15,000 pupils pass the 11-plus but fail to get a grammar school place

The remaining 6,100 or so children were turned away because they did not meet other entry criteria as closely as those who were offered places, such as the distance they live from the school.

A small number of pupils who applied for and sat more than one test will be included in the figures.

They do not include children who have narrowly missed a place at "superselective" schools, which only take the top performers and do not have a pass mark.

If a similar number of eligible pupils are being rejected from the other 108 grammars in the country, it would mean that nearly 20 more establishments would be needed to meet the demand for places from about 15,000 extra students.

Bob McCartney, the chairman of the Grammar Schools Association, said: "These statistics demonstrate the great demand for grammar schools compared to the small number of places available and the unfairness to children who are qualified to fill them but are denied a place.

"The Government continues to blatantly ignore parental choice. Its approach is based on political motivation and not the pursuit of education excellence."

New Government admissions rules introduced last month make it easier for oversubscribed schools to expand or even establish "overflow" or "satellite" schools nearby.

However, there is no new capital funding for buildings and it is unclear whether a "satellite" grammar school would contravene the 1998 legal ban against the setting up of new selective schools.

Wallington High School for Girls, in Sutton, received 1,400 applications for 180 places and had to turn away more than 300 pupils who passed the 11 plus.

Barbara Greatorex, the head teacher, said: "I just think it is a shame that the opportunities that grammar schools afford are not more widespread. Most grammar schools are so oversubscribed that they take as many pupils as they possibly can but without capital funding, they do not have the space to take more."

But the admission rule changes have offered renewed hope in some areas which do not have grammar schools or have an acute shortage of places, such as Sevenoaks in Kent.

Plan are under discussion for existing grammar schools in Tonbridge and Tonbridge Wells to establish campuses for the 1,100 Sevenoaks children who travel about nine miles everyday to grammar schools in other towns.

Michael Fallon, the Sevenoaks MP, said: "The cost and time spent transporting these children is a huge waste and there is growing demand for grammar school places beyond that, including a big new housing development in north Sevenoaks.

"Parents, primary schools, head teachers are increasingly vocal about the need and the county council is supportive.

"We are actively exploring the establishment of a campus of two existing grammars and there is definite interest."

A Department for Education spokesman said: "We're giving all schools the freedom to offer more places but they will not be getting money from the department to expand."

Ministers are instead funding new free schools. An extra ￡600 million to build 100 more free schools will be announced in Tuesday's autumn statement.

Private schools have a 'moral duty' to their pupils - not the Government's academies

The history of education in the UK is a history of private success and public failure.

Research regularly tells us the best education systems in the world are those with little central interference.

This is not the model I see in the academies and free schools initiatives.

Over the years state education has become less about children and more about the fortunes of governments and individual ministers.

Schools have become caught up in an unseemly web of legislation that blows this way and that.

The independent school model works because it responds to a fundamental right and a fundamental responsibility.

Parents have the right to have their children educated as well as possible. They therefore have the responsibility to pay for it.

The partnership between hard-working parents, motivated students and committed schools has ensured no stakeholder rests on their laurels.

The freedom of schools as charities to charge fees in order to make a surplus means investment can be made in a school’s provision.

It is a virtuous cycle. Introducing the state into the equation removes motivation of all parties.

The over-involvement of government in many areas of our lives is a socialist hang-over that has infantilised the nation for generations.

All that has resulted is a lacklustre parade of cheap and low quality provision funded by an agency, the state, which has failed to create successful and lasting change in the way children are educated.

I believe the state, among many things unrelated to education, is there for the most vulnerable. It is there for those who cannot help themselves.

I am the first in line to pay my dues to a government that will lavish care on the unloved, the problematic and often unruly in our society.

That is the original philosophy of the Welfare State.

Dr Seldon says the perceived difficulties associated with fee-paying schools sponsoring academies “need not be burdensome” and the practical difficulties “are much exaggerated”.

As I see it, transforming a failing school or starting a new one is a Sisyphean task.

If an independent school wants to sponsor an academy properly, they need to invest time and energy into it.

If the practical difficulties are easily overcome, the task is not challenging enough and the reward not worth the effort.

We do not have money to spare to send teachers and deputies to form schools elsewhere. And we are behoven to our parents who are already paying twice for education.

As regards private schools “perpetuating social divides”, I want rather to perpetuate the right sort of divide – where the deserving are rewarded and the indolent do not prosper.

However we have lost sight of what a genuine meritocracy is.

Too many do well because of unearned advantage. Others expect help when they are unwilling to give of themselves.

By making education something all parents buy into and make sacrifices for, we have more chance of seeing motivated pupils and united families working towards common goals.

The engine room of the private sector is the hard working school that has to pull together a tough budget each year and strain every sinew to ensure that the educational offering is as high quality as it could be.

It is a tough ask, because they live in an unpredictable and unstable environment and must deliver or die.

As I walk the corridors of my school, I am acutely aware of the sacrifice families are making in financial terms to enjoy the first class education we offer. I am under pressure, as are my fantastic colleagues, to give value for money.

It has created, in the vast number of cases, a co-operation between parent and school for the success of those children in my care. It works. And it has worked here at Taunton School for 164 years.

I often get told independent schools do not live `in the real world’ and commercial organisations know all about survival in tough economic conditions.

Yet I know of few organisations that have lasted more than 100 years.

However, I know of dozens and dozens of fee-charging independent schools who have thrived and been successful over generations.

I believe education should be paid for – yes with a contribution through the tax system from the Government, called by many a voucher scheme.

Otherwise, parents should be allowed to top up what they want and go where they choose.

Schools, logically, would be free to teach and deliver as they please, and charge whatever top up they saw fit.

An inspectorate would guarantee basic standards. Such vouchers would be allowable also at independent schools.

A marketplace develops.

Competition between schools ensues. Schools improve or go under.

Parents see where their hard earned money is going.

Parents are more likely to work better together as a family for the good of their children if they are paying for their education.

‧ Dr John Newton is the Headmaster of Taunton School.

University admissions: best pupils 'losing out'

Some admissions chiefs like to get a range of abilities and skills on their courses and so make a range of offers.

Academically strong pupils with higher predicted grades may therefore have to get higher grades to secure a place, while those predicted lower grades may get lower offers if they can persuade admissions staff they have other qualities.

The problem is that the admissions systems vary considerably and are complicated, according to the report in the Times Educational Supplement.

A pupil predicted three top grades at A-level may be made an offer of AAA, whereas a candidate expected to achieve As and Bs may be offered AAB or ABB for the same course.

Roberta Georghiou, the head of Bury Grammar School for Girls in Greater Manchester and co-chairman of the Independent Schools’ Universities Committee, said: “The danger is that universities admit candidates who are unable to capitalise on the opportunity they have been offered, while others who meet the criteria are excluded.”

Pia Pollock, the admissions policy adviser at Manchester University, said: “Some of our academic schools use what we call a range of offers to ensure that they recruit and select the best students.” Lower offers were made to candidates unlikely to achieve the highest grades if they could convince staff that they had the potential to succeed, she added.

Details of the variation in admission systems were laid bare in a Freedom of Information Act request.

“Students and their teachers are being put in a difficult position by the complexity of the university admissions system and the lack of predictable patterns, with each university setting its own rules,” said Dr William Richardson, the general secretary of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference.

University admissions: best pupils 'losing out'

Some admissions chiefs like to get a range of abilities and skills on their courses and so make a range of offers.

Academically strong pupils with higher predicted grades may therefore have to get higher grades to secure a place, while those predicted lower grades may get lower offers if they can persuade admissions staff they have other qualities.

The problem is that the admissions systems vary considerably and are complicated, according to the report in the Times Educational Supplement.

A pupil predicted three top grades at A-level may be made an offer of AAA, whereas a candidate expected to achieve As and Bs may be offered AAB or ABB for the same course.

Roberta Georghiou, the head of Bury Grammar School for Girls in Greater Manchester and co-chairman of the Independent Schools’ Universities Committee, said: “The danger is that universities admit candidates who are unable to capitalise on the opportunity they have been offered, while others who meet the criteria are excluded.”

Pia Pollock, the admissions policy adviser at Manchester University, said: “Some of our academic schools use what we call a range of offers to ensure that they recruit and select the best students.” Lower offers were made to candidates unlikely to achieve the highest grades if they could convince staff that they had the potential to succeed, she added.

Details of the variation in admission systems were laid bare in a Freedom of Information Act request.

“Students and their teachers are being put in a difficult position by the complexity of the university admissions system and the lack of predictable patterns, with each university setting its own rules,” said Dr William Richardson, the general secretary of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference.

Pupils 'woefully undernourished' in history, Gove says

Teacher training courses will be reformed to put more focus on behaviour management and reading?Photo: ALAMY

In a speech today, he says he is "startled" by the narrowness of the topics pupils end up studying in history.

English exam boards only offer pupils the chance to study the "modern world" or the "schools history project", he claims.

"I'm an unashamed and unapologetic advocate for the central role of history in our curriculum," Mr Gove says.

"Which is why I'm genuinely worried that - despite the best efforts of brilliant history teachers, gifted academics and the television and publishing executives who've helped to popularise history - our curriculum and examinations system mean that children thirsting to know more about our past leave school woefully undernourished."

He cites a recent survey which found around half of English 18-to-24-year-olds are unaware that Nelson led the British to victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, and a similar proportion of young people did not know that the Romans built Hadrian's Wall.

Mr Gove said: "The number of pupils taking history GCSE has fallen by 8% since 1995. There's a stark class divide, with fewer than a third of 16-year-olds taking the subject in maintained schools, compared with half in independent schools.

"But more startling than the numbers of pupils opting - or failing to opt for - history GCSE is the narrowness of the topics pupils actually end up studying. The Government doesn't specify which periods of history GCSE should cover, but the English exam boards only offer two choices: either the 'Modern World,' or the 'Schools History Project'."

A-level results: private school pupils monopolise top grades

Pupils from private schools were more likely to gain top grades in this summer's A-levels, according to the Department for Education.?Photo: PA/Gareth Fuller

Data published today shows almost 32 per cent of teenagers in the private sector gained three A or A* grades this summer compared with just over eight per cent in mixed-ability state schools.

At the same time, fewer than one-in-20 students taking exams in further education colleges and one-in-10 candidates from sixth-forms were awarded a string of top grades.

It puts private school pupils at a huge advantage when applying for Britain's elite universities which increasingly fail to consider candidates unless they score at least three As.

Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister, branded the figures “astonishing” and suggested thousands of children were being left behind.

"We must close this gap - which is why we are driving up teaching standards across the profession and developing a world-class curriculum for all," he said.

He added: "A-levels are a key stepping stone towards higher education and future careers. It's only right that we make sure our qualifications match the best in the world and keep pace with the demands of employers and universities."

Figures published by the Department for Education represent the first full breakdown of A-level results for 381,181 teenagers in England.

According to data, 12.8 per cent of students – almost 48,800 – gained three As nationally. This was the same as last year.

Numbers increased to 31.8 per cent among independent school pupils, compared with 27.5 per cent in selective state grammars, 9.8 per cent in sixth-form colleges, 8.3 per cent in comprehensives and 4.7 per cent in FE colleges.

Boys scored more top grades than girls for the second year running, the figures show. Some 13.1 per cent of boys scored three or more As, compared with 12.5 per cent of girls.

The Government has already indicated that top universities will be able to recruit unlimited numbers of students who gain at least two As and a B next year.

According to the figures, almost 45 per cent did so in independent schools, compared with just under 15 per cent in state comprehensives. This could further tighten private school pupils' grip on sought-after university places.

Data also showed a drop in the number of students gaining at least two A-level passes – from 94.8 to 92.7 per cent.

This comes amid claims that grade boundaries have been toughened up this year following warnings from the Coalition Government against “dumbing down”.