We cannot argue with education secretary Justine Greening’s ambition to create more great school places across the country; educational disadvantage is one of the greatest challenges in our society.
By age five, there is a 40 per cent gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, and the gap only becomes wider from there.
Of the 1.9 million children eligible for Pupil Premium funding in England, only a third get five “good” passes at GCSE. This means that 1.2 million children will leave school without the grades that will help them get a steady job or study further.
But returning to a policy debate about school structures, whether it be full academisation or grammar schools, misses the key priority we need to address.
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