A “superbrainy” schools league table is to be published, showing the proportion of exceptionally bright children in each state secondary school.

Under the initiative, in the Government’s Gifted and Talented scheme, schools will this year be obliged to publish the number of 14-year-olds achieving exceptionally high scores in their Key Stage 3 results. These scores – Levels 7 and 8 – are significantly above the standard Level 5 attainment expected of pupils at this age.

Lord Adonis, the Schools Minister, said that the move would enable schools to celebrate the results of the brightest and best, but experts fear that it will increase pressure for places in the best schools from parents who may hope that proximity to bright children will help to boost their own child’s performance.

The intention is to put pressure on the 300 or so secondary schools that refuse to take part in the Gifted and Talented programme, often because of ideological opposition to selection. The latest figures show that a significant minority of schools – 9 per cent of secondaries and 35 per cent of primaries – have failed to identify any exceptionally bright children, leaving the number benefiting from the programme stuck at 733,000.

The programme offers extra tuition to the brightest pupils. It was set up in 1999 amid concerns that middle-class parents were abandoning the state sector for private schools because comprehensives were failing to nurture the most able.

The Prime Minister is determined that all schools should take part, bringing the number of pupils on the programme up to one million of Britain’s state school population of eight milion.

At present, data on the proportions and numbers of children achieving Levels 7 and 8 in their Key Stage 3 tests are available only at a national level in England. Last year the proportions gaining Level 7 in English, mathematics and science were 8, 21 and 15 per cent respectively. Level 8, which can be achieved only in maths, was achieved by 8 per cent of children at Key Stage 3.

Peter Congdon, an educational psychologist and director of the Gifted Children’s Information Centre, agreed that a child of average intelligence might benefit from being forced to compete with brighter children, but gave warning that too much pressure could damage social and emotional development. Enabling parents to find out the proportion of very bright children in good schools might disproportionately benefit the middle classes, who are best able to afford to move into the catchment areas of the best schools. “Very often, it is middle-class parents who go for things like this. There is a danger that you could get complete segregation,” he said.

John Dunford, of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the Key Stage 3 tests were not designed to test for giftedness, so it was nonsense to equate the results with this. “The Key Stage 3 test should be no more than a progress-check for 14-year-old pupils and their parents. The Government has repeatedly tried to turn it into a massive accountability exercise for schools and is already using it for too many purposes. This is one step too far,” Mr Dunford said.

But Lord Adonis said that the gifts of many very able pupils went unrecognised. “Identifying and celebrating high attainment encourages schools to focus on those who need extra help because they have particular abilities and talents, which is just as crucial as helping those who are at risk of falling behind,” he said.

“It is important to support able pupils who are achieving Level 7 or 8 when they are 14, making sure that they are on course to achieve A* grades at GCSE, get three good A levels or a diploma and go on to the best course at the right university.”

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