‘PEOPLE HATED THAT FOUR LETTER WORD’: MIDDLESBROUGH’S ANGER AS LABOUR SCRAPS ETON-BACKED FREE SCHOOL
They call Brian Sexton’s grandson the “talking calculator”. He is only nine years old, but his family takes it in turns to quiz him and watch and admire as he turns out the correct answers.
“He can do the square roots of any number you like,” Sexton beams. “He can multiply 117 by 144 by building the blocks in his head and then counting them back. Genius.”
Until last month, his family dreamt that he might one day go to Eton’s free sixth form college that was poised to open in the heart of Middlesbrough.
The proposed school, which was fronted by Eton College and Star Academies, a multi-academy trust, was expected to enrol 480 of the brightest pupils from deprived backgrounds and offer them a world-class education for free.
Although the school was approved in 2023 by the previous government and set to welcome its first 240 pupils last September, Labour entered office and immediately paused plans while it carried out a review.
Last month, Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, decided to scrap the proposal, arguing the money could be better spent on funding Send (special educational needs) places.
Phillipson, who grew up 60 miles away in the Tyne and Wear town of Washington and has made much hay out of her journey from deprivation to Oxford University, has been accused of “pulling up the drawbridge” and kowtowing to local Left-wing politicians who opposed the plans.
Andy McDonald, the local MP, who served in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, said he was “grateful” to Phillipson for cancelling Eton’s proposed sixth form college because it would have “critically undermined existing provision”.
He previously described Eton as a “hallmark of stifling elitism” which would “simply cream off, and badge as their own, our most able and advantaged students”.
Sexton, a retired piping engineer from Acklam, in the south-west of the town, cannot hide his fury. “There are a lot of talented kids in this area but just to stymie Eton College because it has Eton on the name – it’s ridiculous.
“Imagine that on a young person’s CV. They attended Eton College in Middlesbrough. Off the back of that, they managed to go to Oxford [University] with good grades. Doesn’t that say good things about the area? Instead, they simply want all the kids to go through the same comprehensive system. Very sad.”
Sexton takes particular grievance with the argument made by McDonald and other critics that Eton’s free school would threaten the existing sixth form colleges in the area.
He says: “The reality is that there are only a few good sixth form colleges in the area. If they lost some of their better pupils, would that not be a good thing? Those children would be going on to an even better education and you are freeing up space in some of the better colleges we already have.”
Andy Preston is staring at what could have been. Formerly a Labour member, he served as the independent Mayor of Middlesbrough between 2019 and 2023 and oversaw the initial plans laid out by Eton and Star Academies.
Preston, a former fund manager and founder of two charities that tackle social deprivation, is stood outside the proposed site where the school would have been. “The actual construction would have been a major project, creating hundreds of jobs.
“It was central, right beside booming digital technology businesses, near other educational institutions, near the train station. Right in the middle of the region’s biggest regeneration scheme that is stuttering along, and it would have injected new money and energy to help more great things happen.”
In his role as mayor, Preston worked closely with Simon Henderson, the headmaster of Eton College. “Eton had been looking for a site for some time. They had identified that our children did fairly well at GCSE but they weren’t performing at that same level when it came to A-levels and that’s where they thought they could help with a sixth form college,” he says.
Across England, the North East continues to lag behind other regions in A-level results. Last year, A* and A grades accounted for 22.9pc of results. In London this was 9.2 percentage points higher at 32.1pc. That gap in attainment between the two regions is the largest since the new grading system was introduced in 2010.
A similar picture emerges with university admissions. Whereas 43.4pc of all 18-year-olds in London accepted a university offer, that figure fell to 24.9pc in the North East.
The opposite of elitist
Eton College, which committed to spending £1m per year towards Eton Star Teesside, was planning to open a free school – a type of academy championed by Michael Gove. Unlike state schools, they are not run by the local authority and are funded directly by central government.
Free schools tend to outperform traditional state-funded schools. Last year 31.3pc of A-level grades at free schools were awarded A or A*, compared to 25.2pc across all state schools.
Preston says: “Only good would have come from this. But the opposition was ideological; it was never practical. From the start, words like ‘elitist’ were bandied about. That’s absolutely stupid. There is nothing elitist about seeking out the poorest kids who have high academic ability and offering them a free education. That is not remotely elitist. That is literally the opposite of elitist.
“But it’s because people hated that four-letter word, E-T-O-N. It’s embarrassing that some people in Middlesbrough sought to derail it, and it’s even more humiliating that they managed to do it.”
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While Middlesbrough rues what could have been, the Government has approved plans for Eton Star Partnership colleges in Dudley and Oldham – where both Labour authorities have been more positive about the opportunity.
Mieka Smiles, a Conservative Middlesbrough councillor, says the decision to push ahead with the free schools in other parts of the country rubs salt into the wounds.
She says: “It goes ahead in Oldham and Dudley but not in Middlesbrough. What does that say to our children? That they are not worth it? There are children in our area who definitely need this provision. Does that say Teesside and the North East doesn’t matter?”
While describing Phillipson’s decision to scrap Middlesbrough’s school as “baffling”, she says part of the blame lies with the council.
“I honestly think it was the local support. They want to work with people who want it in the area. It’s going to be difficult to bring something to an area where the council or the local MP isn’t aligned behind that.”
Preston puts it simply: “At the end of the day, socialism has won and Middlesbrough’s poorest kids have lost.”
A Department for Education spokesman said: “We will not pour money into projects that create surplus places, or into schools that are not where families need them. We are keeping projects that meet the needs of communities, backing new provision which complements rather than undermines what is available in local schools and colleges, and investing £3bn to create 50,000 new school places for children with SEND, ensuring they can achieve and thrive close to home.”
Middlesbrough council spokesman said: “The Department for Education has made its decision following a review. We would like to thank Eton College and Star Academies for their interest in Middlesbrough and recognise the work they have done with young people from the town.
“As a council, we will continue to work closely with our excellent schools, colleges, university and wider partners that provide a huge range of education opportunities for our young people.”
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