(1)A former participating school may provide assisted places at the school for the 1997-98 school year or a subsequent school year, but may only do so—
(a)for existing assisted pupils at the school; and
(b)subject to and in accordance with subsection (2) and regulations under section 3.
(2)If a pupil is provided with an assisted place under subsection (1) at a time when he is receiving primary education, he shall cease to hold that place—
(a)at the end of the school year in which he completes his primary education; or
(b)if the Secretary of State, where he is satisfied that it is reasonable to do so in view of any particular circumstances relating to that pupil, determines that he should continue to hold that place for a further period during which he receives secondary education, at the end of that period.
(3)Where a school providing assisted places under subsection (1)—
(a)remits fees that otherwise would be chargeable in respect of pupils holding such places at the school, and
(b)does so in accordance with regulations under section 3,
the Secretary of State shall reimburse the school for the fees so remitted.
(4)The fees in relation to which subsection (3) applies are—
(a)tuition and other fees the payment of which is a condition of attendance at the school but excluding boarding fees and such other fees as may be excluded by or in accordance with regulations under section 3; and
(b)entrance fees for public examinations paid by the school in respect of candidates from the school.
(5)For the purposes of this section a pupil at a former participating school is an existing assisted pupil if he was selected (or provisionally selected) for an assisted place at the school at any time prior to the beginning of the 1997-98 school year and either—
(a)he continues as, or becomes, a registered pupil at the school at the beginning of the first term of that year; or
(b)he becomes a registered pupil at the school after the beginning of that term but before the end of that year and the Secretary of State, where he is satisfied that it is reasonable to do so in view of any particular circumstances relating to the pupil, determines that the requirements of paragraph (a) should not apply to him.
(6)In subsection (5)—
(a)“assisted place” means an assisted place provided for the purposes of the assisted places scheme; and
(b)the reference to a pupil who was provisionally selected for such a place does not include a pupil who was so selected but from whom the place was subsequently withdrawn by the school.
[F1(7)Nothing in subsection (1) shall be taken as prejudicing the operation of any regulations under section 3 by virtue of which assisted places authorised to be provided under that subsection by a former participating school may instead be so provided by another such school or a new school created on the merger of such a school with another school.]
Textual Amendments
F1S. 7 added (24.7.1998) by 1998 c. 31, s. 140(1), Sch. 30 para.224 (with ss. 138(9), 144(6))