However, many under-recruited even within those year groups where they did admit pupils.
But no pro-abolition campaigner is talking about destroying any schools, simply changing the way they admit pupils.
The school plans to admit pupils at the age of 12 and keep them until they are 18, so the first batch will not leave until 2016.
It called for a reform of league tables, which it says discourages schools from admitting pupils who might lower their scores, and extra funding to better reflect disadvantage.
Schools should be encouraged to admit pupils in "bands" based on their academic ability in order to increase the social mix, the charity recommends.
For the record, I don't want to destroy good schools, either, I just want us to gradually change [pdf] the way they admit pupils.
If the government gets legislation in place later this year, the first new selective schools could be admitting pupils as early as autumn 2018.
Mossbourne, the high-profile academy in Hackney, east London, already admits pupils in bands according to ability as well as accepting children by geographical location.
Under the Governor's plan, for instance, taxpayer-financed charter schools would be "encouraged" to admit pupils "at risk of academic failure" but could "refer a student with disabilities" to the regular school district for evaluation and placement.
The bulk of state schools in England and Wales admit pupils based on their proximity to the school, meaning that the closer a family lives to their preferred school, the more likely they are to gain entrance.
For the first time, it recommends, head teachers should be free to admit children whose families have incomes that are so low that the children are offered free school meals.The reasoning behind these proposals is fairly clear: they are necessary to make palatable the opening of the independently-run but state-funded "free" schools, the first tranche of which will admit pupils in September.
