ABSTRACT
The successful applications for sponsored grant-maintained status came from two existing Roman Catholic selective schools in Birkenhead, Merseyside. About a third of the population in the area is Catholic, and the key aspect to these two proposals was that for many years the local education authority had bought grammar school places within the schools. The school was in a reasonably strong financial position, but its heavy reliance on the assisted places scheme made it vulnerable to the Labour Party promise to remove the scheme if it were elected to government. This possibility looked strong as the 1997 General Election approached, but the school did not seriously consider grant-maintained status until it received the letter from the Congregation of the Christian Brothers asking them to do so. For the selection criteria for the school make it clear that the school intends to restrict admission to children of Orthodox Jewish traditions and practices.
