TWO of Wirral's leading schools are to go it alone by opting out of the local education authority's admissions procedure.

Calday Grange Grammar School and Wirral Grammar School for Boys are now planning to admit boys direct to their schools from September 2003.

It follows a shake-up in Wirral's grammar school selection process which has left the system in a state of chaos.

It means parents have to allocate their choices of schools for their children before they have sat the 11-plus.

This has led to many children not receiving either their first or second choice of schools, and in some cases having to go to a school many miles from where they live.

Calday Grange head Nigel Briers said: "We are trying to enable parents to make a sensible choice as the present system is a nonsense."