Please accept my mini genius

Last Thursday was “national offer day”, when half a million families across Britain found out whether or not their precious little darling had a place at their preferred primary school. On the contents of that letter or email myriad fates were decided and often years of plotting and planning came to fruition.

It is a symptom of our education-obsessed times that obtaining a place in a good or outstanding school has become so loaded for so many.

…

The biggest losers — according to a fascinating report last week by the Sutton Trust, a charity that campaigns to improve social mobility — are poor, bright children. The 500 highest-performing comprehensives, for instance, take only half the national average number of disadvantaged pupils, while prep school pupils are four times more likely than those from a poor background to win a place in a selective school.

In the arms race for the best schools, the children who would benefit most from an excellent school — the ones who don’t come from the kind of homes overflowing with books or don’t have parents who value that kind of scholarly attainment so desperately — are least likely to secure a place.

Read the full article here. (£)