Commenting on today’s report on grammar schools from the Education Select Committee, Sir Peter Lampl, Founder and Chairman of the Sutton Trust and Chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said:

“The Education Select Committee is right to urge better evidence that new grammar schools can close the attainment gap. Our research has shown that less than 3% of grammar school entrants are eligible for free school meals, compared to 18% in their catchment areas. Too few low and middle income pupils get into existing grammar schools.

“Until existing grammar schools demonstrate they can be vehicles for social mobility, the number of grammar schools should not be increased.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

  1. The Sutton Trust is a foundation set up in 1997, dedicated to improving social mobility through education. It has published over 180 research studies and funded and evaluated programmes that have helped hundreds of thousands of young people of all ages, from early years through to access to the professions.
  2. Following Government proposals to overturn the existing ban on new grammar schools and extend selective education, the Education Committee held an ‘evidence check’ hearing with the Department for Education, academics and policy experts on Tuesday 8 November 2016.
  3. Evidence check: Grammar schools is available on the Education Committee website.
  4. Gaps in Grammar, the Sutton Trust’s latest research on access to selective schools in England, found that both pupils eligible for free school meals and those from Just About Managing (JAMs) families are significantly under-represented at grammars. A pupil attending a private prep school is ten times more likely to enter a grammar than a pupil on free school meals.