A proposed admissions policy for grammar schools in Rugby that will exclude pupils from outside Warwickshire is being challenged by parents.

Lawrence Sheriff and Rugby High grammar schools, along with the part-selective Ashlawn School, have been instructed by council officials to stop taking large numbers of pupils from outside the county.

The proposal, due to be implemented in September 2010, will give preference to pupils from east Warwickshire over those in Coventry, Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. The decision follows concerns raised in neighbouring Northamptonshire that all the best pupils were defecting to Rugby, concerns upheld by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator at the end of last year.

But the 27 families are angry that their children will be excluded from nearby grammar schools and have set up an action group, Choices for Children.

Louise Sheen, who wants her 10-year-old daughter will be able to attend Rugby High in 2010, told the Daventry Express: “We were absolutely devastated when we discovered that these decisions had been made.”

Consultation ends on March 6.