Top comprehensives 'exclude poor'

The top comprehensive schools take more affluent pupils

The most successful comprehensive schools in England are "socially selective", says an education charity.

A report from the Sutton Trust shows that a disproportionately low number of poorer pupils attend the 200 highest-performing comprehensives.

And it warns that without tougher safeguards on admissions, the government's school reform plans could "exacerbate" social division.

However, the trust supports plans to give schools control over admissions.

"These findings starkly underline the extent of the social divide in our education system. The top fifth of schools, independents, grammars and leading comprehensives, are effectively closed to those from less privileged backgrounds," says trust chairman, Sir Peter Lampl.

Political battle

The study from the Sutton Trust examines the intakes of the 200 comprehensive schools which scored the best results at GCSE level.

Previous studies have shown the social exclusivity of the most successful state schools, including grammars, but this latest research has looked at the accessibility of the best comprehensives.

These schools are not academically selective - but the survey suggests that in practice the pupils getting places are less likely to be from poorer backgrounds.

Only 5.6% of the pupils in these schools qualify for free school meals, considerably below the 11.5% average for the areas around these schools, and even further below the 14.3% national average.

The debate over school admissions is at the centre of political disputes over the government's White Paper for schools - with the government proposing that schools be allowed to run their own admissions, under the constraint of the existing code of practice.

Sir Peter says that he broadly supports the plan to devolve this power to individual schools - but warns that it must be accompanied by measures to promote a more socially-balanced mix of pupils.

In response, a Department for Education and Skills spokesperson said that research to be published would show that specialist schools improved exam grades in deprived areas.

Admissions rules

The research published by the trust shows that comprehensive schools which currently run their own admissions are more successful in terms of appearing in this list of the top 200 - but they also are less likely to take poorer pupils.

Schools which are their own admissions authorities represent less than a third of comprehensives, but they account for more than two-thirds of the top 200 schools.

However the research also shows that the intake of these schools running their own admission does not reflect the local social mix - with these schools having only 5.8% of pupils with free-school meals, compared to a local average of 13.7%.

Sir Peter says that he opposes quotas or imposed rules to achieve a more equitable social mix, but he argues that schools should have voluntary targets for social inclusion, similar to the benchmarks for universities.

Ballot for places

He also says that where schools are oversubscribed, the fairest way of allocating places would be a random ballot, as other systems, including banding, are open to manipulation.

Sir Peter supported proposals for advisers to help parents to apply for school places for their children and backed plans to provide more school transport to extend the range of schools available to families.

The survey also highlighted the academic success of faith schools and single-sex schools. Faith schools and single-sex schools are more than twice as likely to appear in this top 200 list, in terms of the national numbers of such schools.

And both these types of schools, within this leading 200 group, show an under-representation of poorer pupils.

When faith schools occupied so many places among the best comprehensives, Sir Peter queried the fairness of allocating school places on grounds of religion.

A spokesperson for the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales said that Catholic schools admitted pupils from a wider area, so their intake would not be expected to match the proportion of free school meals pupils in their immediate vicinity.

When this wider picture is included, the spokesperson said: "Ofsted shows that the proportion of students eligible for free school meals at Catholic secondary school is in line with the national average. We are clear that Catholic schools are not, and should not be, socially selective."

Responding to the report, a spokesperson for the Department for Education and Skills said the White Paper proposals, including school choice advisers and subsidised transport would "improve access for disadvantaged pupils".

"An analysis, shortly to be published in a comprehensive report on the performance of specialist schools by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, will show that the performance of specialists schools in highly disadvantaged areas will show a 'specialist dividend' of 10 percentage points at 5 A*-C GCSE passes than similar non-specialist schools," said the spokesperson.