Prestigious Eton College has been given the green light to open free selective sixth form colleges in disadvantaged areas.
The college will open three Star Academies, in Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham after the Department for Education approved the plans.
Eton Star Dudley, Eton Star Oldham and Eton Star Teesside will aim to recruit 16-year-olds from deprived communities and help them secure places at top universities.
Eton College, where many of the country’s prime ministers studied, will contribute approximately £1 million ($1.276m) a year per college on top of current funding levels – which is about £2,000 per year for each student.
Pupils from the state sixth forms will also have a chance to attend a summer school each year at Eton College as part of the partnership.
The DfE has also approved 15 new free schools – which includes the three Eton Star sixth forms – in parts of the country where education outcomes are weakest, and it said about 12,000 young people will benefit.
A northern version of the Brit School, which has nurtured performers such as Adele and Amy Winehouse, is among the free school applications approved.
Plans have also been approved for two university technical colleges (UTCs), one new all-through school for pupils aged four to 16, a primary school, two secondary schools and a further five 16-19 free schools.
It comes after Dudley, Middlesbrough and Oldham were all listed in the government’s 55 education “cold spots” in England – those identified as having the weakest education outcomes – as part of its levelling up agenda.
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In February last year, the DfE said the 55 “education investment areas”, which were selected to raise school standards, would be prioritised for new specialist sixth forms.
Each Eton Star sixth form college will admit 240 pupils a year, which means each college will have 480 pupils across Year 12 and Year 13 when full.
A representative for Eton College and Star Academies said the aim is that most of the school pupils will have the ability to aspire to top universities and “this will be reflected in the GCSE results they will need for admission”.
The focus will be to admit large numbers of pupils eligible for free school meals, those from disadvantaged postcodes, looked after children, and those who would be the first in their families to attend university.
The colleges will be coeducational, unlike Eton, and the pupils will not wear the traditional Eton uniform of a black tailcoat.
“We want to make more good school places available to families, and these 15 new free schools will bring brand new opportunities to young people from Bradford to Bristol,” Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said.
“Free schools bring high standards, more choice for parents and strong links to industry – and all in the areas where those opportunities are needed most.”
“We believe these new colleges have the potential to be transformative both for the young people who attend and for the wider communities they will serve,” Simon Henderson, headmaster of Eton College, said.
“Now the hard work really starts as we turn our vision into reality.
“Collaborative partnership will be key to this project’s success and we are very grateful for the support we have had already from the respective councils, from the local communities and from our colleagues in other educational settings.”
“This marks an exciting milestone in our partnership. We are confident that the Eton Star sixth forms will produce extraordinary, transformative outcomes, not only for their students but for the wider communities too,” Sir Hamid Patel, chief executive of Star Academies, said.
“With a growing demand for sixth form places in these areas, we aim to enable more young people to benefit from a high-quality academic education and to broaden the opportunities available to them both during and after their sixth form studies.”
Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA), said they were “concerned” about the extent to which decisions by the government, about which sixth form free school bids to approve, are based on detailed evidence demonstrating the local need for additional places.
“We are aware that some high-profile examples announced today were trailed in the media before applications had even opened, and long before evidence could be gathered,” he said.
“In some cases, what evidence is available does not point to an established track record of success in sixth form provision.
“The result is that some new, untried and untested free schools are set to open in communities where there is already sufficient, high-quality provision, while areas with much greater need of additional high-quality, sixth form places continue to be neglected. This presents the risk of existing and high-performing sixth form provision being unnecessarily disrupted.”
But Mr Watkin welcomed the establishment of 16-19 schools in areas where “there is an identified need” amid the rising 18-year-old population.
“It is essential that any selective sixth form takes into account the extra challenges faced by all under-resourced pupils when selecting students – not just those on free school meals – otherwise it runs the risk of merely perpetuating educational inequalities,” Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said.
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- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
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Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
Women’s World T20, Asia Qualifier
UAE results
Beat China by 16 runs
Lost to Thailand by 10 wickets
Beat Nepal by five runs
Beat Hong Kong by eight wickets
Beat Malaysia by 34 runs
Standings (P, W, l, NR, points)
1. Thailand 5 4 0 1 9
2. UAE 5 4 1 0 8
3. Nepal 5 2 1 2 6
4. Hong Kong 5 2 2 1 5
5. Malaysia 5 1 4 0 2
6. China 5 0 5 0 0
Final
Thailand v UAE, Monday, 7am
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UAE v Ireland
1st ODI, UAE win by 6 wickets
2nd ODI, January 12
3rd ODI, January 14
4th ODI, January 16
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The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.
The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.
Abu Dhabi traffic facts
Drivers in Abu Dhabi spend 10 per cent longer in congested conditions than they would on a free-flowing road
The highest volume of traffic on the roads is found between 7am and 8am on a Sunday.
Travelling before 7am on a Sunday could save up to four hours per year on a 30-minute commute.
The day was the least congestion in Abu Dhabi in 2019 was Tuesday, August 13.
The highest levels of traffic were found on Sunday, November 10.
Drivers in Abu Dhabi lost 41 hours spent in traffic jams in rush hour during 2019
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Match info
Liverpool 4
Salah (19'), Mane (45 2', 53'), Sturridge (87')
West Ham United 0
MATCH INFO
Borussia Dortmund 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Kimmich 43')
Man of the match: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
ARGENTINA SQUAD
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Midfielders: Leandro Paredes, Guido Rodriguez, Giovani Lo Celso, Exequiel Palacios, Roberto Pereyra, Rodrigo De Paul, Angel Di Maria
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Friday: Giggs, Sho Madjozi and Masego
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Sole DXB runs from December 6 to 8 at Dubai Design District. Weekend pass is Dh295 while a one day pass is Dh195. Tickets are available from www.soledxb.com
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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