This does not give further consideration to the blatant ‘book cookery’ that is ‘academies’ and ‘free schools’. (the term ‘free school’ is so Dickensian I’m surprised the Tories got away with it) Some say that the eradication of grammar schools will lower standards. I say, with no single/standard curriculum any more, where is the evidence of a basic ‘standard’ to begin with!.

Only one in sixteen pupils who have free school meals will attend one of the town’s grammar schools

Ignoring the specific schools (I am from outside the county) I am interested to dig a bit deeper into this issue because (as previously mentioned) I suspect there is a deeper issue, possibly of aspirations. I suspect the “will” in the above is not actually proven (although many of us would suspect that FSM are a predictor of schooling).

Can we look at feeder schools and for each school look at the comparative likelihood of going on to grammar school for those getting FSM and those not getting FSM? (e.g. Can we say things like, “for feeder school X, you are half as likely to go to grammar school if you get FSM than if you don’t”?)

If those not getting FSM are more likely to go to grammar school than classmates who don’t, we then have some form of correlation of FSM/wealth with admission to grammar school. We then need to see (at the individual feeder school level) whether there is any academic (for want of a better word) difference between those getting/not getting FSM.

If those not getting FSM are more academically able than those who do, the focus should be not so much on the Grammar School selection (what ever we think of the concept of selection), but on why at the end of your time in a feeder school you are more academically able if you don’t get FSM than if you do.

If there is no academic difference in a particular feeder school between those getting/not getting FSM, but there is a difference in likelihood of going on to grammar school, is there then an issue of aspirations? These may be set by teachers or parents or peers. I remember a senior shop superintendent in a Railway Works who used to say “11+ failure, that’s me, I don’t hold with my kids going to grammar school; what was good enough for me, is good enough for them”.

On the other hand;

If for a particular feeder school, FSM is not a good predictor of your likelihood to go on to grammar school (but that feeder school sends a disproportionately low proportion of its pupils to grammar school), the implication is either, that grammar schools are discriminating between schools rather than between potential entrants, or in the feeder school the aspirations of their pupils are that they do not want to go to grammar school. In either case we then need to know why.