Offer all children chance of private school, parents say

Two in five parents think every child should have the chance to go to private school, regardless of their family’s income, it has been suggested.

Many other mothers and fathers are in favour of at least some state school places being allocated randomly, or by ballot.

The findings are part of a survey commissioned by the Sutton Trust, for its new ”mobility manifesto”, which sets out a series of recommendations ahead of next year’s General Election on how to make sure all children have the same opportunities, regardless of background.

It says there needs to be fairer admissions to comprehensive, grammar and fee-paying schools when pupils are age 11, including through more use of ballots and banding, especially in urban areas that are over-subscribed.

Research has shown that England’s top performing comprehensives and academies are ”significantly more socially selective”, with fewer pupils than average on free school meals – a key measure of poverty, the manifesto says.

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Dr Lee Elliot Major, Sutton Trust director of policy and development, said: ”There is a clear recognition in all the main political parties that we need to do a lot more to improve social mobility in Britain. Our ten point manifesto gives them the ideas that will turn the rhetoric into radical change for the better.

”Fairer admissions and fairer access must be at the heart of any programme to improve social mobility. Our poll shows a public appetite for change in oversubscribed comprehensives and academies. We need changes too to ensure fair access to grammar schools, independent schools and elite universities.”

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