ANTI-GRAMMAR school campaigners took their fight to Westminster on Monday in an effort to get the government to take action.

The campaign launch was chaired by Buckinghamshire Labour county councillor Clare Martens from High Wycombe.

She said: "We feel very disappointed that the Labour party's long-standing commitment to reducing selective education has not been supported in any way by this government."

Members of Bucks Parents for Comprehensive Education (BPCE) joined Labour MPs and other campaigners to say that after five years of a Labour government, more children than before faced being labelled as failures at 11.

Nationwide there are about 160 grammar schools in 36 LEAs. In Buckinghamshire, where almost all children take the 11-plus, there are 13 grammar schools and 21 upper schools. The government does not actively oppose getting rid of grammar schools but the system it introduced for doing so has made it difficult. Large numbers of signatures have to be collected on a petition calling for a referendum on the subject. Campaigners have a year to get the petition together and if they fail, they have to start again. BPCE has never managed to get anywhere near the petition figure.

Cllr Martens, whose two youngest children went to Hatters Lane School in High Wycombe when they moved to the town, said there had been no real opposition to getting rid of selection because people did not think change was possible.

"We want a new momentum," she said. She described education standards in the county as excellent and said BPCE wanted to keep that high standard and not throw the good out with the bad.

But she said new academic evidence showed that bright children had as good or better opportunities in comprehensive education, while it provided better opportunities for the others.

January 24, 2003 13:00