Two top London comprehensive schools were today named as among the best in the country despite taking large numbers of poor pupils.
The Sutton Trust made the announcement as new research by it showed that many of the best performing “non-selective” state schools are dominated by middle-class children.
It called for secondary schools to use lotteries to select pupils to prevent large numbers of places going to the children of parents who can afford to buy homes close to good schools.
The charity, which campaigns for better social mobility, named St Thomas More Catholic School in Haringey and Platanos College in Stockwell as bucking the trend.
The number of children on free school meals at both the schools is way above the average for their areas, yet their GCSE results were also far higher than average.
Martin Tissot, head of St Thomas More, said good discipline was the key to its success, while Judette Tapper, head of Platanos College, said: “We simply continue to work with pupils regardless of where they start. We have an unshakeable belief in our pupils.”
The Sutton Trust found that just 7.6 per cent of children at the 500 best comprehensives in the country are on free school meals — a measure of poverty. Nationally, 16.5 per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals.
Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said: “The bottom line is, how good a school you go to depends on your parents’ income. We have one of the most socially segregated school systems in the developed world.”
