Giving Compass' Take:

• Schools in England with selective admittance increase privilege gaps and fail to produce better results.  

• How are students divided into schools in your area? Is there evidence to suggest it does good or harm? How could policies be better formulated to produce better results for everyone, particularly disadvantaged students?

• There is some evidence to suggest that private schools have a positive impact on test scores. 

Grammar schools perform no better than non-selective state schools, once their pupils' higher ability and wealth is taken into account, a study suggests.

Academics at Durham University found the "apparent success" of these wholly selective schools was down to their brighter and more advantaged pupils.

They say increasing the number of schools that select pupils by ability would be dangerous for equality.

The government said it was working to widen access to grammar schools.

Grammar schools have a reputation for high academic achievement and dominate the top of the school league tables.

But this research, based on the detailed results of nearly 550,000 pupils, suggests once the ability and social background of pupils is taken into account, grammar schools are no more or less effective than other schools.

Prof Stephen Gorard, from Durham's School of Education, said: "Dividing children into the most able and the rest from an early age does not appear to lead to better results for either group.

"This means that the kind of social segregation experienced by children in selective areas in England, and the damage to social cohesion that ensues, is for no clear gain.

Read the full article on grammar school in England by Hannah Richardson at BBC