Admissions and Appeals

16th October 2014

Agenda

• Exercise • Purpose of Catholic Schools• Obligations of the Church and the State• The Admissions Code of Practice• Obligations on Schools• Admissions Arrangements• Appeals • In Year admissions • The Future?

Put these applications in priority order against your admissions policy

• A child with a statement of Special Education Needs that names your school in the statement

• A child who is not Catholic but has a siblings at the school• A child baptised a Catholic • A child baptised Catholic who regularly attend mass• A looked after child• A Catholic Looked after child• A practicing Church of England child• A non Catholic currently in a Catholic school• A Child living very close to the school • Catechumens – currently on RCIA programme• A child in your school nursery

The Purpose of Catholic schools?

Parents are responsible for bringing up and educating their child in the Catholic faith, The Bishop seeks to support them by providing Catholic schools to help them in their mission.

The Bishop also wants us to help him to ‘spread the good news’. He sees schools as a key part of that evangelisation role as schools come into contact with 18,000 young people and their families each school day.

As a result and in line with the Code of Practice for admissions to school the Bishop provides Catholic schools that give a preference to baptised Catholics.

The Church and the State

• Catholic Schools must ensure the Bishop’s aspirations are met by ensuring we provide places for Catholic parents seeking a place for their baptised child. DENOMINATIONAL NEED

• Local Authorities must ensure that every parent seeking a school place for their child is offered a place by the maintaining authority . BASIC NEED

Who are Catholic schools for?

• Baptised Catholics or young people received into the Catholic faith

• Additional spaces then offered to non Catholics

• All places are offered through the application of published criteria that is legally sound.

Supply of places

• The Diocese acting on behalf of the Bishop must secure in agreement with Local authorities sufficient denominational places within a local authority area to ensure the Bishop’s aspirations can be delivered.

• How does the Diocese know we have the right number of Catholic school places?

• What do we do if we have too many? • What do we do if we have too few?

NORMAL ADMISSIONS ROUNDSeptember entry to Reception or Year 7

Admissions Code of Practice

• Statutory Code – has its basis in law and imposes mandatory requirements

• Current Code came into force in February 2012• Code applies equally to all admissions authorities

who are legally responsible for ensuring their arrangements comply with the code

• Non compliance investigated by The Schools Adjudicator who issues determinations

Admissions Code of Practice

• For Voluntary Aided schools and Voluntary Catholic Academies, the Board of Governors are the Admissions Authority. For Community Schools the Local Authority fulfil this role.

• The admissions arrangements must hold up to legal scrutiny. Clear definitions must be included

How the Code works

• Ensures that all school places are offered in an open and fair way

• Admissions Authorities must ensure their arrangements comply with the code

• Deep interest from some sections of society in the admissions arrangements for Catholic schools.

• Significant increase in the challenges to admissions policies in Catholic schools being referred to the Schools Adjudicator

• IT IS ESSENTIAL WE GET IT RIGHT!!!!!!!!

The Admissions Code1. Admissions Bodies must set out the basis for admission to their

school2. Must set / determine arrangements (even if . Consultation for a

minimum 8 week period between1st November and 1st March.( IT IS RECOMMENDED YOU DO THIS ANNUALLY).

3. Arrangements for all types of school must be set out in a document by the LA. Parents can refer any arrangements they object to the Schools Adjudicator

4. Parents can select up to 3 schools – choices have an equal weighting5. LA responsible for collating and administering all arrangements –

making offer to parents6. Parents have the right to appeal the place offered

Obligations on Schools

• Catholic schools GB’s must clearly set out in an Admissions Policy the arrangements for entry to the school. These must include :

1. Planned Admissions Number (PAN) of places available

2. Admissions arrangements3. Oversubscription criteria to be applied if

applications exceed PAN

Planned Admissions Number

• The PAN is determined by the physical teaching and associated space in the school.

• This is calculated using a ‘net capacity assessment’ calculation.

• This identifies the available teaching and non teaching spaces based on the area of the school e.g. If in a Primary school there are 210 available teaching spaces identified within the net capacity assessment, the PAN would be 210 divided by the number of Statutory Year Groups ( Reception to Y6 =7), 210 divided by 7 gives a PAN of 30.

• For secondary it would be net capacity places divided by 5, with a separate calculation for sixth form.

Admissions Arrangements

• How and When to Apply – Admissions are made through the LA’s coordinated arrangements but must include any additional requirements, e.g. supplementary information form.

• Statement on late applications• Clarification on Statement of Special Education

Needs in which the school is named in statement

Oversubscription Criteria

• Model Diocesan policy; - no changes in 2014 last major changes in 2012 included;

1. Change of wording relating to ‘Looked After Children

2. Ability to include a preference for children of staff

3. Infant Class Size regulations – permitted periods

Oversubscription Criteria

• The Code gives the right to admissions authorities of Catholic schools to give preference on denominational needs

• The Diocese issues model Primary and Secondary Admissions policies

• Be careful if you move away from the model policy that your descriptions hold up to legal challenge

Appeals

• Any parent can appeal against the decision not to admit their child.

• Both the parent and the admissions body should provide a statement of case

• The appeal is heard by an independent body and their decision is legally binding on both parties

• Based on the statement of case the appeal must determine if the individual personal circumstances put forward by the parent outweigh the prejudice their admission would have on the pupils already in school

• Where KS1 legislation is cited as prejudicial, this must be stated in the appeal statement of the school

Admitting Catholic children above your PAN

• Legally as admissions authorities you can admit above PAN

• There are implications to such a decision. 1. You have chosen to overcrowd and cannot use this

as an excuse to increase the net capacity of the school

2. You will reduce your ability to present a robust appeal for other non Catholic children if you have already exceeded PAN

3. At what point do you say no?

In Year Admissions

• Must be appeals if year group is full• School must be full partners in hard to Place

protocols

The Future

• 50% cap on denominational preference likely to remain on new schools

• Strong desire to see a preference in admissions criteria for Pupil Premium pupils

The model Diocesan admissions policy would prioritise as -

1. A person with a statement of Special Education Needs that names the school in the statement

2. A Catholic Looked after child3. A child baptised a Catholic and a child baptised Catholic who

regularly attends mass3. A looked after child4. A child who is not Catholic but has a siblings at the school ( first priority in this category). Equal weighting to - Catechumens – currently on RCIA programme, A practicing Church of England child, A non Catholic currently in a Catholic school - A Child living very close to the school A child in your nursery