104Designation of grammar schools
(1)Where the Secretary of State is satisfied that a maintained school had selective admission arrangements at the beginning of the 1997-98 school year, he may by order designate the school as a grammar school for the purposes of this Chapter.
(2)A school has selective admission arrangements for the purposes of this Chapter if its admission arrangements make provision for all (or substantially all) of its pupils to be selected by reference to general ability, with a view to admitting only pupils with high ability.
(3)For the purpose of deciding whether a school’s admission arrangements fall within subsection (2), any such additional criteria as are mentioned in section 86(9) shall be disregarded.
(4)Where a maintained school is a grammar school—
(a)sections 105 to 109 have effect for prescribing procedures for altering the school’s admission arrangements so that it no longer has selective admission arrangements; and
(b)its admission arrangements shall not be so altered except in accordance with those sections.
(5)Regulations may make provision—
(a)for enabling the Secretary of State to make an order designating as a grammar school for the purposes of this Chapter a maintained school established in substitution for one or more discontinued schools each of which either has been or could have been so designated under this section (whether by virtue of subsection (1) or by virtue of the regulations); and
(b)for any provisions of this Chapter, or any regulations made under it, to have effect in relation to any such school with such modifications as may be prescribed.
(6)In this section “maintained school” includes, in relation to any time before the appointed day—
(a)a county or voluntary school, or
(b)a grant-maintained school,
within the meaning of the [1996 c. 56.] Education Act 1996; and in the application of subsection (1) to a maintained school on or after the appointed day the reference to the school shall be read, in connection with determining the nature of its admission arrangements at the beginning of the 1997-98 school year, as a reference to it as a school within paragraph (a) or (b) above.
(7)In this Chapter “grammar school” means a school for the time being designated under this section.