Children from broken homes are to be given free places at some of Britain's most exclusive boarding schools under new government plans. The pathfinder project will be trialled by 10 local authorities over the next two years to try and improve the education of children and young people in care. The councils involved - Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Buckinghamshire, Dudley, Hertfordshire, Northumberland, Southwark, Suffolk, Surrey and Westminster - will be asked to assess children at risk of being placed in care to see if they would benefit from a place at one of the 51 boarding schools taking part. It comes after a recent survey by children's charity Barnado's revealed less than 10% of young people in care left school with five or more GCSEs grade A-C.
