Bucks County Council rightly says it has one of the widest gaps between the attainment of children from poorer families in Bucks and their peers. What it didn’t provide are the figures. These show that 70 per cent of pupils in Bucks got five good GCSEs in 2011/12. However, only 35 per cent of pupils from poorer families got five good GCSEs.

Nor did BCC say that the Government’s Schools Minister blamed schools in Bucks, saying their record was a “disgrace”.

He said: “Schools in the most affluent parts of England are failing pupils from poor families, who are getting better exam results in deprived areas.” Children from poorer families would do better if they went to schools in Manchester or parts of inner London.

What the Minister fails to understand is the gap in attainment is not between deprived children and their peers in the same school. It is not the schools that are failing our children. The gap is between the children who go to schools at the top of the league table (which are the grammar schools) and those who go to schools at the bottom (which are not). Children who go to the grammar schools are from relatively affluent families (only three per cent of children in grammar school are eligible for free school meals). Children from poorer families overwhelmingly go to other schools (schools at the bottom of the league table have up to 50 per cent of their children eligible for school meals).

It is the two-tier, 11-plus system in Bucks which is failing our poorer children. It selects children at 11 and sends the more affluent to high-performing schools and the poorer children to the worst performing schools. Poorer children do not get selected for the top tier.

Bucks County Council needs to face up to the failure of its system and move toward non-selective education in Bucks.

Mark Ferris, Education Spokesperson, Wycombe Labour Party