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Croydon Tory MP chooses Sutton grammar school for his son

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GENE BRODIE, our education correspondent, delivers another exclusive report which reflects badly on the real standards of schools in our borough

There is not a secondary school in the whole of Croydon that is good enough for the son of Conservative MP Gavin Barwell.

Unlike some MPs, Barwell is not averse to using his family in his political leaflets

Barwell is the MP for Croydon Central who is a junior government whip. In the past he worked as a parliamentary private secretary to Michael Gove when he was the Education Secretary. 

Barwell’s private interests include being the chairman of the school committee at £15,000-a-year Trinity, the school which he attended. He is also a governor of the Whitgift Foundation, one of the country’s wealthiest education charities, which operate two other large private schools in Croydon.

This week, Barwell’s eldest son starts in Year 7 at Wallington County Grammar School in Sutton.

Barwell told Inside Croydon: “Jack passed the exam for one of the local grammar schools. We are very proud of him.” The LibDems who run Sutton must be delighted.

Barwell made no further comment, and certainly did not elaborate on the reasons for his family’s choice of school.

However, the Tory MP’s decision may surprise many other Croydon parents of 10- and 11-year-olds, who will be familiar with Barwell’s frequent comments about what he has claimed to be the rising standards in the borough’s schools under the policies of his colleague, Gove, and what was, until recently, the Tory-run council.

No one can criticise any parent for wanting the best for their children. As a declaration of interest, the sons of this website’s editor both received excellent educations, one at a private school and one at a Sutton grammar. In both cases, the schools were chosen because the alternatives provided within Croydon were inadequate.

Visits to schools are a mainstay of MP Gavin Barwell’s website. He tends not to mention his visits to selective schools in Sutton, though

Perhaps this is part of the Barwells’ consideration?

Wallington’s results are outstanding, with all 130 GCSE pupils achieving at least five A*-C grades this year; 77 per cent of these boys achieved at least seven A* or A grades at GCSE.

And grammar schools in neighbouring boroughs have been a popular educational route for all sides of politics in Croydon in the past.

Clare Hilley, the outspoken and failed Tory councillor for Waddon, attended the girls’ grammar in Wallington, as did the Hon Emily Benn, now a Labour councillor for West Thornton and parliamentary candidate for Croydon South. In the sixth form, Benn attended St Olave’s, another grammar school, this in Bromley – the same school that was attended by her Conservative party rival candidate in Croydon South, Chris Philp.

Individual politicians’ backgrounds are instructive, how they conduct their family lives are usually a private matter. Unless or until, that is, they bring their families into the public arena, as Barwell has done with some of his early election campaign literature (whoever approved the use of that picture has really dropped a massive bollock).

Wallington County Grammar, where Jack Barwell starts this week. It is not in Croydon

As he fights to retain his seat at the General Election against Labour’s Sarah Jones (another who was educated at a Whitgift Foundation school), it is inevitable that Barwell will be questioned about the hypocrisy in his advocacy of Tory education policies in Croydon (Margaret Thatcher closed more grammar schools than any other education secretary) while choosing a selective school out of the borough for his own son.

Of course, Barwell could have chosen to send his son to his own old school, or to Whitgift. Fees, with three boys to educate, could have been an issue for someone on the “modest” £66,000 MP’s salary, although the Whitgift Foundation does claim to provide many bursaries  at its schools – especially for the children of the school’s staff and governors.

So maybe there was another reason for Barwell avoiding going down the private school route – the political opprobrium he foresaw for exercising that option.

He may yet find that he has not escaped such criticism for his “I’m alright Jack”, “Do as I say, not as I do” attitude.

But there is a real lesson here for Croydon’s thousands of “ordinary” parents who are considering their own children’s secondary school choices.

If the local MP has to send his son out of the borough to a selective school to ensure a decent education, what does that say about the true standards of Croydon’s secondary schools, many of them run by Tory-sympathetic academy chains?

Other recent education stories by Gene Brodie:

Coming to Croydon

Inside Croydon: Croydon’s only independent news source, based in the heart of the borough: 407,847 page views (Jan-Jun 2014) If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com


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