THERESA MAY’S plans to open new grammar schools stems from “misty-eyed nostalgia for the ’50s and the ’60s,” the head of Ofsted said yesterday.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the former academy chief who took over the schools inspectorate in 2012, used his final public appearance in the role to fire a parting shot at the PM.

He used his speech at the launch of Ofsted’s annual report to warn that an “obsession with grammars and the top 10 per cent” would not address the problems of the education system.

And in a radio interview later on, he went further, saying: “The economy’s changed in that half a century. We don’t send children down the mines and the docks and the shipyards any more.

“I think this would be a retrograde step. I hope Theresa May doesn’t make it a big issue.”

This summer Ms May said she wanted to lift the ban on creating new grammars, with new places supported by a £50 million annual government subsidy.

The assistant general secretary for teachers’ union NUT Amanda Brown said: “The government has the wrong priorities.

“Expanding selective education will set back decades of advances made by comprehensive education to secure the high-quality education to which all our children are entitled.”

Mr Wilshaw’s final annual report included warnings of a growing north-south divide in school standards.

The proportion of secondary schools in the north of England and the Midlands rated good or outstanding had increased by just 3 percentage points since 2011, compared with a national average of 13.

The Ofsted chief also called on the government to “face up” to a growing “crisis” in teacher recruitment and retention.

He said this had been exacerbated by a “triple whammy” of a growing economy, public-sector pay restraint and “the still comparably low status of teaching in England.”

We need your support to keep running. If you like what you read please donate by clicking here