For some years I have been advocating for Oxbridge JCR Outreach volunteers to go into primary schools and talk to parents of gifted children about options for high-quality selective secondary education, whether grammar or independent. In the long run, each Oxbridge college could maintain a file on every selective school in or around its designated outreach areas and could thus give specific advice about particular schools, but until this is established the volunteers could discuss general considerations. A then-current JCR Oxford Access Officer was enthusiastic about my suggestion of talking to parents but advised me that a potential drawback was that many parents from disadvantaged backgrounds are not interested in their children’s education.
My idea for mitigating this (which will at best work in some but not all cases) is for the Outreach volunteers to draw the attention of the primary schools to Section 7, Page 9 of the 1996 Education Act, which requires the parents of compulsory school age children to ensure that they receive full-time education suitable for their ability. I have no legal training, and do not know whether the 1996 Act is still in force, but if it is, the schools could write to the parents of all their pupils advising them of the parents’ legal obligations.
I am aware that many families cannot afford independent selective education and live in areas where there are no good state selective schools nearby. An article in the Times newspaper of 26th February 1994 referred to the case of the then nine-year-old Lucinda Cash-Gibson, who, according to the article, was the youngest member of Mensa when she was four. According to this article a High Court judge ordered the then Education Secretary to reconsider his refusal for the State to pay private school fees for Lucinda. This legal challenge has been loosely referred to as the "Mensa Court Case", although I I am not aware whether or not Mensa was connected with it.. As already stated, I have no legal training, and thus I cannot comment on whether or not challenges of this nature are still feasible under current law. However, if they are, then Oxbridge JCR Access Officers could put parents who are unable to afford independent education into contact with undergraduate Law students who are willing to provide pro bono (free of charge) advice to them. For some years I have been suggesting that they do this.
The JCR Access Officer who was keen about my idea of speaking to parents agreed to show a copy of the 1975 Telegraph article about the closure of Harrow County Grammar School, "Best Grammar School a Victim of 'All-in'", David Fletcher, Daily Telegraph, Tuesday January 21st 1975, to the current cohort of prospective Oxbridge applicants at the "Harrow Access Roadshow". I should be very interested to know what they thought about a closure of a school which, according to the article, had an outstanding record of gaining Oxbridge Scholarships and Exhibitions.
References
https://www.cre.org.uk/secondary.html
https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/access-and-outreach/teachers/access-roadshow/
https://daisychristodoulou.com/2016/04/how-to-crack-the-oxford-history-aptitude-test/
https://potentialplusuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Ofsted-Reporting-of-Provision-for-the-Most-Able-Pupils.pdf states
https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/access-and-outreach/inspire-programme/inspire-primary/
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5444450
https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/publications/2012/raising-the-bar-developing-able-young-mathematicians/
http://demorgandotorg.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/gardiner_able_10aug12.pdf
http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Educating-the-Highly-Able-Report.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/jun/20/oxbridge-access-poor-students
https://www.spc.ox.ac.uk/covid-19-outbreak-school-support
https://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/events/2020/06/27/preparing-for-the-pat-2020
https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/study-here/undergraduate-study/maths-admissions-test/mat-livestream
http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/acts/1944-education-act.html
"Perceptions of causes and long term effects of academic underachievement in high IQ adults", Anne Favier-Townsend, available online at http://hdl.handle.net/2299/16520
Article on the introduction of comprehensive education in Harrow, "Best Grammar School a Victim of 'All-in'", David Fletcher, _Daily Telegraph_, Tuesday January 21st 1975