WIRRAL’S grammar schools will finally be free to expand, the government pledged yesterday – as MPs clashed over the 11-plus exam.
Strict rules designed to stop England’s 164 surviving grammars stealing pupils and funding from “the school down the road” will be scrapped, MPs were told.
And it will also be harder for opponents of grammar schools to trigger parental ballots with the aim of abolishing them, schools minister Nick Gibb hinted.
The moves were announced as Esther McVey, Conservative MP for Wirral West, whose constituency contains some of the borough's six grammar schools, hailed their achievements.
They are West Kirby girls school, Calday Grange in West Kirby, Wirral boys and girls schools, both in Bebington, Upton Hall School and St Anselm's College, in Birkenhead. Blue Coat School, in Liverpool, is also a grammar.
Ms McVey told MPs: “Grammar schools produce consistent successful results and well-rounded citizens and adults.”
The grammars will be freed to expand by removing powers that allow local councils to cap the number of places any state school can offer. Despite pressure from the Tory backbenches the Coalition government refused to increase the overall number of grammar schools.
But yesterday, responding to a Commons debate, Mr Gibb described scrapping the council-imposed cap as “one of the most far-reaching changes that we can make”.
