Grammar School Funding

Debate between David Amess and Neil Carmichael

Tuesday 13th January 2015 Westminster Hall

[Sir David Amess (Southend West) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) on his speech and the way in which he introduced the subject. He was entirely right to concentrate on the overall objective of fairness. The tone of the debate has been excellent in every respect. I went to St Bonaventure grammar school in Newham in the east end of London—for a time, its headmaster was the current chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw. I am pleased to have noted during the debate that three colleagues present contributed to a pamphlet on working class Conservative Members of Parliament, which says everything about how colleagues see grammar schools as a focus for opportunity.

In Southend, we have the following grammar schools: Westcliff high school for girls, Westcliff high school for boys, Southend high school for girls and Southend high school for boys. I am delighted to tell the House that those schools have produced a number of Members of Parliament; I am not so pleased to tell the House that they have produced more Labour than Conservative ones. A number of those Members now sit in the House of Lords, but my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) also went to one of our excellent local grammar schools.

I would like to mention just a few of those schools’ achievements. Four pupils from Westcliff high school for boys competed in the UK Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge, a national competition sponsored by the university of Oxford and ARM Holding plc. They will appear in the Bebras hall of fame for 2014. Recently, Southend high school for boys and Southend high school for girls qualified to represent England at the World School Championships Athletic in China in June this year.

To return to the remarks made by my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough, this debate is very much about fairness. The idea that any political party is going to abolish grammar schools is, frankly, for the fairies. That argument is over. I have my own views on grammar schools. When my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary was the shadow Secretary of State for Education, she had in mind the expansion of the number of grammar schools. It is a shame that my party abandoned that policy, but I will not revisit that argument. The issue is entirely a matter of unfairness in funding per pupil.

We have with us an excellent Minister, for whom I have the highest regard. He has visited a number of schools in my constituency. I have met the heads of the grammar schools in Southend, and the meeting was attended by the gentleman in charge of their funding. That was very positive, but I have now been waiting six weeks to hear what the outcome of that meeting is. I say gently to my hon. Friend the Minister that officials need to be geed up on this matter. The House will rise at the end of March; this Member of Parliament will not wait until the end of March for a firm assurance that the four grammar schools in Southend are going to be funded fairly.

At Southend high school for boys, the deprivation rate is 5%, yet it receives £4,503 per pupil; at Southend high school for girls, the deprivation rate is 6%, and it receives £4,540 per pupil; at Westcliff high school for boys, the deprivation rate is 5%, and it gets £4,503 per pupil; and at Westcliff high school for girls, the deprivation rate is 4%, and it gets £4,449 per pupil. Those are among the lowest funding figures in Essex, in both absolute and relative terms. That is an absolute disgrace.

[Neil Carmichael]

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is absolutely illogical to have a post-16 funding system that penalises the very schools that are producing the results in STEM subjects that we so desperately need? That is clearly one of the driving issues in this debate.

[Sir David Amess]

I absolutely agree. The funding for the four grammar schools in Southend is totally unfair compared with others in Essex.

Another indicator is free school meals. Between 1.4% and 2.2% of pupils at the four grammar schools in my constituency are eligible for free school meals; Colchester County high school for girls has only 1.3% of pupils eligible for free meals and a record low deprivation rate of 1%, but it receives a lot more money—about £450 more per pupil—than my local schools.

Head teachers have voiced concerns about the 10% reduction in their budgets between 2012 and 2017. Such reductions are obviously understandable in the case of services that fail to manage their budgets efficiently, but that is not true of the four grammar schools in Southend, which do an excellent job. Importantly, the Government have announced that those studying four A-levels will receive about £400 more a year, and that those studying five or more A-levels will receive around £800 more. I just cannot understand how those amounts have been calculated. It costs around £1,000 per student per year for each successfully completed A-level.

Supporting underperforming schools in disadvantaged areas is a commendable aim, but it cannot be achieved at the expense of grammar schools, which are some of the best-performing schools in England. The Government should do their utmost to invest in the talented young people who want to work hard and take up extra A-level subjects. Their aspirations must be backed by sufficient funding calculated appropriately in collaboration with education professionals, rather than pulled out of thin air, as currently seems to be the case.