Kent, Bucks, Lincs and other selective areas look like hotbeds of inclusive education – if you take away the grammar schools!
The Sutton Trust’s new project ‘Social Selection on the Map‘ is an interesting study reviewing the socio-economic profile of secondary school intakes and how they reflect their local area. The researchers decided not to put grammar schools on their map by default, creating an odd state of affairs where fully selective areas, like Kent and Bucks, are shaded as if they are counties full of inclusive schools!
Of course this isn’t the case, there is social segregation in every selective county. If you click the check box to add grammars back into the equation it’s clear that selective areas are highly segregated.
Although much of the study ignores grammars to compare only non-selective schools, one of the key findings of the report is, ‘Grammar schools contribute particularly strongly to segregation in areas with high levels of academic selection.’
The Sutton Trust’s report accompanying the map lists the local authority areas with the most and least segregated schools. Torbay is listed as the ‘least segregated’ council area, but when grammar schools are included it jumps 127 places to become the 24th most segregated area in the country. The dream Torbay, with no grammar schools is an inclusive place, but the selective reality is very different.
Many highly selective authorities change rankings dramatically when grammars are put back in the equation. Trafford, Southend-on-Sea, Bexley and Wirral occupy the top 4 positions in the list of most segregated areas when grammars are considered. They all have higher scores than the most segregated authority in the comprehensive-only analysis. Slough, Medway and Buckinghamshire similarly jump from the bottom to the top, with moves of around 100 places in the rankings. The report says, ‘The extent of socioeconomic selection in grammar school intakes means they have a dramatic effect on social segregation in schools in the areas where they exist.”
This is the Sutton Trust’s top 10 most segregated council rankings with grammar schools included. The selective areas are coloured red.
1. Trafford
2. Southend-on-Sea
3. Bexley
4. Wirral
5. Solihull
6. Kent
7. Plymouth
8. Buckinghamshire
9. Warrington
10. Newcastle upon Tyne
As you can see 7 of the most segregated areas in the country are selective.
We fully support the Sutton Trust’s campaign for all schools to consider their admissions, whether they are grammars or non-selective schools. All governing bodies should look at whether their intake is representing the local community, and consider whether their admission strategy is encouraging or discouraging poorer families. There are numerous factors that make schools in Solihull, Plymouth, Newcastle, and other socially selective areas, problematic, including faith schools and patches of expensive housing making up a catchment. It’s also possible that stark Ofsted grades of ‘outstanding’ and ‘requires improvement’ have defined school reputation and impacted parental choice, leading to wealthy motivated parents pushing for an ‘outstanding’ school and paying for transport to reach it, while poorer parents are much more limited in the choices they can make. It will be interesting to see if school segregation decreases with greater awareness of problem admissions, and no more Ofsted one word judgements giving estate agents licence to put up house prices.
Read more about the Sutton Trust’s Social Selection on the Map project here, and learn about their Fair Admission Pledge here.
