Kelly Rose Bradford quoted the Sutton Trust in an article about London comprehensives.

This September, Beatrice Gove, daughter of the Education Secretary, Michael, will begin her secondary education; as will my son, William. Like my son, Beatrice will attend a single-sex school, one with strict discipline policies, rigid uniform regulations and a reputation for achieving outstanding results.

The main difference between the educations that Beatrice and my son will receive, though, is this: I will be paying at least £15,000 a year to send my child to his school, while the Gove family is fortunate enough to have secured a place at the non-fee-paying Grey Coat Hospital Church of England School in Westminster.

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Last year, a report called Selective Comprehensives was published by the Sutton Trust, which works to improve social mobility through education. It stated that some of England’s highest-performing comprehensive schools and academies are “significantly more socially selective than the average state school nationally and other schools in their own localities”.

“Our report showed the top 500 comprehensives took half as many children eligible for free school meals as the average school,” a spokesman tells me. He adds that it is “vital” that all sections of the community are encouraged to apply to “popular” schools.

Read the full article here.