IN its 376 year history, Marlow's Sir William Borlase's Grammar School has rarely faced such outright criticism from the town than recently.

Many feel that since the school extended its catchment area in 1991, it has been steadily creaming of the best students from as far away as Maidenhead and Henley, slowly destroying its historic links with Marlow.

Here in an exclusive interview with DAVID LANGTON, headmaster Dr Peter Holding defends his school.

Take 985 children, a dining room that fits 120 and 50 minutes for lunch.

It sounds like one of those mind bending questions that involves a good deal of lateral thinking and some complicated sums.

But this statistical terror comes true every lunchtime at Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow's West Street.

The school is arguably the most popular grammar in Buckinghamshire and one of the most popular in the south east and is under ever increasing pressure to take more and more pupils.

Walk around the grounds and you can almost hear the bricks and mortar breathing in to squeeze in playing fields, science blocks, art studios and the like.

Headmaster Dr Peter Holding says the school cannot fit one more child under its 17th century dormers.

He said: "We are 120 students over capacity at the moment and in four years there's expected to be another 340 students in the Marlow school area. We don't have anywhere to put them. There is already huge pressure on us and this is only going to get worse."

People accept that the school is over subscribed, but the gripe of the town has been a claim that the school is turning into the Institute For The Brainiest Kids Out of County, skimming off the cream of the crop in 11-plus students from an all too broad catchment area.

This, says Dr Holding, is simply not true.

There has been suggestion that up to 70 per cent of this year's intake is from out of county. The truth is closer to 30 per cent. And no student at the school lives further than five miles away.

He said: "We are not skimming-off the best pupils. We come under the control of Buckinghamshire County Council (LEA), and have to adhere to its admissions policy, unlike Cllr Pam Crawford's (Lib Dem) suggestion in your paper over the last few weeks, claiming we had opted out of LEA control."

There are three main reasons why the school has become over-subscribed.

The Greenwich decision in 1990 (a legal ruling stating boundaries between LEAs should not be used as a basis for catchment areas)

The school's decision to go coeducational and alter its catchment area in 1991

The LEA changing from 12 plus to 11 plus in 1997

Dr Holding said the school's understanding of the Greenwich decision was that they could not have a catchment area based on political boundaries.

He said: "Our reserved area can't exclude people who live across the county boundary simply because they live across the county boundary. What you tend to do is draw a circle round the school. None of our pupils live more than five miles away. We must follow published admission criteria and we can't give preference to someone living in West Street over someone in Maidenhead High Street."

In 1991 the school made the change to its catchment area and went co-ed to save it from closure.

Dr Holding explains: "We were in danger of closing owing to falling numbers. There was a big public outcry to protect the school and the first step the governors took was to go coeducational. The second was to revise our catchment area. It was a decision taken after public consultation and from that day forward our numbers have increased."

Thirdly, Buckinghamshire County Council switching from the 12-plus to 11-plus in 1997 has added to the demand on places at the school.

Before the change, pupils across the borders were taking their 11-plus while students in Bucks sat their 12-plus.

This meant students in Bisham, Cookham, Maidenhead and parts of Henley were in limbo for one year before they could join Borlase.

Dr Holding said: "Parents would send their children to the local secondary school for a year and then decide what to do after the first year. Not surprisingly many kids stayed put."

Speaking of families who live in Marlow, whose children have passed the 11-plus, but are being offered places in Aylesbury, he said: "I am very, very sympathetic to their situation and I understand exactly why they feel like they do. If I was a parent in Marlow I would be very anxious to secure a place here, but with an oversubscribed school some people are bound to be disappointed."

When pushed about whether the school was skimming-off the best students in its area he said: "Technically that is not correct. One of the admissions criteria is the 11-plus score and if we are oversubscribed then this will have the effect of increasing our average 11-plus result but there is nothing secretive about our admissions policy. Any member of the public can apply for a copy of it through the LEA."

The admissions criteria is based on whether you:

Have passed the 11 plus

Have siblings at the school

Have the school as a first choice

Live within the catchment area

Have special medical or educational needs

Speaking about a suggested town wide referendum on the schools catchment area he said: "If we ask people in Marlow if they feel that Marlow residents be given priority I think the answer could be predicted. The answer is not what local opinion tells us but what the law allows us to do."

As for the 20 or so families appealing for places at the school this year, Dr Holding said: "We are 120 over our maximum capacity and we see no way we can accommodate any additional students this year. We have had to take our sixth form common room away. Our canteen is totally over stretched, all our meeting rooms are being used as classrooms."

Some may say why not just build more classrooms, but Dr Holding points out that they live in a conservation area and feel they are big enough already for the grounds they have.

He said: "We have no intention of carrying out any more major building work."

As for the future, he said: "This problem is going to get worse and I don't see a solution in the short term. Even if there was a way to redefine our catchment area it would take a great deal of time and would probably have to fight our case in the courts.

"I honestly don't believe we could come-up with a reserved area that would abide by the Greenwich decisions and please local residents."

This year's appeals process for places at Sir William Borlase's begins in June.

Sir William Borlase factfile

The school has 985 students on its books

It has an official capacity for 865

The numbers have more than doubled since the 1970s when the school had around 450 students

By September 2005 Buckinghamshire County Council predicts the demand for places at the school will rise to 1,145

The canteen has a capacity for just 120

Around 25 per cent of the school's population is from out of county with a third of this year's intake coming from outside

The school went co-ed and changed its catchment area in 1991 after falling numbers almost forced it to close

The school says it has no more room for any extra students and will making that submission to the LEA when it hears appeals for places from parents in June

It is illegal for the school to discriminate against applicants who live across the county border in Berkshire or Oxfordshire but are within the catchment area

The catchment area is approximately a five-mile circle around the school

The school is under LEA control and must adhere to its admissions policy

Exclusive by David Langton