A School Admissions Round Up
The time of year has come around again when schools should start thinking about their admission arrangements for the next intake to be determined (September 2025), to establish if they are fully compliant with current admission and other law.
Admission Arrangements
As well as establishing if they are fully compliant, schools should decide if there are any changes the Board would like to make which will need to be consulted on in the Autumn term. We set out below our top tips for these reviews:
- The 'admission arrangements' (AAs) - Before commencing your review, do you have all of the documents forming the AAs for the school? (eg policies for the main school and sixth form, application forms, supplementary information forms, minimum academic entry criteria, catchment area maps, request for admission outside normal age group forms, etc).
- Compliance - Do the AAs comply with the School Admissions Code 2021, School Admissions Appeals Code 2022 and other relevant law (eg Equality Act 2010, Human Rights Act 1998)? In particular, were previous versions varied to give effect to the new School Admissions Code 2021?
- Contents - Have you included everything you should/are required to? (eg tie breaker, child's home address, deferred/delayed/part-time attendance, procedure for dealing with requests for admission outside normal age group, etc.)
- In-year admissions - Have you included explanatory information about this, including whether applications should be directed to the school or its Local Authority, and how they will be dealt with?
- When did you last consult on the AAs? - Admission authorities are required to consult on any changes from the previous intake, or every 7 years if none are made during that time period.
- Oversubscription criteria - Are your current criteria still fit for purpose or do you want to propose any changes? (eg priority for children of staff, named feeder schools/nurseries, etc).
Sixth Form Appeals
A recently published Schools Adjudicator's decision has highlighted that current Year 11 pupils who are denied transfer to Year 12 on the grounds that they did not meet the school's determined Minimum Academic Entry Criteria have a statutory right of appeal against that 'refusal', in line with external candidates. The adjudicator commented that "It is correct … that appeals can be brought by both internal and external applicants".
Although the legislative position under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 and the two statutory codes is not very clear on this point, the adjudicator's comment itself is unambiguous. Schools are advised to review their internal transfer processes to ensure that all existing Year 11 pupils denied transfer to Year 12 are notified of this (with reasons) in writing and informed of their statutory right of appeal, the deadline for lodging an appeal and grounds, and the timeframes involved, in a similar way that is done for external candidates.
Given the very short period between GCSE results day and the start of the new school year, schools will need to be ready to move quickly to get the appeal hearings arranged and heard as soon as possible if and when appeals are lodged. Full details about the statutory right of appeal can be found in the School Admission Appeals Code 2022.