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New 11-plus exams in Buckinghamshire ‘reinforce disadvantage’

Impoverished kids are missing out on grammar school places despite claims that new 11-plus exams are “tutor proof,” a new report said yesterday.

The introduction of the entrance exams for grammar schools in Buckinghamshire was supposed to stop posh kids — whose parents can pay for extra lessons — gaining an unfair advantage. 

But a new report by local teachers and education campaigners has revealed that grammar schools remain unfair. 

“Far from increasing social mobility, Bucks’s selective system is simply reinforcing existing patterns of disadvantage,” said report author Rebecca Hickman.

Children who receive free school meals and those from a Pakistani background are least likely to be selected.

Those who attended private schools in the county are almost three times more likely to pass than their peers who attend state schools. 

“It is a system of winners and losers that has created one of the biggest attainment gaps in the country — with the children who most need our help losing the most,” Ms Hickman said.

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