As the Tory party dithers on the edge of another PR stunt – the possible, maybe, one day, who knows, keep ‘em guessing, perhaps. maybe, sort of, creation of a new, or rather satellite grammar school, seconds before a general election will almost certainly lead to the cancellation of it (if anyone is really fooled by this they deserve everything they get) - the Guardian publishes this story.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/04/state-secondary-schools-still-letting-down-talented-pupils-says-ofsted

What it says is what everyone already knows, what all wealthy and/or powerful people recognise when they find schools for their own children (the schools they choose are always selective though usually secretly so) , but which official education policy refuses to address – that comprehensive education is by its nature second-rate, and that academically selective schools are by their nature better nurseries of talent.

Two key quotations : ‘thousands of highly performing primary pupils are not realising their early promise when they move to secondary school,… and ‘students with the same primary school performance who attended selective or grammar schools were far more likely to achieve the highest grades at GCSE – 57% compared with 32% in non-selective schools.’

Of course, the Guardian put in their own caveat, because it hates selection, but it’s much to the credit of that newspaper that they carried the story at all.