondary school. Please spread the word, or get in touch if you can help.

This week and next thousands of children around the country will sit 11-plus tests. They're being told that a one-off test can judge them. The grown-ups they trust suggest, through the use of this system, that their potential is fixed. No 10 year old should go through this.

The reality of 11-plus tuition can be thousands spent and children studying the useless skills of decoding non-verbal reasoning puzzles. "If some can effectively pay to game the system, are the right skills even being tested?" thetimes.co.uk/article/tutori…

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child made a report of observations on the UK and NI, and suggested academic selection should be withdrawn. Shouldn't all children have the right to move school without stressful tests and an unhelpful label defining their academic calibre?

They use a test to collect together children who are bound to get good grades. Then they say 'look at the great grades at our school.' It's a fine trick, and parents believe it. Overall the results are worse than other areas. This is from a council report a few years ago.

Higher numbers of disadvantaged pupils attend a few grammars serving a dense urban area of a million people. It's impossible to replicate this in fully selective counties like Kent, Bucks, Lincs etc. Doesn't this 'success story' disguise the real problem? vimeo.com/800854921?ref=…

I think it refers to specialists in the subject taught. As in teachers with a degree in maths teaching maths. In non-selective schools in selective areas maths teachers are less likely to have a degree in the subject taught. ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2016/06/inequa…

"I know people who had aspirations to be journalists or lawyers before they went through the 11+, now they just assume that's not going to be the case anymore... Thousands and thousands of 11 year olds told to stop being ambitious." youtu.be/JZEQd1NNg1E

Joanna Vaughn sent her children to grammars then saw the 'reality' and changed her view. "Of course they're going to get better results because they've creamed off a certain percentage of the cohort... Grammar schools don't really have to try very hard." youtu.be/6RFHpECka8c

A Kent mum talks about the divisions caused by the 11+. "A lot of parents have built up grammars to be the best thing, and if you've gone to a grammar school then you're better than everyone else, and I don't think that's a very good thing for society." youtu.be/6RFHpECka8c

"It's the people with money who are able to get their kids ahead with this system... So for me in any system you want to minimise the impact of wealth and money in terms of accessing opportunity." @lewisiwu speaks sense. @timesupfortest
youtu.be/wEvzYD1l8WU

This is from Kent County Council.

"It’s really difficult to sort students by their academic potential, in most cases we end up sorting them by their social background, which defeats the purpose of all of this." Andreas Schleicher spoke to @timesupfortest about academic selection. youtu.be/SlLhd12k8bE

This is a comment from a Kent County Council report. I'm based in East Kent and 11+ tuition is commonplace for those who can afford it, poorer kids are very much underrepresented in the grammars. There's some info here if you're interested. comprehensivefuture.org.uk/facts-figures-…

Have you watched @timesupfortest excellent launch film yet? It explains so well why the discredited 11-plus has to go. youtu.be/gwrQyTwnOGI #timesupforthetest

Baroness Blower highlights the @timesupfortest campaign launch last night being, "brilliant accidental timing." This new campaign proves that grammar schools are not popular with a great many people. "#comprehensivefuturePMB

Baroness Berridge, a Conservative peer, supports the bill to end selection. She says grammar schools educate few looked after pupils, few disadvantaged pupils, while admitting many privately educated pupils. #comprehensivefuturePMB

Baroness Blower mentions the end of selection in Guernsey, which was voted through their parliament, with reasons explained and the decision accepted by locals. A grammar school ballot to end selection is 'unworkable.' #comprehensivefuturePMB

Grammars admit pupils with average SATs but who must actually be 'bright' as they pass the 11+! So it's great these pupils make progress, but the measure we're using to judge schools, based on SATs, flatters grammar schools for selecting well, not necessarily teaching well.

Polling for @Demos finds little support for new grammar schools, this was the most unpopular policy of the Tory leadership contest. There is support for reducing inequality, but 11+ tests and grammars have the opposite effect! demos.co.uk/blog/dont-leav…

An important project by @Francesca_McCy of @IOE_London who is, 'listening to the silenced majority.' Three thought-provoking images share the views of secondary school pupils who don't make it to grammar school. comprehensivefuture.org.uk/listening-to-t…

"It's just too much, a flawed test that isn't supporting them, it's harming them." 11+ Anonymous is our new website for people to share their experiences of selective education. Read the stories or add your own comment here 👉 11plusanonymous.org

Kit Malthouse says Truss has asked him for a plan to expand grammar schools in areas that want one. The only local grammar campaigns have been in Sevenoaks and Bath. Is this policy designed to give power to parents who want to save private school fees?🙄 yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/…

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”

Theresa May tried and failed to expand grammars. Now Liz Truss takes the reins but this policy still stinks.

If grammars are a massive engine of social mobility, why is Kent with 32 of them so very average for results? This quote is from Kent County Council. Do you really want poorer families paying for 11+ tuition like they do here in Kent? Mostly paying and then failing. Awful system.

Kent is the biggest selective county (32 grammars) this is from Kent County Council a couple of years ago.

Sir Graham Brady hosting the Friends of Grammar Schools reception at the House of Commons last night. He's just pointing out that the Friends of Secondary Moderns reception has been rescheduled for not ever going to happen, we don't talk about those schools.

Tory MPs must be pleased that their plans for new grammar schools link so closely to policy initiatives for restoring the high street. Many new businesses will open in empty shops in deprived areas.

Grammar schools in deprived areas? That's never going to work! But maybe we need more schools like @XPschool ? This inspirational comprehensive school is working to give a great education to pupils in Doncaster. @XPMovie
youtu.be/MwrtCFGGUaE

The Times on the new white paper and grammar school MATs. The government is sure that grammar school 'centres of excellence' will do the trick. The rest of us know grammar schools only have one trick - selecting pupils guaranteed to get good grades.
thetimes.co.uk/article/5a3722…

A campaign for more grammar schools will soon be launched by Jonathan Gullis MP. Maybe he thinks if he yells and stamps his feet he'll get his own way?

And fully selective education in a county of 2 million people works so well..? (KCC review of education 2019.)

Indeed, it's the system overall. This is from KCC, Kent's results are hardly worth replicating. People are forced to pay for tutors, there's a social divide in schools, and a pile of stress for 10 year olds. After all that the results are poor. But people love grammar schools! 🙄