School 'selection by mortgage' will stop: Poorer pupils to get priority over those living nearby

By Kate Loveys
Updated: 07:43 EST, 27 May 2011

Ministers will today signal an end to ‘selection by mortgage’ by allowing the most popular schools to discriminate in favour of the poorest children. 

A new admissions code will let academies and free schools prioritise children on free school meals – whose parents earn less than £16,000.

Currently, only pupils with special needs, in the care of local councils or with siblings at the school can be given such priority when it is oversubscribed.

Schools will now be able to choose pupils who come from the poorest backgrounds as part of a new admissions code which is revealed today. (Posed by models)

Schools will now be able to choose pupils who come from the poorest backgrounds as part of a new admissions code which is revealed today. (Posed by models)

The move, criticised as an assault on the middle classes, has prompted allegations that the Coalition Government is attempting to socially engineer secondary school admissions.

It will spell an end to well-off parents buying a home in the catchment area of a popular secondary school to secure places for their sons or daughters.

In future, even living right  next door to an oversubscribed school may not guarantee a place for a pupil. In London, property prices can be inflated by as much as £400,000 close to the best institutions.

The announcement today from Education Secretary Michael Gove is likely to trigger a  backlash from many Conservative MPs and the party’s traditional middle-class supporters, who are already angry that the  Coalition has ruled out any return to selection  by ability. 

At present, one third of all secondary schools – 1,070 –  are either an academy or in the process of becoming one.

Two secondaries become academies every day and the Government wants all schools to convert eventually. 

And with many academies heavily over-subscribed – some by ten applications for every place – competition is fierce.

Michael Gove will deliver the proposals today but it is likely to trigger a backlash from many MPs in his own party

Michael Gove will deliver the proposals today but it is likely to trigger a backlash from many MPs in his own party

This year one in five pupils in England missed out on their first choice of school. 

Mr Gove’s proposal will be seen as an attempt to appease Liberal Democrat members of the Coalition, who have pushed existing plans to boost funding for underprivileged children.  The Education Secretary believes the change will provide a vital boost for social mobility. 

Whitehall sources close to Mr Gove yesterday stressed any change would not be ‘prescriptive’, and schools would simply be permitted to admit children entitled to free school meals in preference to others if they wished to do so. 

However, Mr Gove is also introducing incentives for schools to select more poor pupils – the pupil premium and a new performance measure. 

Under the pupil premium, schools will receive extra funding based on the number of pupils on free school meals. 

And a new league table performance measure will rank schools on the achievements of their most disadvantaged youngsters. 

These incentives will encourage in-demand schools to select poorer pupils over those from wealthier backgrounds who may live on the doorstep.

But schools wishing to prioritise disadvantaged children  will have to consult the community first, as is the case with  any changes to admissions criteria.

In addition to the controversial new criteria, today’s code will give priority to the children of serving troops – of which there are some 35,000.

These children will be able to queue-jump during the application process and will be accepted at ‘full’ primary schools.

The code will also enable selective schools to expand, by removing caps on the number of places they can offer. 

Many grammars are intending to increase their capacity by as much as 50 per cent by 2015, which will make a selective education more accessible. 

Mr Gove’s move follows a report by the Sutton Trust which found England had moved from ‘selection by ability’ to ‘selection by mortgage’.

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