School Standards and Framework Act 1998

Partial selection

99 General restriction on selection by ability or aptitude

(1) No admission arrangements for a maintained school may make provision for selection by ability unless—

(a) they make provision for a permitted form of such selection; or

(b) the school is a grammar school (as defined by section 104(7)).

(2) The following are permitted forms of selection by ability—

(a) any selection by ability authorised by section 100 (pre-existing arrangements);

(b) any selection by ability authorised by section 101 (pupil banding); and

(c) any selection by ability conducted in connection with the admission of pupils to the school for secondary education suitable to the requirements of pupils who are over compulsory school age.

(3) No admission arrangements for a maintained school may make provision for selection by aptitude unless they make provision for a permitted form of such selection.

(4) The following are permitted forms of selection by aptitude—

(a) any selection by aptitude authorised by section 100 (pre-existing arrangements); and

(b) any selection by aptitude authorised by section 102 (aptitude for particular subjects).

(5) For the purposes of this Chapter—

(a) a school’s admission arrangements make provision for selection by ability or by aptitude if they make provision for all or any of the pupils who are to be admitted to the school in any relevant age group to be so admitted by reference to ability or to aptitude (as the case may be);

(b) “ability” means either general ability or ability in any particular subject or subjects;

(c) “admission arrangements” has the meaning given by section 88(2); and

(d) “maintained school” means a community, foundation or voluntary school.

100 Permitted selection: pre-existing arrangements

(1) Where at the beginning of the 1997-98 school year the admission arrangements for a maintained school made provision for selection by ability or by aptitude (and they have at all times since that date continued to do so), the admission arrangements for the school may continue to make such provision so long as there is, as compared with the arrangements in force at the beginning of that year—

(a) no increase in the proportion of selective admissions in any relevant age group, and

(b) no significant change in the basis of selection.

(2) In relation to any time before the appointed day, the reference in subsection (1) to a maintained school is a reference to the school as a county, voluntary or grant-maintained school within the meaning of the [1996 c. 56.] Education Act 1996.

(3) In this section “the proportion of selective admissions”, in relation to a relevant age group, means the proportion of the total number of pupils admitted to the school in that age group (determined in the prescribed manner) which is represented by the number of pupils so admitted by reference to ability or to aptitude (as the case may be).

(4) Nothing in this section applies to a school with selective admission arrangements (as defined by section 104(2)).

101 Permitted selection: pupil banding

(1) Subject to subsections (2) to (4), the admission arrangements for a maintained school may make provision for selection by ability to the extent that the arrangements are designed to secure—

(a) that in any year the pupils admitted to the school in any relevant age group are representative of all levels of ability among applicants for admission to the school in that age group, and

(b) that no level of ability is substantially over-represented or substantially under-represented.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply if the arrangements have the effect that, where an applicant for admission has been allocated to a particular range of ability by means of some process of selection by reference to ability, some further such process is required or authorised to be carried out in relation to him for the purpose of determining whether or not he is to be admitted to the school.

(3) The introduction for a maintained school of admission arrangements to which subsection (1) applies shall be one of the alterations to such a school which are prescribed for the purposes of section 28.

(4) Such arrangements are not authorised for any school by this section unless proposals for the school to have such arrangements have been published under section 28 and have fallen to be implemented under Schedule 6.

(5) Where the admission arrangements for a school make both such provision for selection by ability as is mentioned in subsection (1) above and such provision for selection by aptitude as is mentioned in section 102(1), nothing in this section shall be taken to prevent those arrangements—

(a) from authorising or requiring a process of selection to be carried out at any stage for the purpose of establishing that an applicant for admission has a relevant aptitude; or

(b) from having the effect of giving priority to such an applicant with a relevant aptitude irrespective of his level of ability.

102 Permitted selection: aptitude for particular subjects

(1) Subject to subsection (2), the admission arrangements for a maintained school may make provision for the selection of pupils for admission to the school by reference to their aptitude for one or more prescribed subjects where—

(a) the admission authority for the school are satisfied that the school has a specialism in the subject or subjects in question; and

(b) the proportion of selective admissions in any relevant age group does not exceed 10 per cent.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply if the admission arrangements make provision for any test to be carried out in relation to an applicant for admission which is either a test of ability or one designed to elicit any aptitude of his other than for the subject or subjects in question.

(3) Where, however, the admission arrangements for a school make both such provision for selection by aptitude as is mentioned in subsection (1) and such provision for selection by ability as is mentioned in section 101(1), the reference in subsection (2) above to a test of ability does not include any such test for which provision may be made under that section.

(4) In this section “the proportion of selective admissions”, in relation to a relevant age group, means the proportion of the total number of pupils admitted to the school in that age group (determined in the prescribed manner) which is represented by the number of pupils so admitted by reference to aptitude for the subject or subjects in question.

(5) In this section “test” includes assessment and examination.

103 Permitted selection: introduction, variation or abandonment of provision for such selection

(1) In connection with the determination of a maintained school’s admission arrangements for a particular school year, sections 89 and 90 shall, except to the specified extent, apply in relation to the making or abandonment by those arrangements of provision for any permitted form of selection by ability or aptitude as they apply in relation to the making or abandonment by those arrangements of provision for other matters.

(2) In subsection (1) “the specified extent” means the extent to which those admission arrangements would effect an alteration in the provision made by the school’s admission arrangements as respects any such form of selection (whether by introducing, varying or abandoning any such form of selection) which constitutes a prescribed alteration for the purposes of section 28.

(3) Any admission arrangements to which section 101(1) applies (whether authorised by section 100 or section 101) may be varied if (and only if) the arrangements as varied are designed to secure the objectives mentioned in section 101(1)(a) and (b).