The Sutton Trust has found that more schools in England are using lotteries or “banding” pupils by ability to allocate place. According to research by the London School of Economics, the number of schools using banding increased from 95 in 2008 to 121 in the past academic year. The Sutton Trust said the growth is because more schools are becoming academies – state-funded but independent schools that can set their own admission rules.
