99 of our 100 top state schools are grammars
ALMOST every state school topping Government league tables for achievement is a grammar, it emerged yesterday.
Of the top 100 non-private schools in England for GCSE results last summer, 99 are selective.
The data suggests grammar schools, which have entrance exams and take only the very top pupils in their areas, are still scooping the best grades.
While the results are unsurprising, they are likely to reignite calls from campaigners to roll out more grammar schools, especially in deprived areas.
Many parents of bright children want them to obtain an academic education which is more rigorous than that available to them at a comprehensive school.
Other statistics show that migrant children now do better in their GCSEs than their Britishborn counterparts. Those who speak English as a second language are half a point ahead of native speakers at age 16, according to an analysis of last year’s exams by the Department for Education.
This achievement is all the more remarkable since many of these children struggled in primary school because they were still learning English.
Alan Smithers, professor of education at Buckingham University, said: ‘Leaving your own country for another means you are likely to have a bit of get-up-and-go about you. Too many British-born children take the good life for granted and regard school as a bit of a chore.’
On the top state schools, the table for achievement is headed by Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead, North London, followed by the Tiffin Girls’ School in Kingston, South-West London.
In third place is Queen Elizabeth’s School in Barnet, North London, and in fourth is King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys in Birmingham.
The one comprehensive to make the top 100 was Dame Alice Owen’s School in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, in 79th place. It is listed as a comprehensive in the data, although its website says the school selects 65 children out of 200 each year based on aptitude.
Grammars were also disproportionately represented among the top schools for progress made, with 29 selective schools in the top 100 on this measure, along with 68 comprehensives.
With only 163 grammar schools in England, it means that almost a fifth of them made it on to the list.
Jim Skinner, chief executive of the Grammar School Heads’ Association, said: ‘It’s reassuring. It shows that not only are students in selective schools achieving highly, they are making very good progress from the high levels they enter the school with.’
Last year Theresa May was forced to abandon plans for a new wave of grammars to help bright children from less privileged backgrounds.
She wanted to overturn a ban on new grammars imposed by Tony Blair in 1997, but this idea was dropped when she lost her Commons majority in the election.