Sir Peter Lampl, Chairman of the Sutton Trust and of the Education Endowment Foundation said today:

“The government is right to recognise that there is a serious issue about the education of highly able young people from low and middle income backgrounds. Given that there have been 35,000 extra grammar school places since 1997 – and our evidence suggests the existing 163 grammars are largely very socially selective – we need a proper strategy rather than a piecemeal approach.

“That means a national drive to improve education for the highly able in comprehensives, backed by fairer admissions policies in urban schools. It means boosting access to the existing grammars for less advantaged young people. And it means opening up the 100 leading independent day schools on the basis of ability rather than ability to pay.”