The study showed how a child’s chances of going to grammar school varied depending on the Local Authority (LA) in which they lived, their social and ethnic background, and their attainment level at primary school. In other words, affluent families whose children sit the 11 plus test for grammar schools in local authorities where they do not live are gaining an edge over disadvantaged pupils.
In those LAs with grammar schools, the proportion of pupils attending such schools varied widely: from 1.4 to 37.4 per cent. Selection criteria also varied, with pupils in certain LAs needing to achieve more than twice the Key Stage 2 marks of those in other LAs to have any chance of being admitted. As a result, applying in a different LA – an option more readily available to more affluent families – could increase a child’s chances.
The study also found that pupils eligible for free school meals, pupils with special educational needs, native English speakers, and white pupils were less likely to go to grammar schools, while those from more affluent areas and from minority ethnic groups were more likely to attend.
Despite these differences, the research showed that, during the selection process, attainment was more important than personal background, indicating no bias towards certain groups of pupils in the selection process itself. Rather, the inequality of opportunity to go to grammar school for pupils from different backgrounds was probably the result of diverging attainment among these different groups at the end of primary education.
Conclusions:
The varied proportions of available grammar school places in each LA leads to an imbalance in opportunities for pupils wishing to attend grammar schools. Due to this, the threshold of grammar school selection across LAs is variegated.
Some LAs surprisingly allow pupils from the bottom national quartile for KS2 performance to attend grammar schools; others only enrol pupils with above-average performance, leading to dissimilar student compositions across grammar schools.