Shake-up for state schools

Gordon Brown is set to sound the death knell of the comprehensive school system in its present form in his big spending review next week.

The Chancellor's statement on Monday on spending plans for the next three years will open the way for up to 300 "advance schools" to act as flagships for the rest.

Armed with extra money - and the power to take over failing schools nearby - the top-grade establishments are intended to act as pacemakers. Mr Brown will also signal that, by 2007, most of the country's 4,000 secondary schools will be specialist, selecting a proportion of their pupils.

The changes were heralded today by Education Secretary Estelle Morris as she lined up for a clash with critics from both wings of the Labour Party. Labour's traditionalists are up in arms over the existing 990 specialist schools which, they say, have eroded the comprehensive principle.

But Ms Morris, in a Times interview, dismissed criticisms from former Labour deputy leader Lord Hattersley in which he accused the Government of harking back to grammar schools.