Make grammars tutor-proof

It is suggested that pupils from poor backgrounds be set a lower mark to enter a grammar school, to overcome the unfairness of wealthier parents hiring tutors for their children to pass the 11-plus.

There is no point in grammar schools if some children struggle to keep up there, so that is nonsense: and the sooner we learn that it is a form of child abuse to condemn children with good brains to bad schools, the better. Establishing grammar schools in very deprived areas will ensure poorer children get a better chance – most existing schools are in middle-class areas. But schools should regulate admission using an intuitive reasoning test, such as many top public schools now use to govern entry, and which are tutor-proof.

Above all, if parents want to give their children more chance of success, they should encourage them from an early age to be intellectually curious – which costs nothing.