Rejected petition Stop plans to allow more secondary schools to select children by ability.

Rejected on 12 September 2016

Selection is divisive, lowers attainment and harms children and families. Selective areas have the largest achievement gaps in the country. The 11+ selects on the basis of prior opportunity and social background. Poorer children, including high ability poor children, lose out most.

Various studies show that selection depresses achievement across the system and does not help social mobility.
The 75% of children who fail the 11+ suffer a severe blow to their self-esteem and motivation at a critical time in their development. Figures suggest that these children go on to do worse at secondary modern than they would have at a comprehensive.
In selective Bucks, the 11+ pass rate for FSM children was 4% in 2014, compared to 20% for state pupils and 53% for private school pupils.

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/166723

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.