We became aware today that RBWM have now decided to seek the views of parents whose children achieved level 5 and above at KS2 in 2014 and 2015 regarding why they chose not to send their children to a grammar school. The announcement of this came in a press release posted on their web site dated 21/03/2016.
We are disappointed that £220,000 of taxpayers money has already been earmarked for a satellite to Buckinghamshire’s Sir William Borlase Grammar School in Maidenhead and it is clear from this survey that RBWM do not have any clear evidence of demand.
We are also disappointed that the survey is only of those parents whose children achieved level 5 and therefore, by its nature, excludes the vast majority of school children in Maidenhead, much as the grammar school itself will.
Today’s BBC Radio 4 World at One programme discussed Maidenhead’s potential new grammar school, interviewing Councillor Phillip Bicknell, Comprehensive Future campaigner Fiona Millar and Chair of the National Grammar School Association Robert McCartney QC.
Interestingly, Robert McCartney QC states very clearly that he believes that there is a strong case that the Weald of Kent grammar school annex breaches the rules on the creation of new Grammar schools. If he is right then this could make things very difficult for RBWM.
You can find the full version of the programme on iplayer (it will be available there for the next 29 days), but we’ve edited it down to just the section of the programme that covers this issue. You can listen to it by clicking the play button below.
We thought that it would be useful to document the series of events that led to the creation of Excellent Education For Everyone, covering each action that the council took on this journey as well as bringing together references to any support or opposition that they received. We will update this over the course of the coming months so you can check back here any time for the latest situation. Some of the information presented here has been made available to us through Freedom of Information requests whilst other documents are on public web sites. Wherever possible we have provided links to copies of original documentation so that you can see the evidence for yourselves.