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

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

On Thursday (29^th March) Kent County Council voted to allow the first expansion of a Grammar School in this country for around fifty years.  This will be on a new satellite site in Sevenoaks.

Gareth Johnson MP for Dartford said:

“ I am delighted that Kent County Council has voted to allow the first expansion of a Grammar School in this country for around fifty years. It makes complete sense to allow good schools to expand whether this is on a ‘satellite campus’ as in this case or on an existing site.

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

Clearly, Grammar Schools are not 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.

It is also the case that Grammar Schools allow for greater levels of social mobility. I found that my working class background was very typical in the Grammar School I attended and the excellent education it provided helped many of my classmates to achieve success.”

As a former Grammar school pupil himself Gareth has campaigned to allow the schools to expand in Parliament since his election.

Gareth said:

“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. This is fantastic news for pupils across Kent and I hope that in the future more Grammar schools will be allowed to expand to meet the growing demand for the first rate education that they offer.”

ENDS

For further information please contact Gareth Johnson on 02027 219 7047 or at [email protected] 

Gareth Johnson attended a Grammar School in Dartford.

Gareth has previously raised the issue of Grammar Schools in Parliament in the form of a Westminster hall debate on the 8^th November 2011.  For the full text of the debate go to: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2011-11-08b.23.0&s=grammar+schools+speaker%3A24803#g23.1