Grammar Schools in Kent to be allowed to expand for the first time in fifty years

 Last week Kent County Council voted to allow an annexe to a Grammar School to be built for the first time in fifty years. This will allow for a new Grammar School in Sevenoaks as a satellite to one of the existing schools in the County. This is great news for the local area.

As a former Dartford Grammar School pupil, I have seen first hand the social mobility and diversity that Grammar Schools bring to our education system. I am a big supporter of Grammar Schools but I have never claimed that they are for every child. Some children flourish in the academic surroundings that they offer whereas other children are more suited to a vocational setting. It is this diversity that Grammar Schools help to provide. They prevent us from having a ‘one size fits all’ education system.

Common sense suggests that children will learn more when placed with children of a similar academic ability. Indeed streaming in schools is now common place. I cannot understand why it is perfectly acceptable to some to stream within a school yet not between schools.

The excellent education offered by the two Grammar Schools in Dartford and the two in Wilmington means that they are over subscribed and so building extra Grammar School capacity in Sevenoaks will help alleviate that situation. No child who has passed their eleven plus should have to miss out on a Grammar School place simply because of a lack of capacity.

Grammar Schools are popular, they provide excellent education, they offer social mobility and they enable many children to maximise their own potential. We need to allow them to flourish.