Education Secretary says she is prepared to listen to calls to end ban on new grammar schools

New education secretary Justine Greening has said she is open to the idea of allowing new grammar schools.

There has been an 18-year block and new grammar schools that was introduced by Labour and maintained by David Cameron.

However, the previous Conservative education secretary Nicky Morgan gave the go-ahead to a new grammar school annexe in Sevenoaks last year.

State educated Ms Greening, who attended a comprehensive school, said:

“The debate has been going on a very long time. The settings in which schools find themselves has changed very dramatically - it has gone from being a binary one to being one in which there are many different schools with very different offers.

"We need to be prepared to be open-minded...fundamentally we need to look at what is happening in the classroom, having fantastic teachers - that is what is going to be most important.”

She added it was too early for her to pronounce on the debate having been appointed education secretary only a few days ago.

“I am not going to make big policy announcements. I recognise this is an important debate...we need to move this debate on. I think the debate has been going on for a very long time."

'The biggest boon of new grammar schools would be a widening of the pool of those going on to the top universities'

Talking on the BBC Andrew Marr show, she sounded a note of caution saying it was important to step away from “a more old fashioned” debate about grammar schools and should instead focus on how they might fit in a changed landscape.

Prime Minister Theresa May, who attended a grammar, has backed a proposed new grammar annexe in her own constituency of Maidenhead and is reported to be sympathetic to the idea of ending the current block.

The idea of re-introducing grammar schools is supported by many of the county's MPs. Among them is Ashford MP Damian Green, who wrote in 2014:

"The biggest boon of new grammar schools would be a widening of the pool of those going on to the top universities. Creating opportunity for those from non-privileged backgrounds is the essence of good conservatism."