According to the Guardian and the Mail the Government plan to introduce selective education into what is currently a comprehensive area, by establishing an annexe to a grammar school in neighbouring (fully selective) Buckinghamshire, has so enraged a group of local residents that they are gearing up for a fight. The revival of the 11-plus, which proved so divisive throughout the 60s and 70s, may turn out to be more contentious than Morgan realises.
At the heart of the campaign in Windsor and Maidenhead is grandfather and local businessman Peter Prior, who failed the 11-plus and is determined to challenge the case for a new grammar school. “I was so angry when I read about the plan that I wrote to the local paper urging people who felt the same way to get in touch with me,” he says. “I was devastated by failing the 11-plus test myself. My parents were wealthy enough to educate me privately but it certainly had a negative impact on myaspirations.
“I have never found that children do better because you tell them they are failures. To categorise 85% of children at age 11 is wrong, especially as they develop at such different rates, and I don’t think it is good to keep children with different abilities apart. It is not a constructive or fair way to approacheducation.”
Granddaughters comments:
Having had a grammar school education, I became well aware by the time I was 16 that many of my friends who had failed their 11 plus were far better suited than me for an academic education, fortunately comprehensive education did opened those doors for them.
Tommy Robinson arrested. Police using their existing powers
A Good Year Film4 6.40 tonight