Report for Portfolio Holder Councillor Mrs Walton

BOROUGH OF POOLE

REPORT FOR PORTFOLIO HOLDER COUNCILLOR MRS WALTON

24 MARCH 2014

REPORT OF THE HEAD OF CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND LEARNING

CATCHMENT OPTIONS STUDY

1. PURPOSE

1.1 The purpose of this Report is to provide an update to Members on the Catchment Options Study.

1. DECISIONS REQUIRED

That the Portfolio Holder for Families and Young People – the Future of Poole approve that public consultation be undertaken, between end of April 2014 and early June 2014 for implementation of change in the Admissions round for September 2016, on two options: 1) the proposal to change to no catchment areas for Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools in Poole and 2) no change.

1. BACKGROUND

3.1 As part of the School Admission Arrangements currently all Poole Schools with Primary aged pupils have a geographical catchment area and every address in Poole will have an allocated Primary Phase catchment School.

3.2 The Local Authority is not the Admission Authority for all schools with Primary aged pupils in Poole. For Academies, Foundation and Voluntary Aided schools, the Governing Body of the School are responsible for establishing the Admission Arrangements, including the use of and the Geographical Area of catchments. Therefore, meetings have been held with Headteachers and Chairs of Governors of these Schools to seek approval to include their current Catchment Areas within this Study and then to feed back the result of the Study.

3.3 Appendix 1 provides a summary list of all documentation referred to in this Report.

3.4 Appendix 2 shows current school catchments for primary, first and infant schools. Appendix 3 shows current catchments for primary, middle and junior schools. Larger maps will be made available at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting on 11 March.

3.5 Current catchment areas for Poole schools were established by Dorset County Council prior to Local Government re-organisation in 1997 when the Borough of Poole became responsible for school admission arrangements. The catchment areas would likely have been set up to reflect broadly the locality with which a school had its closest relationship and the school would have tended to draw most of its pupils from this area.

3.6 A catchment area forms part of the oversubscription criteria within a school’s admissions arrangements. The School Admissions Code 2012 states that ‘Oversubscription criteria must be reasonable, clear, objective, procedurally fair, and comply with all legislation’ (para 1.8) and of catchment areas specifically that they ‘must be designed so that they are reasonable and clearly defined’ (Para 1.14).

3.7 Catchment areas are only relevant to the School Admissions Process where a school receives more applications than there are places available. Where a school is oversubscribed, then children living within a catchment area are ranked as high priority to attend the School. If a school is oversubscribed from within its catchment area then, for Community Schools in Poole, places are first allocated to pupils living in catchment with an older sibling still at the School and then to those who live closest to the School as measured by safe walking routes. For Voluntary Controlled Schools, priority is given to families living in catchment who meet the Faith Criteria over those who do not. See Appendix 4 for a copy of the Admission Arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools already determined for September 2015.

3.8 On 12 November 2013 a report was presented to Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee regarding the proposed admissions arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools for 2015/16 and informed Members that a catchment options study would be undertaken. This report noted that:

a) The boundaries of current catchment areas were originally based on the historic attendance pattern at each school, in the days before parental preference, when children attended their “local” school.

b) Since the current catchment areas were defined, a considerable amount of residential development has taken place and as a result the numbers of pupils within catchment areas do not now necessarily reflect the number of places available in each school. As a consequence some schools have become oversubscribed by pupils living within their catchment area while other schools have a low number of in catchment pupils.

c) The new Junior school will be sited within an existing school’s catchment.

d) Some schools are sited outside their catchment area

e) There are a small number of schools with shared catchment areas

f) Some geographical areas are not near to any school eg the Sandbanks peninsular and where the school is oversubscribed from within the catchment, families have to travel a considerable distance to get to an alternative school.

3.9 The Catchment Options Study has explored the following 3 scenarios:

1. No changes to current catchments
2. New catchment areas
3. No catchment areas

3.10 The work was undertaken by the Pupil Place Planning Team with additional support from the Corporate Strategy and Communications Team.

3.11 A new Junior School will open in Poole in September 2015. As an Academy the governors of the school will be responsible for the admission arrangements, including the use of catchment areas. In January 2014 the sponsors of the school, Aspirations Academy Trust, confirmed that the admission arrangements for the school would not include the use of a catchment area. If the school is oversubscribed after admitting Looked After Children and children with statements, places will be offered to younger siblings and children already attending one of the Academy Trust Schools. After all of these pupils have been offered a place, priority will then be given to those who live closest to the school. Other schools that are part of the Aspriations Academy Trust in Dorset include Jewell Academy in Bournemouth (Primary) and Magna Academy in Poole (Secondary). At this stage it is not possible to predict where children attending the new Junior school will live as this will be determined by Parental Preference and there is currently no historical data to help with this.

3.12 Sections 4, 5 and 6 provide information on the work undertaken in relation to the 3 scenarios listed in para 3.6 above.

3.13 Appendix 5, ‘Catchment Options Study – implications of the 3 Scenarios considered’, has been produced to explore in greater detail issues relating to all three scenarios.

4 SCENARIO 1: NO CHANGES TO CURRENT CATCHMENTS

4.1 Data shows that currently not all pupils attending a Poole school live within the catchment area for that school. The proportion of children currently on a school roll who live within the catchment for the school can vary between 28% and 95%, with the mean average being 63%.

4.2 Current 1 year old data was mapped against existing catchments to see if schools could accommodate all of the in-catchment children. The results showed that this was not possible for all schools and that for KS2 (ie Primary, Junior and Middle schools) 7 out of 15 catchments will have too many children to be accommodated at the school. Figures 1 and 2 below below show the results.

Fig 1 Current Primary, First and Infant schools catchments

Fig 2 Current Primary, Middle and Junior catchments

4.3 Therefore, on average, over one third of pupils on roll at a Poole school do not live within catchment of the school and existing catchments no longer reflect current demographics.

4.1 Where families apply for schools that are oversubscribed and are not successful in getting a place, parents have the opportunity to go to appeal. In September 2013 59 in-catchment families who applied for Baden Powell and St Peter’s Voluntary Controlled School were refused a place (20 for year 3 and 39 for year 4) and 35 of these families appealed against the decision. All of these appeals were allowed by an independent appeal panel and during the process both Parents and the Panel members questioned the relevance and fairness of current catchments.

4.2 Catchment areas are not currently working for all schools in Poole, are not in keeping with the Schools Admissions Code and would likely be deemed unreaonable. Both parents and Admission Appeal Panels have commented that they do not understand why, when it is known that catchment areas are oversubscribed, no action has been taken to review these. The option of no change places the Council at risk of challenge through the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.

4.6Appendix 5, ‘Catchment Options Study – implications of the 3 Scenarios considered’, has been produced to explore in greater detail issues relating to all three scenarios.

4.3 Summary:

• No disruption to current arrangements

• In some schools (recently one Infant School and one Junior school) not all in catchment children who want to attend the school can be offered a place at the school. Additional schools may fall into this category due to increased population rates and/or increasing popularity of schools within areas of dense population.
• Anecdotal evidence tells us that for a small number of parents living in an oversubscribed catchment creates high levels of anxiety

• Current catchments can be deemed unreasonable and subject to challenge to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.

• Where schools are oversubscribed from within catchment parents and Admission Appeals Panels have commented that they do not understand why catchments have not been reviewed.

• The majority of schools that have provided feedback have indicated that current catchments are no longer representative of the school and need to be reviewed.

5 SCENARIO 2: REVISED CATCHMENT AREAS

5.1 This section provides a summary of the four Options (A, B, C and D) modelled for possible revised catchment areas. A summary of the methodology can be found in the briefing note for Headteachers at Appendix 6 and full details on the methodology can be found at Appendix 7.

5.2 At the start of the study it was unclear whether or not the admissions policy for the new Junior school would have a catchment area as part of its oversubscription criteria. Therefore, two Options were considered for the Primary/Infant/First school catchments (Options A and B) and the Primary/Junior/Middle school catchments (Options C and D) to model both no catchment and a nominal catchment for the new Junior school. In order to meet the principle of not creating shared catchment areas (see para 5.2) the nominal catchment for the new junior school could not overlap with a Primary catchment area as if this were allowed to happen a child in Key Stage 2 would be in catchment for both a primary and junior school.

5.3 Proposed Primary, Infant and First School catchments

Option A: Catchment design which includes Primary, Infant and First School catchments with no catchment for the new Junior school

Using the method described the proposed catchments were developed. These can be seen on the map at Appendix 8.

Option B: Catchment design which includes Primary, Infant and First School catchments with a nominal catchment for the new Junior school

As the site of the new junior school is located within a current primary school catchment in Option A this required the model described to be adjusted in order to create a nominal catchment area for the new school. This resulted in moving catchment boundaries so that the site of the new junior school is not located within a primary school catchment area.

The map at Appendix 9 shows the result of this adjustment on the proposed Primary/Infant/First School catchments to create Option B.

5.4 Proposed Primary, Junior and Middle catchments

Additional principles were applied for the creation of Primary/Junior/Middle school catchments as follows:

• All Primary catchments should remain fixed.
• The following Infant/First catchments should be fixed to mirror Junior/Middle catchments (based on proximity of the two schools and historical links):

- Broadstone, Merley and Springdale First Schools with Broadstone Middle

- Ad Astra Infant with Haymoor Junior

- Canford Heath Infant with Canford Heath Junior

-Sylvan Infant with Branksome Heath Junior

- Twin Sails Infant with Hamworthy Park Junior.

Option C: Catchment design which includes Primary, Junior and Middle School catchments with no catchment for the new Junior school

Building on the catchments in Option A and using the method described with the additional principles described above, the proposed catchments were developed.

Option C shares the catchment areas for Courthill, Lilliput, Old Town and Stanley Green Infant Schools between Baden Powell and Oakdale Junior Schools. This model can be linked to the Option A proposal for Primary, Infant and First Schools.

In this model it is presumed the new Junior school will fill with students from the Oakdale Junior School catchment and Baden Powell School catchment. Therefore the overall count of students expected to attend these schools has been modified to reflect this.

The map at Appendix 10 shows the proposed catchments for Option C.

Option D: Catchment design which includes Primary, Junior and Middle School catchments with a nominal catchment area for the new Junior school

Building on the catchments in Option B and using the method described, with the additional principles described above, proposed catchments were developed.

A nominal catchment area has been created for the new Junior school. This option shares catchment areas for Courthill, Lilliput, Old Town and Stanley Green Infant Schools between Baden Powell, Oakdale and the new Junior School. This model can be linked to the Option B proposal for Primary, Infant and First Schools.

Map at Appendix 11 shows the proposed catchments for Option D.

5.5 While Options B and D show that it is possible to create a nominal catchment for the new Junior school, there is no advantage to doing this now that it is clear that the school will not be using a catchment area. Options B and D should be discounted if revised catchment areas are to be proposed.

5.6 Option C models revised Junior school catchments; however the number of children within the catchment for Baden Powell and St Peter’s Junior School remains higher than the number of places available in the school (even if 50% of the children attending the new Junior school come from within the Baden Powell and St Peter’s catchment area there would still be too many children within this catchment area to be accommodated in the school). It is not possible to predict Parental Preference and so adopting the revised catchments will not necessarily prevent in catchment refusals at Baden Powell and St Peter’s Junior School in the future.

5.7 Appendix 5, ‘Catchment Options Study – implications of the 3 Scenarios considered’, has been produced to explore in greater detail issues relating to all three scenarios.

5.8 Summary:

• Catchments become more reasonable as they better reflect the local demographics and locations of schools.

• This option does maintain catchment areas as part of the oversubscription criteria

• There is no guarantee that with the revised catchments a school could not be oversubscribed from within catchment. This would not completely resolve the issue of the additional anxiety for families living in catchment and the appeals for places at these schools.

• The new junior school will not have a catchment as part of its oversubscription criteria.

• The new catchments proposed do not always have boundaries that reflect what a school would prefer and it is anticipated that not all families would be happy with the changes.

• Will require regular reviews – suggested every 5 years but more regularly if there are significant changes in population and school capacities.

• The majority of schools that have provided feedback have indicated that revised catchments would not resolve the current issues or be sustainable as schools seek academy status and consider changing their admission arrangements.

• All schools who are their own admitting authority have indicated that they do not want to pursue this option. This could leave some addresses without a catchment school.

6 SCENARIO 3: NO CATCHMENT AREAS

6.1 Catchment areas are only used where a school has more applications than places available and have historically been used as part of the oversubscription criteria for schools. There is no legal requirement for a school’s admission arrangements to have a catchment area and if there is no catchment area, places can be allocated according to distance from the school and this is an acceptable oversubscription criterion.

6.2 Including the Borough of Poole, there are 163 local authorities within England. 57 local authorities operate their admission arrangements with no catchment areas and 94 local authorities operate using catchment areas. The remaining 12 local authorities operate with a mixture of no catchment and catchment areas, although it is expected that this number will rise as schools convert to Academies and set their own admission arrangements. Within Bournemouth and Poole there are already own admission authorities that operate with no catchment areas.

6.3 The majority of local authorities that operate without catchment areas (either in part or in full) use oversubscription criteria that prioritise (after children with Statements, Looked After and Previously Looked After Children and children with exceptional medical circumstances) siblings by distance, then all other applicants by distance. Many local authorities use straight line distance measurements but there are local authorities that use safe walking routes to prioritise applications, as is currently used in Poole.

6.4 In addition to prioritising applications using siblings and distance, there are some local authorities that have included oversubscription criteria to encourage families to apply for their closest school. There is a local authority that ranks applicants based on the distance to their preferred school compared with the distance to their nearest school – which allows priority to be given to those living furthest from an alternative school.