Nick Cowen at the Civitas Blog, writing about why private schools now “grab” more top university spots:

The truth, however, is that private schools do not just generally provide a better standard of education, but are now increasingly the only schools offering the necessary qualifications that make students eligible for high quality courses such as maths and natural science. How exactly has this happened? It is not as if pupils from poorer backgrounds should be systematically less able to cope with complex knowledge. Unfortunately, it is the politically driven weighting of courses which means that each A level is worth the same number of UCAS points regardless of the subject. This means that so far as league tables and government statistics are concerned, more (of just about any subject) is better and a few solid qualifications in tough subjects, the ones that top universities are interested in, are just too much effort to complete.

I am starting seriously to suspect that if you want posh universities for your kids, but can’t afford a posh private school for them, or a posh home in a posh area with a posh state school, your best bet would be to keep them at home.