I strongly support our two excellent grammar schools, Bishop Wordsworth’s School and South Wilts Grammar School (which gave superb education to both our daughters). I also strongly support (and visit) all our other excellent secondary schools in Salisbury and South Wiltshire, from Avon Valley College in Durrington to Trafalgar School in Downton.

The next Conservative Government will not abolish our grammar schools. In fact, we are the only Political Party that officially supports them! I regret very much – and so does David Willetts – that he gave any other impression.

You can read what he actually said to the CBI by following the link below.

It is time that, as a nation, we stopped judging a school by what it is called and instead pledged to offer all our children the best possible education to meet the aspirations of them and their parents and the needs of our country in the face of the global economy and the social jungle in which we now live.

That is why David Willetts MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, has said that our 160 strong, successful and popular grammar schools should continue to thrive and that we must turn our attention to the other 3,000 secondary schools across the country that have too often suffered from educational fads and fashions. I agree with that.

We should recognise how fortunate we are in Salisbury and South Wiltshire to have such a variety of good schools and highly motivated teaching and administrative staff. We are not typical. Across the country the picture is not so rosy. I have visited schools in deprived urban communities where I have been upset not by the dilapidated buildings but by the way the children suffer from blocked opportunities and a stagnant, immobile society.

That is the challenge we face. We can, as a nation, do so much better. That is what the next Conservative Government will seek to deliver for all our children.

17th May 2007

Read David Willetts Speech - click here