I was horrified to read in today’s Oxford Mail that councillor Melinda Tilley, Cabinet Member for Children Education and Families on Oxfordshire County Council, boasts that she will be writing to the Education Secretary immediately if the ban on new grammar schools is lifted, asking her to speed up their introduction in Oxfordshire.

I am not aware of this being discussed at any county council meetings, certainly not at the School Organisation Stakeholders Group or the Education Scrutiny Committee, of which I am vice-chair, so why does councillor Tilley think that she has the right to write on behalf of Oxfordshire county councillors before any debate has been held?

She says “some are good at some things and some are good at others”. Of course they are. That is where the comprehensive system has been so successful by including all children in education and not placing those less academically able into what was once known as secondary moderns.

She also says that academically gifted children should be given the chance to go to a grammar school. Why?

I worked in schools in Oxford for 25 years until my retirement and I have seen how schools work with both the academically gifted and those who need more support.

I am old enough to have been one of those children who took the 11 Plus exam – in my case at the age of 10. My parents did not put any pressure on me and I quite enjoyed the exam as it was the kind of thing that I was quite good at. Some children were pressurised – private tutors, promises of great rewards if they passed and when they failed they were devastated.

I remember the day of the results. Those who passed were called to the front and those who failed had to applaud us. Even at the age of 10 I thought that that was dreadful.

Are we to go back to those Victorian days again? I sincerely hope not.
Before councillor Tilley sends any letters there needs to be a debate in council when we can all put forward our own views on what I consider to be an extraordinarily retrograde proposal for the children of Oxfordshire.

GILL SANDERS
Labour Shadow Cabinet Member for Children Education and Families
Vice Chair, Education Scrutiny Committee
County Councillor for Rose Hill and Littlemore