Grammar school ballots

Background

Key points:

The Government made clear before the 1997 election that they do not support academic selection via the 11-plus exam and do not wish to see it extended. However, where grammar schools currently exist, the Government supports the notion of local decision making on whether selection should remain – either through the petition and ballot system, or via the publication of statutory proposals by the school's governing body.
The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 and the Education (Grammar School Ballots) Regulations 1998 set out the framework under which parental ballots on grammar school admissions may be held, and the arrangements for governing bodies to publish statutory proposals to remove selection.
There are 164 designated grammar schools, educating a little over four per cent of the total number of secondary school pupils.
A number of researchers have considered the effect of selection on standards, but the picture is not so clear as to provide a definite answer. Socio-demographic differences between LEA areas make it difficult to say how far differences in their schools' achievements relate to the existence or absence of selection. It is even more difficult to say whether pupils make more progress in grammar schools than they would in comprehensives, because no one knows which children in comprehensive areas would have got into grammar schools had they tried.

Ballot system

Key points:

Ballots are administered by Electoral Reform Services (ERS), an independent ballot company, and the Department funds administrative costs and grants paid to schools for providing electoral lists. The Ballot Information Code, introduced by the Government, also helps to ensure fair debate. The Secretary of State has powers to declare a ballot void where he believes parents have been misled or regulations contravened.
Grammar schools are grouped in some areas for the purposes of petitions and ballots. Where 25 per cent or more of the secondary school population attend grammars, all schools are taken together. Parents of pupils of compulsory school age either living in the area or sending their child to an LEA maintained school will be eligible to petition or vote. Where less than 25 per cent of pupils are at grammar schools, schools can be grouped or taken individually. The electorate in these areas is drawn from feeder schools, i.e. schools that have sent at least five children to the grammar schools concerned in the last three years.
Ballots are only held where there is local demand. To date, only one ballot has taken place, concerning Ripon Grammar School, in North Yorkshire, where parents voted 2-1 in favour of retaining the school's selective admission arrangements.