LEADING private schools have been accused of boosting their league table performances by expelling pupils who do badly in their GCSEs.

At the highest ranked schools, a minimum requirement for fifth-formers who want to enter the sixth form is as high as five As at GCSE. Others expel pupils who do not achieve six Bs.

One figure in the independent sector, who declined to be named, said: “Some of these highly selective schools are very brutal in the way they maintain their positions.”

Some schools are introducing minimum requirements for AS-level results and dumping pupils halfway through their sixth form studies.

Schools setting the GCSE thresholds, which all deny that they are motivated by league tables, include Manchester Grammar and Dulwich College in south London. At the all-boys Manchester Grammar, 14 pupils who failed to achieve the required five A-grade GCSEs were sent to an admissions panel. Three were expelled for poor grades; 11 were reprieved.

A spokesman said: “Lots of discussions take place. We have the boys’ interest at heart.” The school is 11th in the A-level league table.

At Dulwich, 13 of 205 pupils who took GCSEs this summer had to leave because they failed to get six grade Bs. Jean Thompson’s son was one of them: “They’ve been fed to the sharks. James got one A, three Bs and four Cs. As he is dyslexic that was pretty good.”

This year Dulwich is 77th in the independent schools A-level league, but four years ago it was more than 30 places higher. Graham Able, its head, said: “We have had a regime of six Bs for several years.” Pupils who did worse would not be able to cope in the sixth form, he added.

Kevin Riley, head of Bristol Cathedral school, requires five Cs which he says is easily achievable unless pupils refused to work. “It is all about league tables. The easiest way to keep your place is to shoot some of the weaker brethren on the way,” he said.

The practice is spreading to the state sector. Henrietta Barnett, a girls’ grammar in Hampstead, north London, is to demand six grade As for entry to its sixth form.

Additional reporting: Anna Mikhailova

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