Menu is vast but only one dish is on offer

In this game of education Battleship, politicians, teachers, pupils and parents are all trying to score a perfect hit.

Nor will the eight secondary school models outlined in the leaked interim report be the last. The choice has already doubled from the four options set by the pause and review debate and may well do so again before this year is out.

Workshops involving Education staff during the autumn term encouraged ‘full and frank’ debate around ‘indicative best possible versions’ of each of the eight models across four capital cost brackets ranging from £60m. to £90m.

It is a substantial piece of work, to which the new committee has already added its own dynamic by including the current four-school model for comparison purposes.

Everyone is laudably keen to be seen as open-minded and evidence-based but one thing seems certain: it will be a three-site model.

The modelling would have to show compelling evidence that the high cost of an entirely separate sixth-form centre brings massive education advantages to ignore the high capital costs (and probably higher running costs).

Expect some deputies who ran on a ‘separate sixth form’ ticket in the election to pivot smoothly to Option C2. This is where the sixth form is operationally, but not physically, separate from the 11-16 school, as opposed to a fully integrated 11-18 school (Option C1).

Something that resembles, in fact, the existing arrangement at the former Grammar School.

That, for some in education, is a problem. Parents and pupils, they say, need to believe that the three 11-16 colleges offer the same opportunities. Having the sixth form next door must not confer advantages in teaching or facilities. It goes against the principle behind abandoning the 11-plus model.

The interim review says that there has been a ‘high degree of consensus’ among education leaders about which models to look at.

However, the choices on this a la carte menu all come with a hefty price tag and their own educational pros and cons. Some are already beginning to look much more appetising.