Most have tried to improve their admissions policies but the impact is patchy, BBC analysis finds.
King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls, in Birmingham, has a quota of 25% of places for pupils from the poorest familiesA quarter of England's state grammar schools still let in hardly any poorer children, despite most trying to improve their admissions policies, according to BBC analysis.
There is evidence that these children do less well at GCSE level than those pupils in areas where there are no grammars, only comprehensives,The latest BBC analysis found that in a quarter of the 160 grammar schools, fewer than 5% of children were eligible for pupil premium support - which is linked to free school meals and used as a measure of disadvantage.
"Nobody has said [to me] 'maybe change your career, you might not be able to make it there', which I've heard is the case in a lot of comprehensive schools."Grammar schools now more fairly represent the local communities they serve, says Jodh Dhesi, chief executive of the King Edward VI Foundation. While many areas moved to a comprehensive system in the 1960s and 70s, others including Kent, Essex, Wirral and Lincolnshire have kept a selective system. Northern Ireland also retained them.
Laura, a driving instructor, says the extra hour of study each week for a year definitely helped her son to pass, as did repeated practice tests."I think for someone like Oliver, because he does like being pushed, and stretching himself, being surrounded by like-minded pupils will push him along," she says.
In 2016, when we looked at the admission policies of all 163 grammar schools the majority gave no priority to poorer children in allocating places. A third of grammar schools now have online practice tests available to make it easier for those who don't have access to private tutoring, the Grammar School Heads Association says.The rights and wrongs of the grammar system have been argued over for decades, but in recent years many had acquired a reputation of being posh - quite different from the more classless ideal people remember from the mid-20th Century.
Grammar schools have been expanding for more than a decade, but could that stop if there was a change in government?
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