article: For any new wave of grammar schools to be palatable to a broad section of MPs and peers, Mrs May has to tackle head-on claims that they have become the preserve of pushy, middle-class families. They need to become the engines of social mobility that they were once seen as. Following the ban on new grammar schools in 1998, the fight for places, especially in areas where there are just one or two schools, has become more intense. And this has led to wealthier families with the ability to pay for tutoring and preparation for the 11-plus exam - a set of tests very different from the usual ones taken by primary pupils in England. Research suggests grammar schools have just 3% of pupils from very poor backgrounds - those on the pupil premium who are basically from families in receipt of certain benefits or earning less than Â£16,000 a year. Nationally, 14% of pupils are in this category. Even the chairman of the National Grammar Schools Association, Robert McCartney, says: "They will have to introduce some conditions that will prevent these schools being swamped by families with money." Hence the new requirement for any new selective school/grammar to take a proportion of disadvantaged pupils, establish a "high quality, non-selective free school", set up or sponsor a primary feeder school in a deprived area or sponsor an underperforming academy. Grammar school heads have been talking to the Department for Education for some years about the ways in which they might do this. Of the 163 grammar schools in England, more than 70 are planning to give some form of priority to disadvantaged pupils from next year, says Jim Skinner of the Grammar School Heads Association. This year, it is about 30 schools. This is most likely to be through a quota system based on recent new rules allowing schools to give priority in admissions to children on the pupil premium. The Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham, a chain of five schools, has led the way, having just admitted its second cohort of pupils with a quota for children on the pupil premium. In this case, they have lowered the test requirements for disadvantaged pupils. This may be the way it goes in some areas with a patchwork system of selective and non-selective schools. But as the law stands this method will serve only the very poorest of families. For it to go further and include a broader range of low-income families, another change in the admissions code will be required. However, in areas where the local authority administers the 11-plus test, the council could decide to prioritise low-income children, potentially by broadening the ability range that might secure a grammar place. Areas such as these are sending between 20% and 25% of their most able children to grammar schools. Currently, there is also a system of head teacher review in some selective counties. This is where primary school head teachers put forward a number of disadvantaged children who may not have done well enough in the test, but who they
summary: As the prime minister sets out plans for a new wave of grammars and selective schools, we ask how they might look.