Council Launches Local Grammar School Drive

June 20, 2017 by Leigh-on-Sea.com

A campaign to get more Southend children attending one of the four local grammar schools has been launched by the Council.

A grammar school strategy was agreed by the council’s cabinet yesterday (Tuesday 20th June) and sets out a long term plan to enable more local Southend-on-Sea children to apply for, sit and pass the 11 plus assessment.

As part of the plan, a raft of advertising and publicity will go out across the Borough to encourage parents to consider one of the four Southend grammar schools as an option, and to apply for the 11 plus by 5pm on 21st July. An information website has also been set up at www.southend11plus.uk

Parents of children who are achieving above the national average at their primary school have also been directly targeted with a letter and information leaflet giving them more information about the process, busting some myths about grammar schools and encouraging them to apply for the test.

Cllr James Courtenay, Executive Councillor for Children and Learning, says: “This is about raising awareness, offering choice, and ultimately supporting those from more disadvantaged backgrounds to prepare for and take the test and ultimately increase the numbers of local children attending one of the four outstanding local grammar schools.

“I want to be clear that we have a great variety of secondary schools in the Borough and our non-selective schools do a great job for the children that go there. Our stated ambition is for all schools to be good or outstanding and we are working with all of our secondary schools to achieve just that. However we want all children to consider whether a grammar school is appropriate for them, particularly those from a disadvantaged background who are traditionally under-represented at grammars. We also want to strive to get more Southend children attending our grammar schools and this strategy and campaign is attempting to do exactly that.

“Our initial and immediate action is focused on targeting those parents that may not consider grammar school as an option for their child and encouraging them to think about applying for their child to take the test for a September 2018 place. We will then implement our longer term plan later in the year which will be even more targeted, continue the communications campaign, and focus on other areas such as coaching, tutoring support, establishing pupil networks and meeting with more primary school teachers to see how we can work together better to promote the Southend 11 plus.”

The campaign is also being promoted across the council’s social media channels using #nofuss11plus #yourchoice