Grammar schools pay compensation to parents over 'unfair' appeals hearings

Two of the country's leading grammar schools are criticised today for failing to operate fair admissions procedures.

The Judd School in Tonbridge and The Skinners' School in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, have been found guilty of maladministration – and ordered to pay compensation for the way they conducted appeals hearings.

In two separate reports on the schools, Tony Redmond, the Local Government Ombudsman, rules that four parents who complained "were deprived of their entitlement to have their appeals considered in a fair and impartial manner" because the panels hearing them were stacked with people who had a "conflict of interest".

Mr Redmond heard appeals by two parents whose children had passed the 11-plus but failed to obtain places at The Judd School. There were also complaints by two other parents – one of whose children had passed and the other failed the test – over being refused places at The Skinners' School.

Both schools are selective voluntary-aided boys' schools and high performers in GCSE and A-level exam tables. They are linked through the Worshipful Company of Skinners.

In his report on The Judd School, Mr Redmond concludes there were "inappropriate links" between those who served on the appeals panel and the school and its governors. One representative was a former employee of the Skinners' Company, a second was a member of the school's old boys' association and a third was a long-serving governor of The Skinners' School – with which The Judd School is linked. The clerk who conducted the appeal was also clerk to the governing body that made the original decision to refuse admission.

"I cannot be satisfied, given these links, that the appeals were properly and independently considered or that conflicts of interest were properly resolved," Mr Redmond says.

In the Judd case, the boys scored 407 and 396 marks out of 420 respectively in the test – above the pass rate. But because so many candidates passed, it was raised to 412. The appeals panels eventually ruled there were no exceptional circumstances requiring them to admit the boys.

In the Skinners' complaints, one of the boys had scored 403 when the lowest score for a pupil admitted was 406. His parents claimed that – as he already spoke German, a language offered at the school – he should be considered for a place. In the case of the boy who failed the test, his parents claimed he had been under undue stress and should be considered an exceptional case.

As a result of the ombudsman's intervention, all four were offered a re-hearing and the German-speaking boy's appeal was upheld.

But Mr Redmond ruled: "The maladministration will have deprived the complainants of the opportunity to have their appeals considered in a fair and objective manner... The denial of this opportunity amounted to a significant injustice."

He told the schools they should pay each complainant £350 as a result of "the injustice this caused them".

The schools have agreed to separate the functions of the clerk to the appeals panel and clerk to the governors from next year.

A history of controversy about selective education in Kent

This is not the first time that Kent has found itself at the centre of controversy over selective schooling. One of a minority of education authorities – almost all Conservative-controlled – to retain an entirely selective system, many of its schools, including The Judd School and The Skinners' School, do well in exam league tables, while a number of others, some of which still retain the name "secondary modern", are at the foot of the tables.

Last year the bottom-ranking school was Temple, in Strood, in the Medway Towns (a separate education authority now, but one which for years was part of Kent County Council). However, the school itself received a favourable report from Ofsted, the education standards watchdog, and its head blamed its position, in part, on the fact that it lost its potentially brightest pupils to local grammar schools.

A parents' group has been campaigning for years to abolish selection in the county, but has not managed to muster the requisite number of parents to trigger a ballot – as is required by law to abolish selection in an area.

Nationally, there are 164 remaining state grammar schools in England, and none in Wales or Scotland, though grammar schools do still exist in Northern Ireland.

The number has remained constant for around the past two decades – with Labour and the Conservatives both turning their face against an expansion of selective schooling, but tolerating the status quo.

There is a proposal to reorganise secondary schooling in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, which would involve the closure of a grammar school – St Joseph's College, a Roman Catholic secondary school. Local councillors want to reorganise education in the city, based on establishing one of the Government's flagship academies. Interestingly, the school itself has said it may be prepared to drop selection if that would enable it to survive. It believes that, as a school with a good local reputation, it deserves to survive anyway.