National Grammar Schools Association
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Fools Rush In...

9th July 2003

On its website, the Socialist Education Association has a two-page paper entitled Pupil Achievement in Secondary Education, dated February 2003.

This includes a table showing the percentage of pupils achieving 5 or more grade A*-C GCSEs over a 4-year period in upper (secondary modern) and grammar schools in Buckinghamshire. Percentages are also given for county and national averages. The percentages are as follows:

  1998 1999 2000 2001
Upper schools 37% 39% 39% 42%
Grammar schools 97% 97% 98% 97%
County average 60% 61% 62% 63%
England average 46% 48% 49% 50%


So in 2001, Buckinghamshire’s grammar and secondary modern schools, taken together, were achieving at a rate 13% above the national average.

But according to the Socialist Education Association, these percentages show that academic selection is damaging standards.