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Headline: Public schools plead to be let off fines over fee-fixing
Description: ALL CHILDREN applying to secondary school will face ability tests under plans to introduce the first nationwide system of admission exams since the demise of the 11-plus.

The new test is designed to ensure that schools take pupils of all abilities and prevent wealthy middle-class families monopolising the best secondaries by buying houses within the catchment areas.



Pupils would sit the test in their final year at primary school, The Times has learnt.

A White Paper published by Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary, this month is expected to pave the way for the radical shake-up of admissions. It aims to fulfil a Tony Blair pledge to make choice in education a reality for all parents, and not just the wealthy.

But the initiative threatens to trigger a fierce battle with Labour traditionalists who will see it as an attempt to restore academic selection by the back door 30 years after comprehensives replaced grammar schools in most local authority areas.

Parents would be invited to seek places for their child based on their scores and interest in specialist subjects offered by individual schools such as mathematics, languages or science.

All secondary schools are expected to be specialist by next September. Groups of schools offering different specialisms would adopt common procedures to admit pupils from up to nine ability bands ranked by the test scores.

The plan has been drawn up by Sir Cyril Taylor, an adviser to Ms Kelly and chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. The trust represents more than 80 per cent of the 3,100 secondary schools in England. All but 200 schools are expected to have specialist status by next September, achieving the Prime Minister’s goal of ending the era of the “bog-standard� comprehensive.

Sir Cyril told The Times that the remaining 200 failing or weak schools would be replaced by privately sponsored city academies. He has been put in charge of the drive to open 200 academies by 2010.

With a “specialist system� established, the next step would be to expand parental choice through an admissions procedure involving a “fair banding� test at groups of schools.

Pupils would take a non-verbal reasoning test to measure their academic ability and be placed in bands according to their score. Schools would admit the same proportion of children from each band, ensuring an equal spread of ability.

The trust sent advice to member schools this week highlighting the role of fair banding in admissions. At present, the law only permits individual schools to choose pupils using a banding test.

Sir Cyril said that he expected the White Paper to include provisions for groups of schools to adopt the same test for all local primaries as part of a common admissions policy.

Crucially, the bands would reflect the ability range of children across a local area. Existing schemes are skewed because popular schools attract more applications from high-ability children.

“If the schools get together and all use the fair banding there is no advantage to gain. Our head teachers are saying that they want this,� Sir Cyril said.


Date: 01.10.2005
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