In England, a partially selective school is one of a few dozen state-funded secondary schools that select a proportion of their intake by ability or aptitude, permitted as a continuation of arrangements that existed prior to 1997.Schools that can select pupils , ParentsCentre, Department for Children, Schools and Families. Though treated together by current legislation, they are of two types: bilateral schools in remnants of the Tripartite System, and former grant-maintained schools that introduced partial selection in the 1990s. While technically classified as comprehensive schools, they occupy a middle ground between grammar schools and true comprehensives, and many of the arguments for and against grammar schools also apply to these schools. Although there are relatively few schools of this type, several of them score very highly in national performance tables, and are among the most over-subscribed schools in the country.
There are no partially selective schools in Scotland and Wales, which have wholly comprehensive systems, while Northern Ireland retains a grammar system.
History Partially selective schools are of two types:
A bilateral school contains both grammar and non-selective streams, with the two groups of students taught separately.School Admissions Glossary , Lincolnshire County Council. Bilateral schools were originally part of the Tripartite System in more sparsely populated areas unable to support separate schools. Most of those existing today were established in the 1970s in a few areas retaining the Tripartite System. Partial selection was introduced in some grant-maintained schools during the final years of the Conservative government led by John Major.Schools (Selection), House of Commons Hansard Debates, UK Parliament, 11 June 1996. Grant-maintained status was introduced by the Education Reform Act 1988, and gave such schools control over their own admissions. Circular 6/93 permitted these schools to select up to 10% of their intake on the basis of ability or aptitude in music, art, drama or sport. Circular 6/96 permitted more selection. By 1997, over 40 schools were selecting up to 50% of pupils.Debate on School Standards and Framework Bill, Clause 90 , House of Commons Standing Committee A, Tuesday 24 February 1998.
In 1997 a Labour government was elected, with a policy of abolishing partial selection. David Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education and Employment, said in December 1997:
However, the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 permitted selection of up to 10% by aptitude for certain subjects for which a school is a specialist college (section 102), and also permitted the retention of partial selection that existed prior to the 1997 entry, provided that the proportion selected was no higher than that in 1997 (section 100).School Standards and Framework Act 1998, HMSO. The 1998 Act also created schools adjudicators, empowered to rule on objections to school admission arrangements, including partial selection. This mechanism has steadily reduced both the number of schools using selection and the proportion of partial selection at the remaining schools.Admission by selection, Select Committee on Education and Skills Fourth Report (School admissions), UK Parliament, 14 July 2004.
These schools often also give preference to siblings of current pupils, filling the rest of their places using distance and/or faith criteria. The sibling criterion is particularly controversial, as in combination with selection it often severely limits the number of local children admitted. In response to these concerns, the initial draft of a revised schools admissions code proposed to ban sibling criteria in schools that selected more than 10% on their intake. After many protests, the admissions code as published in February 2007 protected siblings of current students, and permitted schools to give priority to siblings provided that "their admission arrangements as a whole do not exclude families living nearer the school."School Admissions Code , Department for Education and Skills, February 2007. This phrasing was removed in the revised Code published in January 2009.School Admissions Code , Department for Education and Skills, January 2009.
A late amendment to the Education and Inspections Act 2006 amended the 1998 Act to limit the proportion selected to the lowest level at any time since 1997. This forced four Hertfordshire schools to lower their proportion of academic selection from 35% to 25%.
Partial selection today The following bilateral schools continue to operate in surviving fully selective areas:House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 8 Feb 2006 (pt 7) , UK Parliament. LEA School Gender Coordinates Lincolnshire King Edward VI Academy Mixed Reading Reading Girls' School Girls Southend-on-Sea St Bernard's High School Girls St Thomas More High School Boys Torbay The Spires College Mixed Warwickshire Ashlawn School Mixed
To be admitted to the selective stream, applicants must achieve the qualifying standard in an eleven plus exam, typically shared with local grammar schools. In practice, some of these schools do not fill their allocation of selective places due to competition from the neighbouring grammar schools. Unlike grammar schools, they are required to fill any remaining places with non-selective applicants.
The following schools retain partial selection introduced between 1993 and 1997: LEA School Gender Selective proportion of intake Siblings Coordinates Barnet Mill Hill County High School Mixed 10% technology, 10% music, 5% dance yes Croydon The Archbishop Lanfranc School Mixed 15% general ability yes Edenham High School Mixed 15% general ability yes Riddlesdown High School Mixed 15% general ability no Shirley High School Mixed 15% general ability yes Dorset Budmouth Technology College Mixed 12% general ability yes Dudley Old Swinford Hospital Boys 27% general ability yes Essex The King John School Mixed 15% general ability yes Hertfordshire Dame Alice Owen's School Mixed 32.5% general ability, 5% music yes Parmiter's School Mixed 25% general ability, 10% music yes Queens' School Mixed 35% general ability, 5% music, 5% sport yes Rickmansworth School Mixed 25% general ability, 10% music yes St. Clement Danes School Mixed 10% general ability, 10% music yes Watford Grammar School for Boys Boys 25% general ability, 10% music yes Watford Grammar School for Girls Girls 25% general ability, 10% music yes Kent Archbishop's School Mixed 15% general ability yes Chaucer Technology School Mixed 15% general ability or technology yes Homewood School Mixed 20% general ability, 1% music yes Westlands School Mixed 10% maths yes Lambeth Archbishop Tenison's School Boys weighted banding yes London Nautical School Boys nautical or sport yes Lancashire Ripley St. Thomas School, Lancaster Mixed 15% language Liverpool King David High School Mixed 17% music yes St Hilda's Church of England High School Girls 15% general ability no St Margaret's Church of England Academy Boys 15% general ability no Nottingham Nottingham Bluecoat School Mixed 10% maths and science yes Peterborough The Kings School Mixed 10% general ability, 2.5% music yes Poole Poole High School Mixed 10% general ability yes Southend-on-Sea Cecil Jones Academy Mixed 10% general ability yes Shoeburyness High School Mixed 10% general ability yes Surrey The Winston Churchill School Mixed 9% general ability, 5% music yes Sutton Greenshaw High School Mixed 24% general ability yes Wandsworth Burntwood School Girls 25% general ability yes Chestnut Grove School Mixed 18% art and design, 18% languages yes Ernest Bevin Academy Boys ⅓ general ability yes Graveney School Mixed 25% general ability yes
All of these schools are over-subscribed. All except Old Swinford Hospital, Archbishop Tenison's School and the London Nautical School select the highest scoring applicants under each criterion.
See also Education in England
References and notes
External links Office of the Schools Adjudicator