MPs demand reform as selective London schools turn away local children

Bright local children are being turned away from "super-selective" schools in London because of a surge in out-of-borough pupils gaining places, warn MPs.

They are now demanding reforms to the schools admission system to favour children living nearby.
The concerns of many parents in south-west London and other parts of the capital were raised by MPs Tom Brake of Carshalton and Wallington and Paul Burstow of Sutton and Cheam.

They highlighted how schools such as Sutton Grammar, Nonsuch, Wilson's and Wallington Boys and Girls have become "regional or sub-regional" in their intake of pupils.
"These schools are super-selective," said Mr Burstow. "You have to be the brightest of the bright to have a chance of getting in."

He said highly academic schools have over the years gradually abandoned catchment area policies, adding: "They no longer have the connection to their local communities."

The MPs' demand comes as tens of thousands of parents across London wait nervously to hear whether their children have been accepted for a selective or other school of their choice.

After rises to private school fees, more parents have resorted to paying tutors up to £160 a month to boost their children's chances of gaining a place at a selective school in Sutton, Kingston, Barnet, Bexley and other boroughs.

But Liberal Democrat Mr Burstow said: "Private coaching is a great way of excluding many who can't afford it. That is now happening in Sutton."

Mr Brake, the Lib-Dem shadow London minister, said that in some selective schools in Sutton only a quarter of new pupils were local.

"Children from all over London and the South-East are piling off trains at Carshalton and other local stations," he told a Commons education debate. "It is not right that the borough should have to tell parents who are Sutton council taxpayers that their children cannot be offered a place in a Sutton school."

The two MPs called for local pupils to be given priority over others from farther afield. Schools minister Iain Wright stressed that the Children, Schools and Families Bill, currently going through Parliament, would require town halls to carry out annual surveys of parents for their views on school admissions.

"Grammar schools can lower their testing pass mark to help accommodate some of the concerns, or they can set a percentage to let more pupils from the local area be admitted," he added.

But Mr Brake said councils could not make foundation or voluntary-aided schools change their admission policies and were restricted by law on refusing places to pupils from other boroughs.