Grammar schools ‘to favour poor pupils in admissions’

Graeme Paton, writing for The Telegraph quoted The Sutton Trust’s James Turner in an article on grammar school admissions.

Middle-class parents are facing a fresh battle to get children into grammar schools after it emerged that more than half are planning to give priority to pupils from deprived homes.

Figures show around 90 academically selective state schools are fundamentally reforming their admissions rules to engineer a more socially-balanced intake.

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James Turner, director of programmes at the Sutton Trust, which has carried out research into grammar school admissions, said: “We welcome this announcement as an important step forward and hope it will help with some of the access issues we identified last year.

“However, admissions policies are just one part of the equation. It is vital that the tests are as unbiased as possible. Schools should also reach out to a wider group of schools and pupils if the link between income and access to grammar schools is to be narrowed.”

Read the full article here.