11 Plus News for England
Many news articles appear in the press relating to selective entry to schools at 11 plus and education in general.
These articles have been selected as being relevant to parents of children aged 9 to 13 who are interested in what is happening across England.
Contributions and comments are welcome, please write to enquires@planetbofa.com.
Futures College boss: Talents are overshadowed by class
Essex Echo - 6 July 2010
Mr Baker said Westcliff High is working with Southend primary schools to try to encourage more disadvantaged children to take the 11-plus by letting them ...
Heads defend entry policies
thisiskent.co.uk - 2 July 2010
She added her school offered the vast majority of its Year Seven places to grammar-assessed students living within the 11-plus area of Kent, ...
When failure is not an option
Telegraph.co.uk - 2 July 2010
Given the amount of effort required to lick your child into shape for the ferociously competitive entrance exams, usually at 11-plus, action, and plenty of ...
Schools interested in academy status named
Teachers TV - 25 Jun 2010
Of the 1500 schools on the list, 92 are grammar schools, which select on the basis of academic ability demonstrated in the 11-plus exam. ...
Coalition pledge on 'slimmed down' national curriculum
Telegraph.co.uk - May 25, 2010
... become academies – retaining their right to select by ability – although the new government insisted there would be no further expansion of the 11-plus. ...
Grammar schools boom under Labour despite party's opposition
Daily Mail - May 14, 2010
And they will pile pressure on David Cameron who ruled out a return to the 11-plus in 2007, declaring that he was determined to 'move on from a sterile ...
Election candidates answer the big questions
Manchester Evening News - May 4, 2010
On education I would encourage the creation of new grammar schools but make the 11-plus vocational as well as academic. "The issue of whether you have ...
Conservative Wycombe candidate Steve Baker apologises over leaflet claim
Bucks Free Press - May 3, 2010
Candidate Andrew Lomas has said he wants the system scrapped but the party's manifesto while ruling out a 'return to the 11-plus' does not pledge to close ...
General Election 2010: Eton head calls for assisted places revival
Telegraph.co.uk - Julie Henry - May 2, 2010
... he abandoned the Conservative Party's traditional support for more grammar schools and the Tories have tried to avoid any mention of the 11-plus since. ...
Our Gothic towers inspire state school pupils, says Eton head
This is London - Apr 30, 2010
Many pupils at state comprehensives in the area have a low opinion of their own abilities after failing the 11-plus entrance exam for local grammar schools. ...
Schools and housing spark election debate
thisiskent.co.uk - Apr 30, 2010
But Labour candidate Gareth Siddorn, who is not in favour of the 11 plus system, said the question over the rights and wrongs of the selection process was a ...
Labour's Daniel Griffiths Responds to Ten Questions Posed by Tonbridge People ...
Tonbridge People - Apr 24, 2010
CAN YOU GUARANTEE A GRAMMAR SCHOOL PLACE FOR EVERY CHILD WHO PASSES THE 11 PLUS? First, the day-to-day running of the local education system is matter for ...
UKIP's Victor Webb answers your questions
Tunbridge Wells People - Apr 22, 2010
VW: UKIP will not return to a pass/fail 11 plus test but will introduce a comprehensive test to assess merit across a wide range of academic and non ...
General Election 2010: the Tories have a fortnight to save themselves from ...
Telegraph.co.uk - Apr 22, 2010
Bring back Grammar schools,and the 11 plus. As non of these will be implemented by Cameroon, my vote goes to the English Democrates. ...
Lib Dem Liz Simpson Responds to Ten Questions Posed By Tonbridge People - what ...
Tonbridge People - Apr 21, 2010
Can you guarantee a grammar school place close to home for every child who passes the 11 plus? I assume that this question relates to the difficulty some ...
What do Tonbridge People want to ask the candidates: Replies from Steve Dawe ...
Tonbridge People - Apr 14, 2010
Q Can you guarantee a grammar school place for every child who passes the 11 plus? 1. Grammar school places: No. The Green Party supports the full ...
Cameron wants a nation of volunteers. I'm not convinced
The Guardian (blog) - Apr 12, 2010
... electing county health boards; putting matron in charge on the ward; including non-academic skills in the 11-plus; cutting out red tape, especially EU ...
UKIP launches manifesto
ePolitix - Apr 13, 2010
New grammar schools would be built, but the "stigma of failure" attached to 11 plus tests would be removed by including non academic exams as well as ...
No narrowing of the great education divide
The Guardian - Apr 12, 2010
But read the report through and it is clear that schools which use the 11-plus test are still the worst offenders (after the private schools, which aren't ...
Top comprehensives 'more exclusive than grammar schools'
Telegraph.co.uk - Apr 12, 2010
The study suggested that grammars – which select pupils on the basis of the 11-plus entrance exam – were more transparent as they identified pupils “with ...
Ten Questions From Tonbridge People to our Election Candidates: Watch this ...
Tonbridge People - Apr 9, 2010
Can you guarantee a grammar school place close to home for every child who passes the 11 plus? 2. What will you do to improve our hospitals? 3. ...
Teachers fear 'selection at 14'
BBC News - Apr 4, 2010 "Those who failed the 11-plus scrambled for a place at technical schools to avoid being shipped off to secondary moderns. "Comprehensive schools offer a ...
Dagenham school pupils are top of the class
Barking and Dagenham Post - Mar 24, 2010
Irene Irpogho and Danielle Wilson won places at Brentwood School after acing their 11 plus exams and were then awarded their scholarships. ...
Wirral's grammar school leaders call for entry test results to be released ...
Liverpool Daily Post - Mar 23, 2010
If there is no risk in taking the 11-plus test, then you may widen the choice of those looking to reach the standard.” Mike Twist, deputy headteacher at ...
Why Live In Tunbridge Wells?
Tunbridge Wells People - Mar 21, 2010
Many people also choose Tunbridge Wells for the eleven plus and its selection of grammar schools. But how many of us are happy once we've made the ...
'Failing' grammar school is out of special measures
Manchester Evening News - Mar 17, 2010
Grammar schools traditionally score high marks as they select the brightest pupils, with 11-plus exams determining entry. Parent Charlie Rodger said he was ...
School crisis 'down to the government'
thisiskent.co.uk - Mar 17, 2010
This year's nightmare has seen 114 Kent pupils left without a grammar school place despite passing the 11-plus. The full extent of how many are from ...
Class war making parents feel guilty about private schooling, say heads
This is London - Mar 16, 2010
Many parents pay for prep schools to help train their children to pass the 11-plus exam and win places in state grammars. There were fears that government ...
School places farce hits twins
thisiskent.co.uk - Mar 7, 2010
Despite sailing through their 11-Plus exams, Isobel and Milly Money, 10, have not been given a grammar school place and have instead won places at the ...
'No evidence' of 11-plus cheating
Ilford Recorder 24 - Mar 6, 2010
COUNCIL chiefs have ruled there is no evidence of cheating in this year's controversial 11-plus exams as schoolchildren discover whether they got their ...
Academy head says 'don't just write us off'
thisiskent.co.uk - Mar 5, 2010
THE head of The Skinners' Kent Academy this week called on parents to "open their minds" after 114 youngsters who passed the 11-plus failed to get a place ...
School choice –an overrated concept
The Guardian - Mar 2, 2010
Grammars can select pupils based on 11-plus exams, faith schools can choose from the relevant religious backgrounds, and specialist schools can select 10% ...
Kent children and parents discover secondary school places
Kent Online - Mar 1, 2010
KCC said about 100 children who passed the 11-plus had not at this stage been offered a grammar school place. It follows concerns raised last year when some ...
Pupils in England told their secondary school places
BBC News - Feb 23, 2010
This is the first year when there is no official 11-plus entrance test, although some schools are implementing their own tests. In Wales parents give their ...
One in six pupils to lose out in school place chase
Daily Mail - Feb 26, 2010
Wallington County Grammar, in Sutton, Surrey, which attracted nearly 14 applications per place, said the 11-plus sessions had to be organised with 'military ...
Education: the high fly, the rest sink. And no one acts
Times Online - Feb 23, 2010
In Britain any debate on selection is cut off at the knees before it starts: “11 plus,” “a return to old-style grammars” and “writing off as failures” is ...
Grammar is important
Telegraph.co.uk - Feb 19, 2010
... and which are usually a mixture of standard 11-plus tests (verbal reasoning, non-verbal reasoning, maths) and the school's own set papers. ...
Nick Seaton: Support grows for more grammar schools
Yorkshire Post - Feb 16, 2010
Two years ago, Kent had 1232 applicants from outside the county, who freely volunteered to take the 11-plus for a place in one or other of Kent's grammar ...
Police probe 11-plus exams 'cheating'
Ilford Recorder 24 - Feb 12, 2010
The 11-plus is a selective exam enabling pupils to get into the borough's two grammar schools, Ilford County High and Woodford County High. ...
Voters favour more grammar schools, says survey
BBC News - Feb 10, 2010
But these schools remain popular with parents, many of whom coach their children intensively to pass the 11-plus that determines whether or not they get a ...
Grammar schools 'should be expanded'
Telegraph.co.uk - Feb 9, 2010
In recent years, private tutors have also recorded a huge upsurge in demand for extra tuition to help get children through the 11-plus entrance exam. ...
Inequality in Britain isn't down to class but brains
Telegraph.co.uk - Alasdair Palmer - Jan 30, 2010
I'm one of those hard-up working class kids who passed the 11 plus lo these many years ago, and after many more years of bringing up a family, I returned to ...
Louth school defends proposal to scrap catchment area
Grimsby Telegraph - Jan 28, 2010
After hearing a number of parents object to the proposal, James Lascelles told Louth town councillors he wanted the top 120 scoring pupils ikn the 11-plus ...
Bruce Anderson: Education is no place for idealism or egalitarianism
Independent - Jan 25, 2010
Confronted by the life-chance dividing line of the 11-plus, millions of families underwent the same anxieties as my taxi-driver. In retrospect, the 1944 Act ...
The Northerner: Sky falls on chicken licker
The Guardian (blog) - Jan 21, 2010
Education there, this week at least, is concerned with tweaks to the 11-plus exam which for 90%-plus of the country is ancient history. ...
Poor schools fuelling boom in private tuition
Telegraph.co.uk - Jan 17, 2010
There is now so much difference between the best grammar schools and the worst comprehensives that parents are tutoring for the 11-plus from an earlier age. ...
Anxious parents fuel boom in tutors
Times Online - Jack Grimston - Jan 16, 2010
“There is now such a difference between the best grammar schools and the worst comprehensives that parents are tutoring for the 11-plus from an earlier age. ...
More schools reach GCSE target
BBC News - Jan 13, 2010
The highest scoring school was Invicta Grammar School in Maidstone, Kent. Its pupils averaged 764.5 points apiece, compared with the 214.9 at St Peter's.
Grammar schools, selection, and tips for those private school interviews...
Times Online (blog) - Jan 6, 2010
There's a huge deficit between the 11-plus test and what contemporary neuroscience is saying about the developing brain (which they couldn't understand). ...
Why British children are pushed too hard
Times Online - Jan 4, 2010
The need to stay “on target” for that 11-plus, even in Africa, was paramount. In return, the school said that it would keep Jessie's place open for her ...
11+ pupils could face 60-mile trip to take exam
Maidenhead Advertiser - Dec 19, 2009
Children in the Royal Borough wanting to take the 11-plus may have to travel 30 miles to Aylesbury from now on because of security fears sparked by the ...
County council: Paul Carter answers your questions
thisiskent.co.uk - Dec 18, 2009
On the Kent 11-plus test we set the pass rate that enables between 23 and 26 per cent of our young people to go to grammar schools. ...
Cameron and Clarke attacks Gordon Brown over 'politics of envy' as poll show ...
Daily Mail - Dec 6, 2009
But while Mr Clarke's fees were met by the State after he passed the 11-Plus, Mr Balls's were paid by his parents. Mr Brown brought up Zac Goldsmith, left, ...
Claim that Kent County Council allowed eleven-plus pass figure to rise ...
Kent Online - Dec 4, 2009
About 20 per cent of places are allocated on the basis of whether pupils had passed the 11-plus but that figure increases after headteacher assessment ...
Colchester: Pupils vie for grammar school places
Essex County Standard - Nov 30, 2009
Nearly 1000 youngsters have sat the 11-plus exam in a bid to secure a top grammar school education in Colchester. The Royal Grammar School, ...
Could grammar schools have a radical new role?
guardian.co.uk - Nov 16, 2009
"Some pupils are coached at seven years old to get through the 11-plus, and it stops them enjoying primary school," she says. "It's tragic. ...
Opening the school debate
Telegraph.co.uk - ?Nov 10, 2009
? If you reckon your child is brighter than average and could pass the 11-plus, or other relevant entrance exam, the latter option is clearly tempting. ...
Backlash over KCC grammar reshuffle plans
However, where we've got massive demand in west Kent and surplus places in east Kent, because there are less young people there passing the 11-plus, ...
Schools chief defends 11-plus from 'abuse' claims
She told KOS Media the 11-plus exam helps parents decide how their children should best be educated, rather than being part of a “system of rejection” – as ...
Conservative council threatens to reignite Tory row over grammar schools
Results published this month showed that 5113 children this year passed the Kent Test, the county's form of the 11-plus. However, the county's grammar ...
Anger at plan to expand grammar school system
The decision by the Conservative- controlled Kent County Council has reignited the controversy over selective education and the future of the 11-plus. ...
The teachers who can do no right
This 39-year-old office administrator intends to sue her daughter's Portsmouth primary school for failing to get Trish through the 11-plus. ...
We must expand Kent's grammar schools
The Kent Test, or '11-plus' as it used to be called, is "pretty close to the emotional abuse of children" he says. I do not know whether or not that ...
Record interest in grammars as parents save on school fees
Bexley's four grammar schools have seen a four per cent rise in demand this year, with 4686 children sitting the 11-plus exams. ...
Postal strike no problem for Kent Test pupils
More than 10000 emails were sent out on Monday to parents informing them if their child had passed the 11-plus, accounting for nearly 90 per cent of those ...
Canterbury High School head teacher Phil Karnavas attacks 11-plus system
Pupils who sit the 11-plus are placed under such pressure that the system verges on being cruel and could be described as ...
Early starts for the children desperate to pass their 11-plus
There is one aim: that next month the girl will score a mark on her 11-plus exam high enough to win her a coveted place at one of Essex's grammar schools. ...
Grammar school applications soar
More children have been entered for the 11-plus – the grammar school entrance exam – this year compared with 2008. ...
Recession-hit parents in clamour for scarce grammar school places
The National Grammar Schools Association has revealed a rise in the number of youngsters taking the 11-plus this autumn. In Kent, which has 32 grammar ...
Parents pay for top prep schools to secure places in best grammars
Applications to take the 11-plus have increased in 70 per cent of grammar schools, according to a separate survey conducted by The Times. ...
Schools should be given different targets for attainment
I heard tell last week of a teacher from a secondary modern who, on being introduced to a 10-year-old about to go through the 11-plus exam, was asked by the ...
Is the best school the right school?
New business aims to get children through 11+
Parents turn to lawyers in fight for best schools
Think tank: Education poisoned by class envy
Grammar schools 'to blame for Sats failures'!
The Telegraph - August 15, 2009
What we want to know is if the 11-plus selective system has an impact on the results in Slough, whether the 11-plus proves a distraction and whether it ...
Two cheers for Alan Milburn's report
New ruling increases pressure on grammar places
Grammars: working-class pupils' last hope
Times Educational Supplement Jul 17, 2009
Comprehensives have led to apartheid in education, where a child's chances are determined by a postcode lottery The past, wrote Gerard Kelly, editor of The TES, in an attack on grammar schools last week, is ...
School marks half-century
private schools 'face fee hike'
Finding a way in
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 'SHOULD TARGET POOR'
Grammar schools 'should favour the poor'
Troubles ahead
Wealth drives 11+ success, latest Bucks figures show
Check on school places cheating
Council drops school fraud case against mother
Analysis: a loophole the Government has to close
Put middle-classes at the back of the queue, says top grammar ...
Put middle-classes at the back of the queue, says top grammar ...
Grammar schools 'should favour the poor'
Wealth drives 11+ success, latest Bucks figures show
Matthew Norman: How to get ahead in hackery...
Admission fears raised over possible changes at Bourne Grammar School
Bringing back the grammar school is the only way to give poor ...
Debating selection
Families fight to save Slough grammar school
Out of nursery, into the rat race
UCL to introduce entrance exam
REDBRIDGE: Tutor jailed for sex attacks on pupils
Guardian Series - May 18, 2009
At a hearing earlier this week, Sivathasan was convicted of sexually touching a 10-year-old girl in 2003 while coaching her for 11 plus exams. ...
An ambitious mayor who lacks an ambition
Financial Times - May 4, 2009
...City's last highly paid bankers.The mayor has been outspoken on the subject of bringing back selective education - the 11-plus and grammar schools of old. This is a popular policy among grassroots Conservatives; but one Mr Cameron would rather sideline...
Dispatch from Buckinghamshire
Financial Times - May 8, 2009
The old 11-plus provided a route to success based on merit. The comprehensives began to be stratified on class and racial lines, with middle-class parents ...
Parents' anger at grammar school places
Buckinghamshire Advertiser - May 13, 2009
"It is completely unfair if boys from this area who have worked really hard to pass their 11 plus are missing out on places because other parents from ...
'We will suffer this loss until the day we die'
South Devon Herald Express - May 15, 2009
One daughter, Cassie, who was only 10 at the time of the stabbing, had failed to take her 11 plus exam and missed out on the chance of attending Torquay ...
Boy wins 45-mile commute appeal
BBC News - May 11, 2009
An 11-year-old boy from Kent who faced a 90-mile round trip to the grammar school offered by the council has won an appeal to go to one closer to home. ...
Coaching pupils for SATs distorts league tables
Times Online - Apr 15, 2009
I do not approve of any such testing, be it SATs or 11-plus. Let pupils enjoy the freedom of their junior school years. Leave homework for secondary schools ...
