12:00pm Friday 3rd July 2009
By Oliver Evans
ONE in ten of south Buckinghamshire’s poorest children from state primary schools passed the 11+ last year – compared to about one in two from the wealthiest backgrounds.
A total of 26 out of 336 from “hard pressed” backgrounds made the grade, eight per cent, official figures show.
Yet 643 out of 1,553 “wealthiest achievers” from the state system passed the exam, a total of 45 per cent.
It means 68 per cent of those who passed are from the wealthiest category. These make up 45 per cent of the population who attended state primaries.
Three per cent who passed were the poorest. They made up ten per cent of the population.
A leading critic of the grammar school system said the figures showed how cash influenced results, as parents paid for private coaching, restricted in state schools.
But a head defended the system.
The pass rate was three per cent for the next social group, those from “moderate means”.
Children from “comfortably off” backgrounds make up 20 per cent of passes and 30 per cent of youngsters.
Those from “urban prosperity” – who make up five per cent of children – got six per cent of passes.
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John Barlow, agent for Wycombe Labour Party, said: “If you can afford private coaching for your children then their likelihood of passing the 11+ is substantially increased.”
He said the results were a “formalisation” of a statement to the Bucks Free Press last year by education chief Marion Clayton that wealth influenced success.
Her comments, which provoked a storm of debate, said: “There’s clear evidence that children from less affluent areas do less well.”
This “doesn’t mean to say that children are failures,” she said.
Yet Stephen Nokes, head of John Hampden Grammar School, High Wycombe said: “In our particular school we took a wide range of students. A significant number are working class.”
And he said the Buckinghamshire County Council’s Schools Forum, which he chairs, spends “a lot of money to try and help close the gap” between rich and poor.
Janet Sparrow, Buckinghamshire County Council's Access and Inclusion Manager, said: "Pupils' achievement at the 11-plus mirrors children's achievement at the end of Key Stage 2 so our focus is on working with primary schools to tackle this.
"Children in Buckinghamshire from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve results in line with children from similar backgrounds nationwide. Buckinghamshire children are certainly not doing worse than those elsewhere. However, the disparity arises because children from more affluent backgrounds achieve significantly better results than pupils from equivalent social categories across the country.
"It is a key council priority for us to close this gap and we are working to raise the achievement levels of children from disadvantaged backgrounds at primary schools, employing all aspects of national strategies to support this aim."
The figures for state primary schools in Wycombe, South Bucks and Chiltern districts, also show how pass rate varies according to ethnicity.
This was 28.1 per cent for white children and 29.7 for Asian, 13.5 black, 21.55 mixed and 73.2 Chinese.
The council said prosperity, not race, drove results.
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