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School leaders lack awareness of the extent to which poorer pupils are being shut out of top-performing state schools, a social mobility charity has warned.

There is “mounting evidence” that too many teachers are not aware of social segregation in schools and that leaders often do not know how to tackle it, a report from the Sutton Trust says.

The report, Admissions Not Impossible, says 34 per cent of school staff agreed that there is a problem with income-based segregation in non-selective state school admissions.

Awareness was lowest in schools with the fewest disadvantaged pupils, Teacher Tapp polling carried out for the charity also shows.

A third of staff in the most advantaged schools agreed there is a problem, compared with 38 per cent in the most disadvantaged schools.

The report says this suggests that those who “benefit” from social segregation are least likely to be aware of it.

It also cites previous polling showing that 68 per cent of school leaders thought there was no segregation problem at their own school.

Wealthier pupils ‘more likely to access top schools’

The charity has launched a tool, named the , to help schools and trusts review their admissions policies.

It said a pupil not eligible for free school meals (FSM) living in the catchment area of a high-attaining school is around 50 per cent more likely to attend that school than a pupil eligible for FSM.

Around two-thirds of the gap in FSM levels between the highest-attaining schools and the average school is attributable to “social selectivity within catchment”, rather than simply the fact that some top schools are located in more affluent areas, the report says.

At the highest-attaining schools, 34 per cent of pupils come from the most affluent neighbourhoods, compared with 10 per cent from the least affluent neighbourhoods.

A student from the most affluent neighbourhoods is almost twice as likely to attend a high-attaining school as those from the least affluent neighbourhoods, even within the same catchment area, the report states.

“One of the challenges in making admissions fairer is that many school leaders still lack awareness of the problem of social segregation, what causes it and what the potential solutions are,” it says.

School leaders are also “especially prone to a lack of recognition that there may be an issue in their own school”, the report adds.

Housing ‘not the only factor’

School staff often see the housing market as the main cause of the problem, the report states, with 77 per cent saying that where families can afford to live is the main contributing factor.

However, the Sutton Trust says this “overlooks” the role of school admissions policies, adding that 88 per cent of schools rely heavily on proximity in their oversubscription criteria.

It also warns that low-income parents may make school choices shaped by financial limits, travel costs or a belief that their child will not get into a preferred school.

The charity says schools should make themselves more welcoming to these families.

Schools urged to review admissions

The Sutton Trust says schools and trusts should complete an annual “fair access review” as part of their inclusion strategy. This would include assessing whether their intake reflects their local community.

It also recommends that schools develop an admissions strategy overseen by a member of senior leadership and a governor.

It suggests embedding fair admissions as part of a school’s culture and “moral purpose”, rather than treating admissions as a compliance exercise.

Schools should also consider introducing a pupil premium priority in oversubscription criteria, so that disadvantaged pupils receive greater priority for places, the Sutton Trust says.

Schools have been allowed to prioritise pupils eligible for the pupil premium since 2014, but only 42 non-selective state comprehensives were using this factor in 2023, according to the report.

The charity has also urged schools to take a “wider view” of admissions by reducing the cost of attending school, promoting FSM and free school transport, and ensuring admissions information is clear, accessible and widely available.

The charity found that 41 per cent of the most deprived schools ensured that all communications on FSM support, behaviour and special educational needs and disabilities strategies were written in simple language, compared with 26 per cent of the most affluent schools.

In its schools White Paper, published in February, the government announced that it will consult on changes to the school admissions code to “promote fairness for all families”, particularly the most disadvantaged and children with additional needs.

Proposals include requiring schools to give parents more information about in-year admission decisions, requiring schools to set out more details about how their arrangements work and tightening rules to ensure that banding produces representative intakes.

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