'Fairer' school admission codes have 'little impact'

Schools that are determined to select pupils on a particular basis – for example, by religion or ability – will still find ways to manipulate the rules, according to a study published by the Department for Education (DfE) yesterday.

The report, by the Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University and the London School of Economics (LSE), looked at whether changes to the School Admissions Code in 2003 and 2007 have had any effect on the social make-up of England's secondary schools.

Successive codes were introduced to try to make admissions fairer.

The researchers found that some of the codes did change the social make-up of schools that had previously been selecting on grounds that were later deemed inadmissable.

But they also note that the average impact has been "relatively small" as schools have naturally become slightly less socially segregated.