![\"Sir](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/f8b7a1f8-38cd-407a-a241-8047e0a722a4.jpg\")
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Sir Thomas Rich\u2019s School in Gloucester<\/p>\n
A child applied from Italy to Ripon Grammar School in North Yorkshire in 2019.<\/p>\n
Within the UK, families can apply from hundreds of miles away and move if successful. <\/p>\n
There was a candidate from Manchester for Colchester County High School for Girls in Essex; one from Leeds who applied to Colyton Grammar School in Devon; and one from Wiltshire for Ripon.<\/p>\n
St Olave\u2019s<\/a>, a boys\u2019 grammar in Orpington, southeast London, said: \u201cIn any given year, we typically receive applications from throughout the UK and from applicants living abroad, sometimes from other continents.\u201d<\/p>\n Colchester County High School for Girls<\/p>\n Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at Exeter University, said: \u201cWhen families are travelling hundreds of miles \u2026 to sit an entrance test, it\u2019s a sign that a system originally designed to serve local academic talent is now operating as a national and global race for elite opportunity.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you can\u2019t plan, pay and prepare years in advance, the race is often over before it has even begun. This is no longer just a test of academic potential \u2014 it\u2019s a test of who can dedicate significant resources for the preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n Fewer white British pupils<\/p>\n At 20 of the 22 schools that provided comparable data, the number of white British pupils had fallen from 2019-20 to 2024-25. At 14 of the 20 that did so for children from Indian families, the number had increased; the same was true for 14 of the 18 schools that provided comparable figures for Chinese pupils. The number of black pupils was about the same.<\/p>\n At Queen Elizabeth\u2019s<\/a>, a boys\u2019 grammar school in Barnet, north London, the number of white British pupils in year 7 fell from nine to two in an intake of 192, while the number of those of Indian heritage increased from 103 to 120. The school is opening a private school in India in August and has plans for another in the next couple of years.<\/p>\n Henrietta Barnett<\/a>, a nearby girls\u2019 grammar, took one white British pupil in 2024 and 62 from Indian backgrounds.<\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth\u2019s School was founded in the 16th century<\/p>\n ELEANOR BENTALL<\/p>\n At Pate\u2019s Grammar School in Cheltenham the white British intake fell from 63 to 28 while its Indian-heritage intake increased from 45 to 72. At Sir Thomas Rich\u2019s, white British starters fell from 102 to 53 and those from Indian families doubled from 22 to 45.<\/p>\n At Wallington High School for Girls<\/a> in Sutton, south London, the white British intake fell from 26 to 15 but the ranks of those from Indian heritage swelled from 46 to 67.<\/p>\n Elliot Major said: \u201cWe need to be very cautious about comparing ethnic groups as if they are like-for-like, or treating \u2018white British\u2019 pupils as a single group, when they account for a vast and variable population of pupils. These differences could be due to white British pupils being more likely to come from lower-income households and to live in areas where education has not consistently translated into opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Professor Peter Edwards, a fellow of St Catherine\u2019s College, Oxford, who grew up in a working-class family in Liverpool, said: \u201cWhite children from poorer backgrounds are simply being left behind. The plight of white working-class boys, the largest group of disadvantaged young people in this country, has always been the least fashionable. <\/p>\n \u2022 Disadvantaged white pupils fall furthest behind<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAttempts at drawing attention to this problem have been lazily targeted as so-called \u2018far-right\u2019 political thinking. I have heard comments that the cause of this complex problem is this particular class of young people\u2019s \u2018sense of themselves\u2019. This is simplistic and bigoted. If this country is serious about social mobility, we must target where the attainment gaps are largest.\u201d<\/p>\n Parent power<\/p>\n Although only 40 per cent of schools that provided comparable data faced more appeals from rejected families in 2024 than five years earlier, some of those reported that cases had increased eightfold.<\/p>\n The Good Schools Guide advises parents that they must \u201csupply compelling evidence showing that the child is of grammar school ability, and evidence to back up claims that your child\u2019s performance was affected by events on the day or immediately prior to the test\u201d.<\/p>\n Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys<\/a> in Kent opened an annexe in Sevenoaks in 2021, increasing its annual admissions from 210 to 300. In 2024 it was instructed to take another 20 pupils after successful parental appeals, bringing its intake to 320.<\/p>\n Appeals doubled between 2019 and 2024 at Pate\u2019s, St Olave\u2019s and Torquay Boys\u2019 Grammar School in Devon. They trebled at Sir Thomas Rich\u2019s and quadrupled at Wallington. At Bishop Vesey\u2019s Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, appeals rose from two to 19.<\/p>\n Pate\u2019s Grammar School in Cheltenham<\/p>\n ALAMY<\/p>\n Social mobility<\/p>\n![\"Colchester](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/026fa5ab-c9fe-4a8c-8374-22c141353535.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/e8a571d1-2b9e-4fe6-bb04-2c9a6acc7135.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/\/0c730e8b-0879-4a0a-abb7-79a6f98c97ac.jpg\")
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