Labour is planning another assault on the middle-classes with plans to penalise schools not taking a “fair share” of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Last week Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed private schools would no longer be exempt from VAT, claiming the money raised from January would help “provide the highest quality of support and teaching” in the state sector.
Now it has emerged schools face being marked down for taking on too many middle-class pupils as part of plans being considered by the education watchdog.
The move, being considered by Ofsted top brass, has been drawn up by Professor Lee Elliot Major, an expert in social mobility at Exeter University, who says there is nothing to stop the most sought-after schools from admitting as many middle-class pupils as possible.
He said: “What we want is excellent schools serving all our children, and to be measured on that. Too often what happens is the schools we penalise are the ones serving the most challenging communities. We are trying to equalise the unlevel playing field.
“This isn’t about dumbing down – this is very much about improving standards for all. If you improve the learning for children from the most under-resourced background, you improve learning for all children.”
It comes as the Government faces a legal challenge on its move to slap VAT on private school fees with the Independent Schools Council enlisting Lord David Pannick KC to spearhead a claim on behalf of parents, including those with children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Ms Reeves claims the 20% increase levied on schools and likely passed on to parents, would raise £460m extra to spend on state schools next year, rising to £1.7bn by 2029/30. This is despite 1,400 private schools helping the state sector by removing pupils from a broken system on which they do not rely.
The ISC wants a judicial review of the Government’s policy, which will focus around claims of breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The action will be brought around Article 14, the prohibition of discrimination, and Article 2 of the First Protocol, the right to education.
The Government announced in September that Ofsted’s one-word ratings would be scrapped and replaced with a school scorecard. The move followed the death of Ruth Perry, a head teacher who took her own life after an inspection downgraded her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.
Prof Major’s proposals, set to be piloted in secondary schools in the South West, would involve establishments being marked on a range of measures aimed at disadvantaged children.
These include incentives for schools to ensure they are treating pupils from troubled homes fairly when it comes to suspensions and expulsions, as well as incentives to boost their attendance and grades in GCSE English and maths.
Last month, Sir Martyn Oliver, the chief inspector of schools in England, said that “inclusion” would be one of the criteria for the new report card system “because we want to make sure schools are accessible to everyone”.
And from next year, schools will also be rated on attendance, how well they instil British values and how they prepare pupils with the skills needed for a world outside education.
They will also be ranked on the quality of the curriculum, teaching, and the educational attainment of its pupils.
Chris McGovern, Chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: “This is social engineering – pure and simple. It is blaming failure on where a child lives and the child’s social background.
“Bussing children across cities will add to traffic chaos but do nothing to raise educational attainment. There are plenty of examples in Britain and around the world of children from deprived backgrounds achieving highly.
“The OECD, for example, has pointed out that the children of street cleaners in Shanghai outperform children from the most prestigious schools in the UK.
“We need to focus on the quality of teaching and, if necessary, pay higher salaries to good teachers working in deprived areas. Current obsessing over equality of outcome is a sure route to future economic ruin. The educational wokeocracy is leading us Pied Piper-like to educational self-destruction.”
