RECIPIENT(S): Headteachers and Chairs of Governors of all C of E Schools & Academies.
SDBE CONTACT: Carol Jerwood / DATE:January 2014
NB:This briefing reproduces the main findings of the School Adjudicator’s Annual Report. Governing bodies should consider the findings and take any action they consider necessary. Italic text has been added by the SDBE as explanatory notes where necessary.
1Consultation and determination of admission arrangements: All admission authorities must comply with the requirements of the Code in respect of consultation about and determination of their full admission arrangements. They should check their arrangements against paragraphs 14 and 15 of the Code (see below). Local authorities should take firmer action with admission authorities to ensure they consult parents and all those listed in paragraph 1.44 of the Code so that they have the opportunity to comment on proposed changes to arrangements.
Extract from paragraphs 14 and 15 of the Code: The practices and the criteria used to decide the allocation of school places must be fair, clear and objective. Parents should be able to look at a set of arrangements and understand easily how places for that school will be allocated.
2Sixth form admission: All schools that admit students new to the school into the sixth form need to ensure they comply with the general requirements of the Code, including those for consultation, determination, a published admission number for new students and publishing the arrangements. The arrangements also need to include any matters that apply specifically to the sixth form.
3School website: Admission arrangements for admission to all relevant age groups are often difficult to find on a school’s website, do not make clear the year to which they apply, or are incomplete.
Admission authorities need to be more responsible in publishing their admission arrangements once determined and local authorities should make checks to ensure that admission authorities meet the requirements of the Code about publishing their arrangements.
Schools should ideally have an admissions “tab” on the website, to make the admission arrangements easy to find. Schools are in breach of the DFE Admissions Code if they do not have the admission arrangements on their website and in any year when a consultation is taking place the consultation will be invalid if not published clearly on the website.
4Nursery priority: The practice in some primary schools of giving priority for admission to the reception year to children who have attended particular nursery provision has been found to be unfair to other local children.
The Chief Schools’ Adjudicator has recommended that the Department for Education should consider issuing guidance for schools and local authorities so that there is fair access to schools for all children on reaching compulsory school age in order that children are not disadvantaged by any decisions their parents make about the care of their children prior to compulsory school age or by access to specific child care.
It is not clear yet whether the DFE will issue any guidance on this. In the many adjudications on nursery priority in recent months it has become clear that the Adjudicators can see no circumstances in which priority to nursery applicants is fair. It is therefore deemed to be contrary to the Code, despite the fact that the Code does not categorically rule it out. There is in fact only one reference to nursery in the Code and this relates only to there being no automatic transfer to reception.