School Expansion — House of Commons, 2015-10-19
Topic: Education
Nicky Morgan (Conservative, Centre-right): With permission, Mr Speaker, I will make a statement on school expansion On Thursday, I wrote to the head teacher at Weald of Kent grammar school to confirm that I had approved the school’s proposal to expand to a new site in Sevenoaks in Kent The Government are committed to ensuring that every child and young person has access to a high-quality school place, regardless of their background or where they live. As part of our ambition to deliver educational excellence everywhere, it is our policy that all good and outstanding schools should be able to expand to meet the demands of parents in the local area. That was made clear in the Conservative party manifesto that we were elected to implement, which specifically included good grammar schools We have a relentless focus on academic standards, with 120,000 more six-year-olds on track to become confident readers thanks to our focus on phonics, a tough new national curriculum and an end to qualification and grade inflation. We have also given head teachers and classroom teachers the freedom to run their schools to achieve the best for their pupils, with 1,000 failing schools having been transformed under the leadership of strong sponsors and more than 300 free schools having been set up so far across the country. That has helped more than 1 million more pupils attend good or outstanding schools today compared with 2010. In this Parliament, I am committed to focusing on the next 1 million I am particularly pleased to have seen those improvements in areas of the country that serve some of our most disadvantaged young people. We are committed to closing the gap in attainment, and the investment of £2.5 billion in the pupil premium has helped schools to raise the achievement levels of disadvantaged pupils, including the most academically able I took my decision on the proposal from Weald of Kent in line with the legislative framework, which includes a prohibition on the creation of new selective schools that is set out in section 99 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, section 39 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and sections 1A and 6 of the Academies Act 2010. I assessed the proposal in line with our guidelines on making significant changes to an existing academy, which were published in January 2014. I concluded that the proposal represents a genuine expansion Weald of Kent grammar school is an outstanding school that is currently based in Tonbridge, Kent. It is a girls-only school with 1,200 students on roll from the ages of 11 to 18. The school serves a wide catchment area that includes pupils from Tonbridge and the Sevenoaks district. It is consistently one of the top performing schools in the country. In 2014, 99% of its students achieved five A* to C grades in GCSE exams. In the same year, 98% of its sixth-form students achieved at least three A-levels at grades A* to E Weald of Kent submitted a proposal for expansion in 2013 that was considered by the then Secretary of State for Education, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove). That proposal could not be approved as an expansion because, among other reasons, the new building in Sevenoaks would have been a fully co-educational annexe, whereas the existing school is for girls only The school submitted a revised proposal in September 2015. The expanded school will be girls only on both sites from 2017, with a co-ed sixth form also on both sites from September 2018. It therefore fully reflects the existing school. It will share leadership, governance, administration arrangements and admissions policies across the school. The school intends to bring all year sevens together for at least half a day a week, and that will extend to all five-year groups as the extended site fills up There will be a range of cross-site curricular activities, including in personal, social, health and economic education, languages and music, reflecting the integrated split-site school. In addition, the school will continue to operate a house system that will apply to students regardless of their site location, and this will further secure regular, cross-site learning. New staff contracts will make it clear that staff are expected to work on both sites All policies and procedures, including uniform, behaviour and safeguarding, will apply across the newly expanded school. Furthermore, the expansion will meet the needs of the community within the school’s existing catchment area, with 41.6% of current pupils travelling from the Sevenoaks area, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Michael Fallon) has tirelessly reminded me Given the need for more good and outstanding school places, it would have been perverse to reject that application for expansion purely on the basis that the school in question is a grammar school. The decision to approve the proposed expansion of this school was taken on the facts in this case, and it is my firm belief that we should not stand in the way of good schools being able to expand I realise that there has been significant interest in the outcome of this case, including from Members of the House, and I confirm that the Government have no plans to change their policy on grammar schools. We fully support the existing 163 grammar schools, and are committed to protecting them. Indeed, we want to support grammar schools that seek to extend their reach and capacity by forming multi-academy trusts and sponsoring other schools, thereby disseminating the best, most effective educational practice found in our top performing schools. Any further applications for selective schools to expand would be considered on their individual circumstances and merits, and as with the Weald of Kent, the school would need to demonstrate genuine expansion I hope that the shadow Education Secretary and the whole House will join me in wishing the Weald of Kent the best of luck with this expansion project that will create more places, offering more children a world-class education. I commend this statement to the House.