Georgina Newton, principle teaching fellow from Centre for Teacher Education at the University of Warwick, comments on the announcement that grammar schools in England will receive funding for expansion.

She comments: "Today's announcements by the Department for Education show that there is money available to schools, particularly to address inequalities which students from poorer backgrounds face. This is really pleasing.

"However, it is baffling that they should choose a geographically unequal model like the grammar school system to make this funding available.

"This will not do anything to change the educational provision in areas with no grammar schools. I would welcome a response which worked as well in Cumbria (where there is only one grammar school) as it did in Kent (where there are 32).

"It is my view that the government should commit to addressing issues in school provision across the board - there is an Ofsted rating system, which they might as well make use of.

"If the government wants to make more good school places available across the country, it should invest in the schools that are struggling the most, in the areas where families are struggling the most - making those schools attractive to work in and setting them on a trajectory to becoming good. This would have a greater impact on the education of students from the poorer backgrounds and contribute more substantially to educational equality."

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