Their findings are sobering and challenging. Less than three per cent of all pupils going to
grammar schools are entitled to free school meals, against an average of 18% in other schools
in the areas where they are located. Moreover, over four times as many children are admitted
to grammar schools from outside the state sector – largely fee-paying preparatory schools
which account for 6% of pupils aged 10 – than children entitled to free school meals.
This picture is one that most grammar schools and supporters of grammar schools should not
be happy about. This report is not an attempt to argue the merits or otherwise of selection or
the continued role of grammar schools but to determine what can be done to make them open
to everyone who can benefit.
Politicians of all parties have accepted that grammar schools are here to stay. While their
numbers are not growing, the number of pupils admitted to them has risen over the last two
decades. Between 1997 and 2009, Parliamentary Questions show that the number of pupils in
grammar schools increased by 30,000 (26%), while research by the House of Commons
Library has shown that the proportion of secondary pupils at grammar schools has risen from
4% in 1995 to 5% in 2012.2
There have been recent moves to develop satellite grammar
school extensions in Kent, which has also announced a new admissions test they believe to be
less coachable.