As parents continue to choose Trafford as a great place to bring up their families, in particular given the regular excellent performance of the borough’s primary and secondary education offer, Kate Green MP has tried to find a new and different way of criticising Trafford’s grammar schools.

She alleges that Trafford’s children with special educational needs (SEN) are “at the back of the queue” because of our selective system.

It is a shame that this lawmaker does not seem to understand the law in this area which specifically states that all schools are required to admit children with a Statement of SEN or EHCP naming the school, even if fully subscribed.

This includes grammar schools, providing that a child has qualified by passing that grammar school’s exam.

I therefore refute this misleading Labour assertion, together with Labour’s other commonly quoted suggestion that grammar schools do not encourage social mobility.

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, led by the ex-Labour MP Alan Milburn, recently ranked Trafford as the 20th best performing borough for social mobility, with only London boroughs and East Hertfordshire above.

It is, furthermore, encouraging to note, but again not acknowledged by Labour, that if you look at our non-grammar, higher performing schools, they are still able to perform at around the level of the national average, despite losing the 30 per cent highest achievers to the grammars - a tremendous accomplishment from teaching staff and pupils!

If our successful, selective system is not best for every child, then this is unfortunate and we need to ensure that performance is brought up where appropriate.

However, I contend it is vastly superior to Labour’s ‘one size fits all’ comprehensive solution, with mixed ability classes, which will, firstly, allow overall attainment standards to fall and, secondly, will fail to support our higher performing children.

Cllr Michael Hyman
Executive Member for Children’s Services