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November 21, 2007

Comments

Dipper

some counties have retained selection and some haven't. Surely there must now be a load of data to analyse selection at 11?

Bob B

Another inconvenient truth:

The London Borough of Sutton has a cluster of outstanding maintained selective schools - of which no less than five feature in the top 40 (forty) state secondary schools in England according to this recent league table from The Sunday Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/parentpower/league_tables.php?t=state_secondary_schools

The continuing consequence is that the London Borough of Sutton rates at the top or close to the top of the regular annual league table of Local Education Authorities because the effect of the outstanding selective schools is to boost the AVERAGE attainment across all Sutton schools in the school leaving exams:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6250433.stm

There is a regular myth that Sutton is unusually affluent. It isn't. Data on household income distributions in the London boroughs, posted on the official website of the London Councils, shows that the parameters for income distribution in Sutton are very close to the AVERAGE for all London councils - namely, 21% of Sutton households have a household income less than £15k (compared with 22% for London); 53% have a household income less than £30k (53% for London); and 85% have a household income less than £60k (85% for London).
http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/doc.asp?doc=19944

By these official DfES statistics, the percentage of Sutton residents with graduate (level 4) qualifications is above the average for England but below the average for London:
http://www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/STA/t000747/index.shtml

Nik Khat

@Dipper Yes there is a ton of data. If it "proved" the case for "social mobility" and a "better" overall education don't you think they pro 11plus crowd would be shouting it from the rooftops? In fact in Buckinghamshire the opposite is true - all the data shows ethnic minorities & white children from deprived areas do badly - that is they don't get in to Grammar schools.To compound the disparity only 1 or 2 of the many "upper" schools is above the national average.

Remember by definition in a selective system the vast majority 70-80% of children will go to Upper schools.

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