This article presents findings from a small qualitative case study of a youth volunteering brokerage organisation in England, operating in an area of selective state education. Data show how brokerage workers felt grammar schools managed their students in a concerted way to improve students' chances of attending university. Conversely, workers expressed difficulty in working with comprehensive schools, feeling they were less willing to utilise volunteering services. These impressions lead the volunteering organisation to focus intently on recruiting potential volunteers from local grammar schools. As a result there is a need to reframe current debates in the sociology of education around institutional habitus, with a focus on the perceived habitus/doxa of schools. It is ultimately this (mis)recognition of institutional practices that leads to unequal policy outcomes, in this case reinforcing the advantage of academically elite students attending grammar schools.