Historic grammar faculty vows to ‘tutor-proof’ eleven-plus entry exams to cease pushy mother and father ploughing hundreds into non-public classes

A leading grammar school has introduced ‘tutor proof’ 11+ tests to protect children from the ‘insidious rise’ of the tutoring industry and to help boost social mobility.

Chris Evans, headmaster of historic Reading School, says the new exams designed for ‘the curious child’ will aim to ‘assess creativity’ and ‘knowledge already learnt in state schools up to Year 5’.

The exams devised by an offshoot of the school will cut out elements like verbal reasoning that generations of children have been prepared for by expensive tutors, and are being rolled out to other schools.

Mr Evans is also changing the timing of the 11+ from autumn to summer saying ‘no 10 year old child should be chained to a desk studying for their 11+’.

He said: ‘We hope that we have saved some local children from a miserable summer of test preparation when they should be playing outdoors and having fun. If we are lucky, each of us may enjoy 80 summers. The best of them should not be spent being tutored.’

The changes are part of a package of changes including priority entry designed to boost the chances of state primary pupils, which have caused a furious backlash from some local parents.

They have accused the school, which received over 1,000 applications for just 150 places this year, of discriminating against private school pupils by ‘effectively barring them from getting a place’.

But Mr Evans hit back, saying they needed ‘to get over their fear that their child had failed’ if they didn’t get in to a certain school and that grammar schools should ensure ‘social mobility’.

Historic Reading School has ushered in a ‘tutor proof’ 11-plus exam in a bid to help boost social mobility

Chris Evans (pictured), the headmaster of the historic grammar school, said the test has been designed designed to assess the ‘knowledge already learnt in state schools up to Year 5’

The 900-year-old all boys’ school, consistently ranked one of the top state schools in the UK, has now diluted its plans to prioritise applications from up to 76 rather than 135 state schools.

Mr Evans admitted last night that complaints from hundreds of prep school parents had forced them to adapt their plans.

‘We understand that parents at private schools are worried but also they do have access to some more options.

‘‘There’s a parental fear of missing out if their child doesn’t go to this school or that school,’ he told the Mail on Sunday.

However, he said he would not be ‘doing his job properly’ if he did not look at ‘what levers I could give to those who are local and those who are disadvantaged’.

Mr Evans said ‘dozens of grammar schools’ around the country were now looking at ways of following suit.

‘We want to do things that reverse that tutoring mentality or the grammar school or else mindset and parents do need to get over that fear that a certain school is the only one.

‘A grammar school is overtly selective and if it selects for hope and creating social impact and social mobility then it is doing a good thing.’

Caroline Townshend, Head of nearby Crosfields School, claimed the plans would ‘limit fair access’ and ‘significantly reduce’ the chances of children who attend private schools from getting a place.

In a letter to parents urging them to speak out, she said it would mean children would no longer be chosen on merit just on where they went to school.

One parent said its new rules would ‘effectively bar’ children who had been to prep schools first because ‘there would never be any places left for them’.

Insiders say Reading is acting to stem the flood of applications from parents who ‘have been priced out of private schools because of VAT on school fees’.