The most gifted 10 per cent of primary school children are to be offered extra classes under plans to track the brightest 400,000 through school and into university.

Under the scheme, to be announced by Tony Blair on Monday, children as young as 4 will qualify for summer schools at universities, as well as online tuition, Saturday morning classes and joint activities with bright children from other schools.

The scheme will extend the reach of the National Gifted and Talented Youth Agency, which is aimed at 150,000 pupils in state secondary schools. It was set up in 2002 after concerns that middle-class parents were abandoning the state sector for private schools because mixed-ability teaching failed to challenge the brightest pupils.

The initiative coincides with the release of figures from the Independent Schools Council suggesting that the growth in admissions to private schools is being driven by the primary sector. Pupil numbers in state primaries have fallen by almost 300,000, to 4.1 million, since 1997, and prep school numbers have increased by more than 14,000, to 159,000.

Downing Street emphasised, however, that the scheme aimed to ensure that more bright children were identified early on. A source said: “This is about helping each child to reach their full potential. That means identifying and developing the talents of children from an early age, and at the same time giving extra support to children who are struggling.”

Under the scheme, each school will be required to appoint a teacher to select the 10 per cent most gifted and talented children. Assessments will be based on teacher assessments and the results of national Key Stage 1 tests that children sit at the age of 7.

The term “gifted” is taken generally to apply to children of high intelligence, while “talented” refers to those with outstanding ability in a specific area, such as art, music or sport.

Bethan Marshall, a lecturer in education at King’s College London, said: “Some children who are not labelled gifted and talented might feel like failures if they are not selected, particularly if they come from a competitive home. Children who are selected may feel it is an expectation that they have to live up to.”

Peter Congdon, an educational psychologist and director of the Gifted Children’s Information Centre, said that research had shown that teachers had insufficient training properly to identify gifted and talented pupils.

“Teachers tend to choose children who produce good work on paper and who behave themselves. What are known as ‘gifted disabled’ children, who may be very intelligent, but also dyslexic, may be missed, as may the ones who are very bright, but who are misfits,” he said.

Alan Smithers, Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham, said: “If it is intended to buy off the middle classes it won’t work because what they want is a good all-round education,” he said.

Sir Cyril Taylor, the chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and the driving force behind the National Talent Register, the existing table of the 5 per cent of pupils with the best scores for maths and English, has not been consulted over the plan to extend the programme to primary children.

Sir Cyril cautioned against diverting attention and funding from the gifted and talented programme for secondary schools and said that neither scheme would work unless those running it knew exactly what they were aiming to achieve.

The announcement will coincide with the release of the names of the ten local authorities that are to pilot a scheme to measure pupil progress.

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