'Privileged pushing poor out of schools'

The new investigative report revealed that middle-class parents were gaming the admissions system by moving house, attending church or hiring private tutors to increase the odds of their child getting into a top school.

But in contrast working-class parents often found the system "so daunting that they just don't engage with it," Bernardo's assistant director Anne Pinney warned.

Ms Pinney explained that "middle-class parents tend to be strongly engaged in getting the best results from the admissions process, but disadvantaged parents are less likely to exercise their right to choose, and are more likely to opt for their local school - or not even apply at all."

The Bernardo's study found that poorer families were struggling to deal with day-to-day challenges as a result of poverty, debt, recent immigration to Britain and domestic violence, while their children were half as likely as children from wealthier families to get good GCSE grades.

Barnardo's chief executive Martin Narey reported that as a result "the school admissions system has become a complex game, one that many parents in poorer households are not aware is going on around them.

"Even when conscious of a race for the best schools, some less able parents are resigned to the fact that their son or daughter will be left with whatever school other parents don't want," he added.

Ms Pinney pointed out that Bernardo's investigation had found that the top secondary schools in England were already taking on just 5 per cent of pupils entitled to free school meals and she warned that Con-Dem coalition plans to create more academy schools, which are unaccountable to elected local authorities, risked widening the inequalities.

"Children born into disadvantage do worse in school, are more likely to leave early and more likely to be trapped in unemployment," she stressed.

British Humanist Association campaigner James Gray added that the Tories' plans to allow more faith-based schools would also lead to "further socioeconomic segregation.

"The evidence is now overwhelming that 'faith' schools are in practice excluding children from poorer backgrounds," he asserted.