Bridging the great education divide The FT 1,000 league table of top schools may never be the same again following the decision by a group of leading private schools to help manage state schools, which in effect bridges the great divide in British education. The Church Schools Company (CSCo) - founded in 1883 and housed in medieval cottages in a Northamptonshire village - wants to run some of the government's new city academies, independent state schools. | Read Private sector Farewell to Tom Brown Rugby School, a surprise performer last year, has confirmed its place in the premier league of independent schools this year by edging into the FT's top 15 for the first time. By achieving more than 30 points per candidate, the equivalent of three A-grades per pupil, the co-educational boarding school joins an elite group that has historically been dominated by single-sex private schools. Public sector Comprehensively excellent Silverdale looks like the classic comprehensive. A 1950s sprawl of ugly buildings and prefabricated classrooms, it stands on a hillside overlooking the industrial city of Sheffield. At first sight it's not much more attractive on the inside. Parts of the school are a building site. It holds a third more pupils than it was designed to teach. Uniforms - when worn - are generally dishevelled. And yet the school buzzes with positive energy.