PRIVATE coaching to gain selection at Skipton's two grammar schools is now claimed to be rife, with children from poorer backgrounds penalised.

However the local education authority disputes the effectiveness of private tuition and testing saying they have a marginal effect.

This year the number of complaints seems higher than ever and a number of parents have approached the Craven Herald to complain about the testing system.

Local primary headteachers have backed their claims.

Only six boys from the whole of Skipton are believed to have gained entry to Ermysted's this year - a figure which has not been disputed. One parent described it as "no longer Skipton's grammar school but a grammar school which just happens to be in Skipton."

The parents also claim the well-documented fact that girls are more advanced than boys at the age of 11, when children take the test, penalises local boys. This is because the selection process takes the top 28 per cent of all in-catchment area children, not the top 28 per cent of boys and top 28 per cent of girls. Girls are thus taking a higher proportion of the 28 percent of places reserved at the grammar schools for local children.

At Water Street School in Skipton 15 girls will be going to the grammar school - and only one boy.

The education department said it was unable to confirm the figures given to the Herald for 2000 selection until the appeals process has been exhausted but did reveal that in 1997 29 local boys achieved entry to Ermysted's compared to 56 girls entering the Girls' High School, in 1998 the figure was 30 boys and 54 girls but last year the figure was more equal, at 41 boys and 49 girls.

Parents have asked not to be named, to protect the identity of their children, but claim that private coaching and practice testing gives children a head start in the selection tests.

Two head teachers backed up their claims and said their views were representative of their colleagues and reflected general disenchantment at the process.

One of the heads contacted by the Herald claimed that complaints had been made to the education authority but had been ignored.

"One head placed a pile of papers and lists of private tutors on the director of education's desk and said that if you pay £3,000 you are virtually guaranteed a place at the grammar school," said the head teacher.

"We all know coaching is going on, we all know the current system for selection is unfair but nobody does anything about it. Meanwhile the kids whose parents follow the advice and don't do practice papers, or whose parents are too poor or too unconcerned to buy them are the ones who suffer."

One of the parents, whose child just missed out on the all-important pass mark said: "I followed the advice and didn't buy of the test books from WH Smith's and now I feel so guilty. A few extra marks would have made all the difference."

The primary school head said that the verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning questions were not a good way of selecting because practice could easily be done. They also bore no relation to what the child would be studying at the grammar schools.

However head teachers have no clear consensus over what would be the best replacement.

The head who agreed to be quoted preferred something based on the Standard Assessment Tests (Sats) which tested numeracy, reading, comprehension and science because all schools followed the National Curriculum and it was more of a level playing field.

A second local primary school head teacher agreed that the selection process was causing considerable concern in the profession.

The head said that a chief concern was the effect and disruption special examinations had on children and the extra pressure they faced from extra-curricular coaching.

The current methods appear to have caused some unease at Ermysted's. At the 1996 Ermysted's speech day the then headmaster David Buckroyd commented: "I have a great deal of sympathy with those, including many primary school heads, who feel that tests in maths and English should be reintroduced into the selection system."

In 1997 he warned that local boys were forming a declining portion of the school's intake.

"Ermysted's was refounded in 1548 to serve the needs of the boys of Skipton and district but sadly the underachievement of boys at the age of 11 plus vis--vis girls is beginning to make itself felt," he said. "We have now achieved the position where local boys on the school roll are in the minority."

However, Tom Ashworth, the current headmaster pointed out that he understood that this year more than 50 per cent of his intake would be "in-catchment".

Tom Ashworth, headmaster at Ermysted's said that the verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests were one method of selection but whether they were the best means of testing was always open to discussion.

He added that the school's record showed that pupils who were deemed suitable for selection in the past had achieved outstanding examination results and the school would like to think that there was considerable "added value".

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