1. History

2. Notable campaign work

3. Opposition to grammar school expansion

4. Opposition to Theresa May's manifesto commitment to new selective schools

5. Campaign work following the May 2017 General Election

6. Comprehensive Future website

Comprehensive Future is a campaign group seeking to end the use of the 11-plus and establish comprehensive education in the United Kingdom. The organisation campaigns to abolish academic selection and phase out the 163 remaining grammar schools. It supports all-ability education and fair school admissions without tests for ability or aptitude.

History

The group launched in 2003, created by Labour party members with an interest in the grammar school debate, who believed Labour party policy should commit to ending academic selection. In 2006 the campaign group relaunched as an all-party organisation chaired by David Chaytor. Between 2009 to 2013 the chair was Fiona Millar, in 2014 the chair was John Edmonds, and since 2015 the chair has been Melissa Benn. The patrons of the organisation are Demitri Coryton, Lord Kinnock, Caroline Lucas MP, Sir David Melville and Baroness Williams.

Comprehensive Future’s work includes lobbying government^[1], providing evidence and briefings about academic selection^[2], informing the media about 11-plus testing and school admissions^[3] and supporting local campaign groups in selective areas.

Notable campaign work

The group has worked with a number of organisations to further their aims. They published a paper on selective versus comprehensive education by Nuala Burgess of King's College London, supported by the Economic and Social Research Council^[4]. They assisted with statistical research into the 11-plus test with Education Datalab^[5]. And they worked with the Fair Education Alliance and the London School of Economics to host a televised debate on grammar schools.^[6]

Opposition to grammar school expansion

On 15 October 2015, Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, announced that government would give permission for the Weald of Kent Grammar School to create an "annexe" in Sevenoaks. The decision was controversial as 1998 legislation barred any new school from adopting selective admissions.^[7]The satellite school was seen as a way around this legislation. The annexe school is supported by Kent County Council and an active group of parents^[8], but opposed by Comprehensive Future and others^[9]. An earlier attempt to create a new selective school in Sevenoaks in December 2013 was rejected by the then Education Secretary Michael Gove as a single-sex school could not legally open a co-educational annexe.^[10] Kent County Council revised the scheme to offer a girls-only annexe, and the application was approved, despite some controversy over whether the girl's school had carried out a full community consultation.^[11] Comprehensive Future were reported to be planning a legal challenge to the annexe grammar school but this did not materialise.^[12]

Opposition to Theresa May's manifesto commitment to new selective schools

In the May 2017 general election the Conservative party manifesto^[13] expressed a commitment to overturning the ban on new grammar schools.^[14] The maifesto said, '

We will lift the ban on the establishment of selective schools, subject to conditions, such as allowing pupils to join at other ages as well as eleven.' The plan was opposed by the Labour Party, with shadow education secretary Angela Rayner claiming selection by ability "entrenches division and increases inequality".^[15] The move was also opposed by teaching unions including the NUT, ATL, NASUWT, ASCL and NAHT.^[16] In reaction to the Conservative plan Comprehensive Future launched a crowdfunding campaign backed by celebrities and academics including Danny Dorling, Becky Francis, director of the UCL Institute of Education, and authors Michael Morpurgo, Stella Duffy and Michael Rosen. Michael Morpurgo claimed that his own experience of failing the 11-plus made him favour comprehensive education.^[17]

Campaign work following the May 2017 General Election

The Conservative government faced significant opposition to grammar school expansion within its own party, including former education secretary Nicky Morgan opposing new selective schools.^[18] Following the reduced Conservative majority in the May 2017 election the plans for reversing the ban on new selective schools was dropped.^[19] Despite the government abandoning plans for new grammar schools, Comprehensive Future claim more 'annexe' grammar schools are planned to bypass any need for legislation. To date no grammar schools have publically committed to building a satellite selective school, but a Freedom of Information request revealed several grammar schools had contacted the Department for Education to express an interest in expansion.^[20]

Comprehensive Future website

http://comprehensivefuture.org.uk/

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