HEADTEACHERS have warned it is becoming “more difficult” not to give extra coaching as demanded by council chiefs for the 11+ exam.

State sector heads said primary school children from poorer backgrounds were being disadvantaged because extra coaching is not encouraged in state primary schools.

This is despite coaching having “significant benefits”.

There are concerns that private preparatory schools focus more on passing the 11+ than the state sector, giving affluent children more chance of getting into grammar schools.

It comes as the council prepares to consider changing the 11+ exam and gears up for a probe into the controversial system.

A private document also shows Buckinghamshire County Council has been accused by one head of showing double standards by selling 11+ coaching materials from its libraries.

Minutes of a closed council meeting of heads, seen by Bucks Free Press, state: “Concerns were raised that coaching was creating a more uneven playing field, disadvantaging children from poorer backgrounds.

“It was agreed that it was becoming more difficult for headteachers to discourage coaching when the evidence indicates that there are significant benefits.”

State schools provide five, 20-minute 11+ “familiarisation” sessions, council guidelines say, and extra coaching should not be given.

Schools are warned that breaching this could see tests withdrawn from the school, meaning pupils would have to sit the exams in less familiar surroundings.

The minutes also reveal that Hazlemere Church of England Combined School head Nick Waldron “raised the issue that Bucks libraries were still selling 11+ coaching materials and that the “authority” was displaying double standards”.

Debbie Munday, council admissions manager, said: “Schools have other things to be doing let alone spending every hour doing these.”

Any coaching materials would not be approved by the council and should therefore not be used, she said. She said she believed schools were not providing extra coaching.

But Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: “Coaching is a fact of life because there are not enough grammar school places.

“As long as not too much time is spent on it, it should be up to schools whether they coach the children or not.

“In a free society officialdom can’t say “you can’t coach children certain things”.”

The February 11 minutes of the Headteachers Admissions Working Group also show an educational psychologist has been asked by BCC to “look at the format of the 11+ verbal reasoning tests and consider possible alternative methods of testing”.

And an overview and scrutiny committee, a watchdog made up of councillors, would be “looking at the entire 11+ process, including the tests”.

The news comes as the council announced it will widen the catchment area for John Hampden Grammar School, High Wycombe, to accommodate boys from Gerrards Cross and Denham.