The Schools Blog

These notes on schooling and education are written by Tony Attwood.  You can read more news on www.schools.co.uk   If you work in a school you can receive additional news through our regular email news service by signing up at http://www.schools.co.uk/subscribe.html    These services are free.  

The government has says it suspects some councils and schools may be flouting the new tougher, mandatory School Admissions Code which came into force one year ago.  New policies have to be finalised by April 15. The Code rules out subjective arrangements, which penalise low-income families, or vulnerable children, with disabilities, special educational needs or in care. 

The independent Office of the School Adjudicator, which regulates the admission system, has investigated objections against 79 schools in the last year, where their admission criteria and practices have breached legislation or the Code.  

Complaints investigated include:

• children in care are not given highest priority as required by law;

• unfair or unnecessary supplementary information forms asking for personal details about parents such as asking for copies of birth or marriage certificates;

• unclear and confusing admission arrangements, when the law requires them to be fair, objective and clear;

• the use of subjective tests and criteria such as asking parents to give their reasons for applying for a particular school and then making a subjective judgement about whether those reasons are better or worse than those given by other parents; and

• schools retaining first preference first policies, asking about the order that parents have ranked their choices of schools or where parents or children have been asked to attend an interview. 

 The Government It will publish new guides for parents in the spring to help them understand the system and how they can complain if they find admissions that they think may be unlawful. The Code balances the right of parents to have a fair hearing and the right of schools to be protected against admitting more pupils than originally planned, if that will have a detrimental effect on children’s education.

From today, by law all admission authorities, governing bodies, admission forums, schools adjudicators and appeals panels now have to adhere to the Code – previously they only had to have ‘regard’ to it.

The Code sets out that:

• anyone who has a connection with the school or who could in any way be perceived as being partial must not sit on an appeal panel or act as clerk;

• appeal panel members and clerks must now receive suitable training before they hear appeals – including on the statutory admission code and related law, including the Sex Discrimination Act, Disability Discrimination Act and Race Relations Act.

• specific timescales within which an appeal must be held;

• all parents must have appropriate guidance and information from admission authorities, to help prepare their case for appeal;

• all appeal panels must have regard to the impact of additional admissions on the quality of education and use of resource in schools; and

• local authorities and diocesan bodies should consider centralising the recruiting and training of panel members and Clerks, and take responsibility for administering the appeals process – leading to greater independence and consistency in administration, clerking and decision-making.

School Admission Appeals Code is available at: www.dcsf.gov.uk/sacode  

There’s a lot more information and a link to every school in the UK on www.schools.co.uk   If you are looking to sell products or services to schools you’ll find a lot more information on www.educationmarketing.org.uk