Critics say disadvantaged children are losing out in England as selective schools find creative ways to poach students
It’s a glorious late autumn day at Herne Bay high school in Kent, and boys and girls in red tops are playing sport on neat artificial pitches, but the principal, Jon Boyes, is looking into the distance, pointing out a piece of land on the other side of the road. If the local authority could be persuaded to buy it, he says, maybe he could squeeze in a much-needed new sixth-form centre.
The school, a secondary modern – a non-selective school in a selective authority – is heavily oversubscribed, and a huge housing development next to the school is about to bring yet more pupils to the door.
