Parents campaigning to ban selective entry at a North Yorkshire grammar school have won support from a leading education expert from the University of York.

Fresh research by Professor David Jesson, from the university's centre for performance evaluation and resource management, shows that pupils at comprehensive schools apparently do better in examinations than their grammar school contemporaries. This is welcome news for anti-selection campaigners Ripon Campaign for State Education, who are pushing for a ballot of parents to stop selective admissions at Ripon Grammar School.

They need 587 signatures - 20 per cent of parents of children at the school's 15 feeder primaries - to trigger a vote.

Prof Jesson told a London seminar run by the Campaign For State Education that able pupils did just as well in either comprehensive or grammar schools, and that overall performance was lower in areas with grammar schools compared to those without. He said: "There is no advantage to these pupils in attending a grammar as opposed to a comprehensive."

He also compared two similar local education authorities, each with a respective comprehensive or grammar systems.

He found 52 per cent of pupils in the comprehensive system achieved five or more good GCSEs, whereas only 48 per cent achieved the same in the grammar school authority.

Debbie Atkins, of the Ripon Campaign for State Education, who was at the meeting, said Prof Jesson's findings reinforced local research carried out by former Ripon Grammar School sixth former Tom Royston.

She said: "It is very encouraging. It is an exciting revelation and one that really supports what we believe - that the comprehensive system would best serve all of the Ripon pupils.

"We are not saying bright pupils will be dumbed down, but that all pupils can do well in a comprehensive system."

She said the removal of the selective system would also have benefits for special needs pupils who would be free to reach their full potential without being deemed only suitable for secondary modern schooling.

Pro-grammar school campaigners argue that selective-admission schools are an asset that should be retained and comprehensive schools which do not perform well should be improved rather than high-achieving schools abolished.

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