Sir Peter Lampl On Grammar Admissions – “This is a disgrace and something needs to be done about it”
If we're to really improve education in disadvantaged communities, writes Sir Peter Lampl, grammar schools – and independents – will need to adopt fairer admissions policies…
Reports that the Prime Minister Theresa May plans to scrap the 1998 legislation that banned new grammar schools have divided opinion.
The main sticking point is whether they are a good or bad thing for social mobility. Supporters claim that they provide huge opportunities for bright pupils from less advantaged backgrounds, while detractors argue that they benefit the few at the expense of the majority.
Head start
Our evidence suggests the existing 163 grammars are largely socially selective. Less than 3 per cent of all grammar school pupils are entitled to free school meals, against an average of 18 per cent in other schools in the areas where they are located.
Moreover, over four times as many children are admitted to grammar schools from outside the state sector – largely fee-paying preparatory schools, which account for 6 per cent of pupils – than the 18 per cent of children entitled to free school meals. This is a disgrace and something needs to be done about it.
An important factor contributing to this, which the Sutton Trust has documented in a wider context, is the growing use of private tuition. Nationally, almost a quarter of state school pupils receive private or home tuition, rising to 40 per cent in London. Those who can afford to pay for such tuition gladly do so to give their children a head start in the grammar school admission tests.
The government is right to recognise that there is a serious issue about the education of highly able young people from low and middle income backgrounds. But for grammar schools to be true engines of social mobility, there has to be a concerted effort to address their social selectivity through fairer admissions policies.
We need fairer tests, and there should be a minimum of 10 hours free or subsidised test preparation for all applicants to provide a more level playing field. We need better outreach from grammar schools, individually and collectively, and to look at ways that the admissions linked to disadvantaged pupils can be used effectively.
We need primary schools in selective areas to encourage their higher achieving pupils to apply, and to work with parents to help them through the process.
Opening up access
Some grammar schools are leading the way and have started more actively to recruit pupils from less advantaged backgrounds, changing their admissions code to prioritise pupils in receipt of free school meals or who are eligible for the pupil premium and who meet the threshold in their entrance tests.
King Edward VI Foundation in Birmingham, which runs five grammar schools in the city, has set a slightly lower qualifying score for pupil premium pupils and reports that it has doubled the number of disadvantaged pupils it admits. And Kent is taking on board our key recommendations for fairer access to its grammars too.
Most importantly, we mustn’t allow a possible expansion of grammar schools to let us lose sight of the importance of tackling poor education in disadvantaged communities. Improving social mobility means a national drive to improve education for the highly able in comprehensives, backed by fairer admissions policies in urban schools. It means boosting access to the existing grammars for less advantaged young people.
And it means opening up the 100 leading independent day schools on the basis of ability, rather than ability to pay. We have demonstrated that this works, and have the support of 90 leading independent day schools.
Opening up access to independent schools would not only would enable low and middle income students to improve their exam performance, more importantly it would enable them to develop essential life skills such as confidence, articulacy, social skills and teamwork.
Only through a national strategy and not a piecemeal approach, will we go some way in improving social mobility at the top.
Sir Peter Lampl is chairman of The Sutton Trust and the The Education Endowment Foundation; for more information, follow @suttontrust or @EducEndowFoundn
