I am sorry that Kate Green MP, in her response to me, cannot bring herself to acknowledge the contribution that our grammar schools specifically bring to Trafford’s educational offer, across our whole range of schools.

Nevertheless, I prefer to be influenced by Trafford parents who routinely cite our performance in both primary and secondary schools as the reason why they chose, or indeed choose Trafford as the best place to be for their children, rather than being persuaded by the mediocrity of a ‘one size fits all’ educational system.

I totally refute her suggestion that children who do not pass Trafford’s selective exams are classed as failures.

As I wrote in my previous letter, “… our non-Grammar, higher performing schools, are still able to perform at around the level of the national average …”.

Remembering also that 95.1per cent of Trafford pupils attend schools (primary and secondary) which are rated by Ofsted as either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, average performance at around the national average for children not going to grammar schools does not seem to me like a ‘failure’ option.

As I freely acknowledged in my previous letter, for those children where our system does not offer the best opportunities, we must bring that offer up, not compromise our higher performers for the sake of political dogma and expediency.

Cllr Michael Hyman
Executive Member for Children’s Services
Trafford Council