Publication Source

The number of children securing a place at their first-choice secondary school is set to hit a record low this week as catchment areas for top state schools shrink to a few hundred yards.

Canny middle-class parents will have rigged this lottery years ago, moving house to be close to a favoured school. It is a smart move: forget a nearby Waitrose, nothing protects house prices quite like having a desirable school on the doorstep.

These parents might once have considered paying school fees but the cost of a private school place in relation to earnings has doubled in a generation.

Despite this, traditional private schools are booming, with a record number of pupils attending a fee-paying school last year.

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