Leading headteacher: Michael Gove 'chickening out' on return of grammar schools

Dr Stephen Winkley, who will deliver his final prize day speech as head of leading independent school Rossall in Blackpool on Saturday, will suggest that political pressures - from both within his own party sand his coalition partners, the Lib Dems, have stopped him from reintroducing a selective education system.

Dr Winkley will argue that - if he had really wanted to improve the chances of students from poorer backgrounds - he had only one choice to make: bring back grammar schools which, he said, had been the pathway to university for generations of bright children from less affluent backgrounds.

Whilst preparing his speech, he added: “It's true that British independent schools are still viewed as the best in the world which is why so many people from countries such as China and South Korea choose to send their children here to gain a British education.

”But apart from independent schools and the small number of academies and free schools, where are our own children likely to get the best education, small class sizes and an opportunity for the brighter children from deprived areas to achieve their full potential?

“We had the answer for many years ... it was the grammar school system and it was dispensed with by politicians who suggested it was an elitist system that catered only for the brightest children to the detriment of those less gifted.

”Ironically, the politicians who decried grammar schools were probably educating their own children at grammar schools, as many still do.“

Dr Winkley, whose school is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference - which represents 250 of the most elite public schools in the country,? also accused parents of being unworried that their children nowadays opted for ”venal footballers and publicity seeking nobodies from the latest dreadful reality TV offering“

”Unless those values change the only losers will be our children, who will be left behind in the global economy by those from nations who place greater emphasis on education and recognize that it's the oxygen of a vibrant and successful nation,“ he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Gove also came under fire from CBI Director General John Cridland last night over his clash with headteachers at the weekend when he was heckled by delegates at the National Association of Head Teachers conference.

Delivering the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust annual lecture, he said: ”It's clear the reform programme is not landing as effectively as it needs to with school leaders.

“we're not talking about union firebrands here, or of those wh wrongly oppose school accountability outright.? To deliver lasting change, the Secretary of State needs to carry these people with him.”

He added:? “It's clear, therefore, that while Whitehall may think it's playing the right music, too few people are hitting the dance floor.”

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GCSE and A-Level grading this summer could be as chaotic as last year because quality of marking is still poor, leading school heads warn

Dr Tim Hands, who becomes chairman of the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference in September - which represents 250 of the country’s top private schools including Eton and Harrow, told a conference in London: “There is an unresolved crisis of instability at the heart of our currency exchange (exam) system.”

His comments coincide with thousands of pupils across the country embark on this summer’s GCSEs and A-levels.

He said that last summer’s fiasco over the marking of GCSE English - where the grade boundaries were changed after one set of pupils had sat the exam - had masked the real crisis facing the exam system.

Research by the HMC had shown that one in four teachers believed at least a quarter of their pupils had been awarded the wrong grade,? In addition, enquiries about remarking paper had soared from 171, 400 in 2010to 204, 600 last year.

It also found that 38 per cent of teachers lacked confidence in the GCSE and 27 per cent in A-levels.

The research findings have been described as “the tip of the iceberg” by Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders - which represents state schools.

Speaking at a conference organised by the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank,? Dr Hands, who is headmaster of Magdalen College, Oxford, said: “The timetable for improvement is uncertain and unsatisfactory.”

Education Secretary Michael Gove had earlier in the day confirmed that he is committed to bringing in exam reforms in 2015 although he acknowledged the timetable was “challenging”.

The reforms to both exams will usher in a new era of focusing on the one-off end-of-course examination rather than coursework.

However, Dr Hands said that - unless the major issue of shoddy marking was tackled - “the new qualifications will be built on sand”.

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'Reservoirs of disease': Private school pupils 'at much greater risk' of getting measles than those in state sector, says leading doctor John Ashton

Professor John Ashton said Britain's 600,000 privately-educated children were at much greater risk of infection than those in the state sector.

Prof Ashton, who represents the UK's public health doctors, said a mix of large numbers of middle-class children who were not vaccinated against measles following the Wakefield scare in the 1990s, along with pupils from overseas with unknown health records, meant schools could become "reservoirs of disease", the Daily Telegraph said.

He said the risk was similar to that from groups such as gypsies and travellers, who have previously spread the disease.

Prof Ashton, who will soon become president of the Faculty of Public Health, said: "You've got a lot of middle-class, well-off parents, large numbers of whom did not have their children immunised because of the Wakefield scare - which was a very middle-class phenomenon.

"Layered on top of that you have got a lot of children from abroad, especially from the Far East, from countries such as Hong Kong and China, and there are few checks being done to establish their immunisation records."

He said private schools were a "law unto themselves", and warned both pupils and the wider population were being put at risk from infectious diseases because the schools do not have proper policies to protect children and are bad at keeping adequate medical records of pupils from abroad.

Prof Ashton said: "The danger is that you have a population that can potentially become a reservoir of infection.

"Normally when you are talking about subsections of the population that are at particular risk of disease outbreaks, such as measles, you are talking about groups like gypsies and travellers.

"But actually children in private schools, and in particular boarding schools, are one of the categories most at risk."

He urged independent schools to check immunisation records of overseas pupils as a matter of urgency, and advised them to "engage with" families who refused to vaccinate their children.

Dr David Elliman, an immunisation specialist from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said he believed there was a high chance that an outbreak of measles would occur at an independent school, saying health officials were braced for such a crisis, the Telegraph said.

Prof Ashton's warning comes as health chiefs launched a major in-school vaccination drive across three counties neighbouring a region battling a measles epidemic.

Thousands of unprotected children are being targeted as part of an exhaustive four week programme to stop the disease spreading in South Wales.

The number of measles sufferers in the greater Swansea area looks certain to pass the 1,000 mark over the weekend.

Four local hospitals will host drop-in vaccination clinics today, for the fourth consecutive Saturday.

Vital vaccination sessions will also continue in a number of Swansea and Neath and Port Talbot schools next week.

A parallel programme is now being rolled out across three counties to the west of Swansea.

It comes as a major ￡20 million vaccination programme was announced in England targeting one million unprotected children and teenagers.

PA

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