§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is her Department's official definition of banding.
§ Miss Margaret JacksonBanding is best defined in the Education Act 1976, Section 2(6)
… arrangements for the admission of pupils to schools in, or in any part of, the area of a local education authority…based partly on selection by reference to ability or aptitude…[where]…the purpose of the arrangements is to secure the even distribution between the schools of pupils of different degrees of ability or aptitude".