SINCE Cllr Edith Eadie has taken up so much space with irrelevant remarks about secondary education in Trafford, may I seek a few more lines to respond.

First, no reasonable person in Trafford will recognise Manchester or islington to be suitable places for comparison.

At GCSE, Trafford does reasonably well in relation to its social composition, but in terms of average grade score for all 16-year-olds is only 27th in the country.

It is at 'A' level that our system falls down and high average grade scores are only achieved by severely restricting entry.

The 11-plus takes out two thirds of pupils and the grammar schools then exclude a third of their selected entry while only a handful of high school pupils go on to take 'A' levels at FE colleges. The result is 30 per cent against 40 to 45 per cent for neighbouring areas.

The Trafford system shuts out some 400 pupuils a year from 'A' leve;s. It is Cllr Eadie who should be ashamed.

Frank Bamford, Malvern Drive, Altrincham.

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