division_name: Education and Social Mobility
motion: <p class="indent" pid="b756.2/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House believes that every child throughout the UK must be given the opportunity to reach their full potential; further believes that there is no evidence that additional academic selection in the school system will improve social mobility; and calls on the Government to instead concentrate on providing the best education possible for all children.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b758.7/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;There is a kind of hopelessness about the demand to bring back grammars on the assumption that this country will only ever be able to offer a decent education to a select few&#8221;?</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b762.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8216;shares the strong commitment of this Government to promoting and improving social mobility and building a country that works for everyone; notes that there are now more than 1.4 million pupils in England attending good or outstanding schools than in 2010; and welcomes the opportunity afforded by the Schools that Work for Everyone consultation to seek the widest possible range of views on how the Government can build upon these successes and awaits the outcome of the current consultation.&#8217;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b770.3/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;As an 11+ failure&#8230;The sense of failure is still with me&#8230;so much so I find it hard in this letter to admit I went to a Secondary Modern School. Nearly all of my fellow pupils&#8230;came from poorer or deprived backgrounds&#8212;I cannot think of one who came from a well-off background. As children, we accepted our lot and it was made clear to us that our choices of work were limited after school&#8230;There was a small cohort of teachers who did their best for us despite (as I realise now) limited resources. However, the turnover of teachers was high, which did not bode well for continuity of education. There was no question of taking any exams for qualifications of any kind. University was unthinkable. Higher education&#8230;was closed off to us; we were in the rubbish bin.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b771.3/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I currently attend a grammar school in High Wycombe&#8230; At the age of 10 I was put under a ridiculous amount of stress and felt at a disadvantage going into the 11+ as my family could only afford a fortnight of private tuition&#8230; The system makes 70% of kids feel second best&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b772.2/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;while those children that attend selective schools enjoy a far greater chance of academic success, there is some evidence that children who attend non-selective schools in selective areas may not fare as well academically &#8211; both compared to local selective schools and comprehensives in non-selective areas.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b772.2/8" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Analysis of educational performance across OECD countries has concluded that a higher proportion of academically selective schools is not associated with better performance of a school system overall, according to results in the international PISA tests taken by pupils at age 15 in 2012.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b775.1/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;an arms race of private tuition for rich parents&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b779.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;School leaders and governors are relentlessly focused on securing the very best for their pupils&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b779.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;from the moment they start in the nursery, children achieve exceptionally well, and this continues throughout the school.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b783.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The rungs on the social mobility ladder are growing further apart.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b794.1/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;He is black, has special educational needs and lives on an estate. His mother and grandmother were desperate. His father was absent. His primary school said that he was the worst-behaved child they had ever seen. We happily invited Korey into Michaela.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b794.1/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;how the school works, why we have silent classrooms with hard-working children, learning more than anyone would have imagined possible, even more than their counterparts at private schools.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b794.1/9" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;silent and orderly corridors, and lunch halls that are free from bullying, our playground where children are able to be children. It works because we do not pander to every parental whim, making exceptions in order to &#8216;accommodate&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b801.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Britain has a deep social mobility problem which is getting worse for an entire generation of young people&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b801.1/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;we took our eye off the ball&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b810.6/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;those in selective areas who don&#8217;t pass the 11-plus do worse than they would have done in a comprehensive system&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b813.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;If you&#8217;re a white working-class boy, you&#8217;re less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b813.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;have now been either the lowest or second lowest performing ethnic group every year for a decade.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="b813.0/10" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Reintroducing grammar schools is potentially a transformative idea for working-class areas&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="b813.0/22" pwmotiontext="yes">The House divided:</p>
  
  <p pid="b813.0/23" pwmotiontext="yes">Ayes 263, Noes 310.</p>