Part of Fairer Schools: Three Asks for Andy Burnham: three practical reforms to make school admissions fairer and move England closer to a truly comprehensive education system.

Collect and publish information about who takes and passes the 11-plus

What we’re asking the government to do

First, collect the information: record who registers for, sits and passes the 11-plus, and link those individual test records to the National Pupil Database so approved researchers can study access to selective schools. Then publish it: the Department for Education should publish figures in a consistent format, and grammar schools and other schools that use academic tests should make their own figures easy to find on their websites.

The figures would show how many children registered, sat and passed the test, and how many were offered places, with breakdowns by pupil group, including free school meal eligibility and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Small groups would be protected, and individual children’s results would stay private. This would cover both grammar schools and the 11-plus tests used by partially selective schools.

If government is not ready to collect individual records, a first step would be for schools to report simple totals of how many pupils applied and how many were admitted, with their own data on FSM and SEND pupils.

Why it matters

Grammar schools often point to individual success stories, but families can’t see the overall picture. Government publishes some data on who ends up at a grammar school, but not who sits the test, who qualifies, or who is turned away along the way. Without that, the idea that grammar schools open doors for local children regularly goes unchallenged. We know that very few disadvantaged children get into grammar schools, but the public often believes grammar schools work well for poorer children. While these problematic schools are allowed to exist, they should be made to publish clear, factual, information about who accesses them.

If 11-plus data linked to national pupil records this  would also answer questions nobody can answer today. Are disadvantaged children less likely to sit the test in the first place? Are children with SEND less likely to qualify? Of those who qualify, who goes on to get a place?

Families should be able to find answers for their own area. Researchers need to be able to follow each stage of access to grammar schools, so they can see where barriers arise.

What the evidence tells us

Where data exists, it shows why this matters. Data was obtained from Kent County Council in 2017, and a 2026 study found that, among high-attaining pupils, 84% of those not eligible for free school meals sat the 11-plus, compared with just 56% of those who were.

Grammar schools run many different 11-plus tests, and no one knows much about the differences between each. In rare situations, councils, like Kent, manage 11-plus testing, but they refuse any useful data requests and will not match test results to information about pupils. We are including partially selective schools in the scope of this request because not a single partially selective school we asked knew how many free-school-meal pupils gained places through their test route. A consistent national approach would show how different groups of children fare in the 11-plus, and allow research to compare what happens across areas.

In 2021, academics and education researchers backed Comprehensive Future’s open letter calling for 11-plus results to be linked to the National Pupil Database. We’re renewing that call and asking for clear local figures that anyone can read.

Support for this proposal

“Over the last few decades, almost all aspects of our schools have come to be captured in national datasets. An exception to this is the 11-plus, which remains strangely secretive. Integrating the 11-plus into the National Pupil Database would bring it into line with other important exams and support better research on this highly consequential feature of our school system.”
— Dr Sam Sims, Associate Professor, UCL

“At the moment we have no idea which pupils take the 11+, let alone the scores they achieve. This means we cannot assess the fairness of the tests with respect to pupil characteristics such as disadvantage either in terms of which pupils are accessing the tests or which pupils are passing them.”
— Dave Thomson, Chief Statistician, FFT Education Datalab

“I strongly support CF’s campaign to collect and publish information about who takes and passes the 11+ with the information linked to the National Pupil Database. This is desirable both on grounds of transparency and accountability and on grounds of understanding and enhancement of assessments.”
— Professor Roger Brown, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education Policy

“The National Pupil Database is the primary tool by which social scientists can help to untangle the knotty connections between social background, education and social mobility. Without data about the 11+, we can’t answer with any precision the crucial questions of what relationship success on the 11+ bears to social background and to future social trajectories. This seems the least to ask of any government that wants ‘evidence-based policy’, which should be any government.”
— Professor Peter Mandler FBA, historian and former Professor of Modern Cultural History, University of Cambridge

“I would like to put on record that the NPD needs to identify pupils who apply to take the 11-plus and then record successful admissions. Ideally, it should also record 11-plus scores, although I appreciate this may not be feasible because these tests are not part of the national testing strategy. However, all grammar schools should be required to indicate the pupils who applied for admission and those who were successfully admitted. This is both feasible and crucial for understanding patterns of fairness of admission to grammar schools.”
— Professor Nadia Siddiqui FAcSS, Durham University

“As a researcher in a relevant field, I and colleagues feel that it is important that 11+ test results in England are made publicly available in an anonymised form. Linked to the National Pupil Database (also anonymous and supplied by secure research sites) this would be a very valuable resource for the understanding and improvement of education, to the benefit of society.”
— Professor Stephen Gorard, Professor of Education and Public Policy, Durham University

Also supporting this proposal: Professor Steve Strand OBE, Professor of Education, University of Oxford, Alice Sullivan, Professor of Sociology at the UCL Social Research Institute.

What we’re doing

We’re using Freedom of Information requests to find out what test and admissions data is already held. We’ll produce a model report showing how schools and the Department for Education could present 11-plus information clearly, and press the government to act.

Explore our other proposals

End academic selection in partially selective schools

Review the impact of the 11-plus on children’s wellbeing