To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what his Department's policy is towards the Specialist Schools (Selection by Aptitude) Bill. [100818]
The Bill seeks to repeal the provisions of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, which enable schools with a specialism, not just those designated under the Specialist Schools Programme, to give priority to up to 10 per cent. of pupils who can demonstrate an aptitude in one or more of the prescribed subjects.We do not believe it is necessary nor desirable to remove the flexibility which enables the admission authorities for schools with a specialism, where they wish to do so, to give limited priority to pupils with a particular aptitude for the relevant specialism. Allowing limited use of aptitude in this way makes it possible for pupils who, for example, show a capacity to be trained or developed in sport or the visual arts to get a place where they would not have been able to do so under the school's other admissions criteria.The basis on which schools may use aptitude as part of their admissions criteria is set out in my Department's statutory guidance document, "School Admissions Code of Practice".