Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Opting back into the state system

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned, favourably but in passing, that the independent Belvedere School in Liverpool was planning to enter the maintained sector as an Academy.

Today's Guardian has an article about this. The Belvedere has already taken part in an "open access" scheme which is "designed to open up its teaching to all on the basis of academic merit rather than ability to pay".

The person behind this scheme and the move back into the state sector under Academy status is Sir Peter Lampl. The Guardian says:

Lampl set up the Sutton Trust in 1997. At that time, the proportion of state school students at his old university, Oxford, had fallen from two-thirds when he was there in the 60s, to under half, while his school, Reigate grammar, was now, like other former grammar and direct grant schools, fee-paying.

"It became clear to me that these examples were symptomatic of a wider and significant decline in the opportunities available to bright children from non-privileged backgrounds," he says. "That was my motivation to introduce open access to the Belvedere."

No comments: