§ 12. Mr. Colin Shepherdasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what will be the criteria for entry to the grant-maintained schools.
§ Mr. Kenneth BakerGrant-maintained schools will retain the character they had as local authority schools. A comprehensive school will remain comprehensive. A selective school will remain selective. Admissions arrangements will have to be agreed with me. As with local authority schools, there will have to be criteria for choosing between applicants if a school is over-subscribed.
§ Mr. ShepherdAlthough I welcome the extension of choice that this change is likely to bring, may I ask whether my right hon. Friend is aware that there is a certain amount of concern being expressed by parents who presently live within the catchment area of a specific comprehensive school that, in the event of that school becoming a grant-maintained school, their sons or daughters may be unable to attend that school? I ask my right hon. Friend whether he can assure those parents and the parents of a child not yet of an age to attend that school that they will be able to send their child to that school if they so choose?
§ Mr. BakerI can say to my hon. Friend that, in determining the admission arrangements, we would want to follow the admission arrangements of the existing local education authority, especially as regards catchment areas, and also as regards existing policy for brothers and sisters to go to the schools that their elder brothers and sisters attended.