A WHOLESALE review of Bexley’s selection process for its secondary schools is being planned amid a growing row over grammar school places.

Bexley Council says the review will look at current policies and procedures around the selection process.

It follows complaints from a growing band of parents about the number of selective places being awarded to children from outside the borough and from independent schools at the expense of pupils at Bexley’s primary schools.

Parents claim bright borough children from ordinary schools are now being pushed out of Bexley’s grammar schools in favour of children from independent and out-of-borough schools who have been coached specifically for the test, a practice discouraged in Bexley primary schools.

Several parents have raised the issue with Schools Secretary Ed Balls and asked him to investigate.

Some parents are pressing Bexley to follow neighbouring Kent’s lead.

Kent also operates a selective system, with four grammar schools in Dartford and Wilmington close to the borough boundary with Bexley.

Bexley parents claim Kent allocates places at its grammar schools to Kent children first.

The exception is Dartford Girls’ Grammar School, which operates a one-mile radius policy.

Parents also claim the “top 180” policy designed to guarantee Bexley’s brightest children a grammar school place regardless of where in the borough they live has now been relaxed to include children from outside the borough.

Bexley Council says it is governed by the Statutory Admissions Code, which forbids it from preventing any child from taking the test or applying for a place at a Bexley school.

A spokeswoman pointed out while 1,270 children were deemed selective, there are only 754 grammar school places available.

She said: “Where there are more applicants than places, the oversubscription criteria apply.

“These give priority to looked after children, siblings of current pupils and distance from the school.”

She said last year 553 of the 1,294 children deemed selective were from Bexley primary schools, but pointed out all Bexley children take the test.

The spokeswoman added when last year’s places were taken up, 62 per cent of the allocation went to Bexley children and only three Bexley children deemed selective failed to get a grammar school place.

TEST BY THE NUMBERS

LATEST figures from the council show 4,690 children took this year’s Bexley test and of those 1,270 (27 per cent) were deemed selective.

More than half the children (2,628) taking the test were pupils at Bexley primary schools and of these, 445 (17 per cent) were deemed selective.

In addition, 79 children from Bexley’s independent schools took the test and 54 (68 per cent) were put in the selective band.

The remaining 1,983 children who took the test came from outside Bexley, and of these 771 (39 per cent) were also deemed selective.

Bexley parents argue of the 1,270 children who were placed in the selective band following the test, only 35 per cent were Bexley primary schoolchildren.