Asked by: Chris Philp (Conservative - Croydon South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment she has made of how far pupils travel to attend (a) existing grammar schools and (b) non-selective secondary schools (i) on average and (ii) for those 10 per cent of pupils travelling the furthest to attend grammar schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Government is committed to enabling all children to fulfil their potential by delivering a school system that works for everyone.
The Department has assessed how far pupils travel to grammar schools based on the school attended. This shows that the median distance travelled to school by pupils attending grammar schools is 3.1 miles compared to 1.1 miles for pupils attending non-selective secondary schools. The same analysis shows that for pupils travelling the furthest to attend schools – those in the top 10% in terms of distance travelled to school – the median distance travelled for those attending grammar schools is 13.3 miles compared to 6.2 miles for pupils attending non-selective secondary schools.
These figures are based on pupils and schools attended in the Spring School Census 2015 and cover all pupils attending mainstream schools in years seven and above. Distances are calculated as the straight-line distance between pupils’ home postcode and the postcode of the schools attended.