Report of the Director of Education

This report seeks approval to commence consultation on revised admissions arrangements for community and voluntary controlled primary schools and community high schools.  The Committee is invited to comment on the report prior to its submission to the Executive on 19 October 2022.

The Committee received a report of the Director of Education which sought approval to commence consultation on revised admissions arrangements for community and voluntary controlled primary schools and community high schools.  The Committee was invited to comment on the report prior to its submission to the Executive on 19 October 2022.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Background;
• Main issues;
• The proposal to change the re-application process from three times per year to one and the benefits of this;
• Oversubscription criterion, which were not changing;
• Consultation; and
• Other admission authorities.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To support the proposal that applicant details remained on the waiting lists for the higher preference school for the whole or remainder of that academic year, rather than parents having to re-apply each term;
• Families who had to move, sometimes more than once, due to domestic abuse and what was being done to support them in obtaining a suitable school place;
• The medical evidence required to be classed as Category 2 (children with exceptional medical/social needs) under the oversubscription criterion and costs associated with this;
• Children in a school nursery who were not successful at getting a place in the Reception year of the school;
• The importance of communication to parents on applying on time and putting more than one preference on the admissions form; and
• Travel to school and further education settings, including the financial costs for families, and the environmental costs.

The Head of Access and Sufficiency reported that, where families were placed in temporary accommodation, the Council worked to provide travel solutions to enable the children to continue to attend their existing school but, where this was not possible, they would look to provide a more local school place as quickly as possible and the process for this had recently been improved.  She advised that parents were usually able to provide documents that they already had, such as letters about hospital appointments, as evidence that their child should be classed under Category 2 and, therefore, there was no additional cost to the family.  In response to Members’ questions, she reported that a high proportion of in-year applications were offered a place at one of their preferred schools but that this was more difficult at secondary level and that, as more secondary places were made available, this should improve.  In response to a question about families re-applying for a preferred school, she reported that, once children had started attending at a school which was an alternative offer, most families chose for their child to continue at that school, rather than continuing to re-apply for the school they had originally preferred.  She advised that there was currently more availability for primary school places but, if Members had concerns about particular primary schools where children from the school nursery were not getting a place in Reception, she could look into it to see if parents were applying after the deadline and whether more needed to be done with those nurseries to communicate the importance of submitting an application on time.  The Director of Education clarified that attending a school nursery did not guarantee a place in the school’s Reception year; however, there was now better sufficiency of places at Reception level and sometimes the reason for not getting a place was because parents thought they did not need to submit an application because their child already attended the nursery, or because they did not submit it on time, and all the places were allocated to families who had submitted the application on time.  The Chair advised that nurseries could help to communicate this information to the parents.

The Committee discussed secondary school places, in particular in the north of the city, and a Member shared concerns about children who had not started secondary school because the school they had been offered was of a different faith from the family’s.  The Executive Member for Children’s Services offered to discuss the specific cases raised with the Member.  He emphasised the importance of the Council and primary schools communicating strongly to parents about the importance of including more than one school preference on the admissions form.  The Chair suggested that this issue be discussed with Ward Councillors in the north of the city as it was likely that other primary schools were aware of issues with parents not accepting the secondary school places that were offered.  She expressed concern about children who were not in school, including those whose parents had chosen Elective Home Education (EHE) and asked for up-to-date figures on this, including a breakdown by areas of the city.  The Director of Education reported that school attendance was improving and that her service was looking at children who had not returned to school.  She stated that, where families had not got a place at their preferred school, they were advised to send the child to the offered school and that they could still try to obtain a place at their preferred school through the waiting list or an appeal, or look for another alternative school.  A Member commented that some families would be concerned about the cost of buying a school uniform for their offered school if their child might later get a place at the preferred school.

Decisions

1.            To support the proposal that applicant details remain on the waiting lists for the higher preference school for the whole or remainder of that academic year, rather than parents having to re-apply each term.

2.            To note the formal consultation on changing the admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled primary schools and community high schools will commence on 31 October 2022.

3.            To ask that up-to-date figures on children who are not in school, including those whose parents have chosen Elective Home Education (EHE) be included in a future report and that this include a breakdown by areas of the city.