The best state secondary schools in England are failing to take in disadvantaged pupils and some are less diverse than grammar schools, a new report on social mobility has found.
More than 150 comprehensive secondary schools in England are more “socially selective” than the average grammar school, according to research from The Sutton Trust, and class integration is getting worse.
The 500 comprehensives with the best grades in the country take 40 per cent fewer pupils eligible for free school meals than the average comprehensive, the report found.
Education experts have condemned the levels of social segregation between schools as “unacceptable” and pushed for a “reset” that would reward schools for taking in children from poorer families.
The Sutton Trust study found that comprehensives are increasingly controlling their own admissions, from 80 per cent in 2016 to 90 per cent in 2022. The “attainment gap” between disadvantaged and well-off pupils is at its highest level since 2011, due to disrupted education during the pandemic, researchers said.
They looked at the top 500 secondary schools in England by the Attainment 8 measure – which assesses the achievement of a pupil across eight subjects at GCSE.
On average, the top schools took 40 per cent fewer children on free school meals than a normal comprehensive school. Experts suggested that around a third of this gap was down to the schools being located in more affluent areas, but two-thirds represented “some form of social selection within that area”.
Faith schools, for example, were more likely to be “socially selective” than non-religious top comprehensive schools.
