Southwark Council and school admissions

[intexasatthe moment]

Because I've had some difficulty in obtaining clear information from Southwark councillors ( not James as it happens ) on this subject I am posting a few points below in case anyone else is interested or confused ( as I was ) .

It is no longer compulsory for local authorities to have Admissions Forums - but they are free to retain them if they wish to do so .

The adjudicator is required to consider whether admission arrangements comply with the Admissions Code and relevant law (Admissions Code paragraph 3.1).

Under the new code the Adjudicator no longer tells the admission authority how to change their admission arrangements. Previously if there were several possible changes that would bring the arrangements into compliance the Adjudicator would tell the admission authority which changes to make.

Now the Adjudicator simply tells the admission authority what is wrong and it is up to them to fix it.

Local authorities must continue to provide annual reports to the Adjudicator as to how school admissions are working, they are now also required to publish them locally - paragraph 3.23 of the Admissions Code.

I'm not an expert on this subject - I imagine fairadmissions who posted on the Charter thread might be - and it's taxed my brain cells a bit to glean this information .

If I'm giving incorrect info then I'll be interested to hear the details .

[Carbonara]

What exactly is an Admissions Forum, and who can be a member?

Are the minutes of meetings available and open to all?

[intexasatthe moment]

Carbonara - link here http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200142/school_management/1007/schools_admissions_forum/1

Although you'll notice from this that the last published minutes relate to a meeting on 7 Feb 2011 .

This plus the fact that Southwark appears to have allowed the Charter school to carry on mismanaging it's admission policy for over 10 years might lead you to think that it's a rather disinterested ,powerless talking shop .

I may be unfairly critical ,perhaps I misunderstand it's role ,although it's published aims

What the forum does

The forum has a key role in ensuring the admissions system is fair, that it promotes social equity and does not disadvantage children. It also ensures that the admissions system is straightforward and easy for parents and carers to understand. Forums also monitor the local authority to ensure that we are complying with the schools admissions code.

seem clear enough .

It would be good to hear what Glenn Garcia

Head of Pupil Access

Children's Services

Southwark Council

has to say on Southwark's role generally and including the Admissions Forum on what we can expect in terms of monitoring ,applying an overview ,helping to ensure that admissions policies are both fair on paper and in practice .

[FatherJack]

Who represents Charter on this forum? My understanding is that every school in represented.

[Carbonara]

Thanks Intexas.

I see the purpose of the forum includes "It also ensures that the admissions system is straightforward and easy for parents and carers to understand.". If they do show signs of life, perhaps they could turn their attention to the KD Lottery and Scholarship system. No one I have met understands how they can say in their prospectus that they take 15% of their intake on scholarship and yet having a full scholarship does not guarantee a place, which can only be allocated on lottery.

It is not easy being a Southwark parent!

[intexasatthe moment]

FatherJack - representing the Charter on the forum has to be done by the head .

Of the 14 meetings (Sept 2006 to Nov 2011 ) shown on Southwark's site Dave Sheppard ( hope I've spelt that correctly ) has attended twice . It looks as though many heads attend very rarely so this seems to be quite usual .

Carbonara- I quite agree with you .

But I've seen nothing that would lead me to believe that Southwark will help or take any action on this - although I believe that it is actually a requirement in the Admissions Code that policies should be clear and understanable .

I've got a feeling ( could be wrong ) that the Admissions Code also says something about schools using a common test if they are testing for banding but this extract from the Admissions Forum minutes (29/9/10 )

Testing arrangements ? as academies want to

carry out their own individual tests, the LA will no

longer be co-ordinating this across Southwark.

Academies and Kingsdale School are expected to

carry out their own banding tests.

gives an idea of who is really dictating procedures and how concerned Southwark are to ensure a smooth admissions process for children to go through .

And this extract from the constitution clearly shows Southwark's aim to comply with the Admissions Code

The Admission Forum must act in accordance with the provision of the Code and should refer an objection to the Schools Adjudicator where it identifies policy, practice or oversubscription criteria that may be unfair or that do not comply with the manadatory provision of the Code;

and ,bearing in mind what happened at the Charter ,the gap between the aim and obligation and the practice .

[prickle]

> I see the purpose of the forum includes "It also

> ensures that the admissions system is

> straightforward and easy for parents and carers to

> understand.". If they do show signs of life,

> perhaps they could turn their attention to the KD

> Lottery and Scholarship system. No one I have met

> understands how they can say in their prospectus

> that they take 15% of their intake on scholarship

> and yet having a full scholarship does not

> guarantee a place, which can only be allocated on

> lottery.

Hear, hear! Don't know how they get away with it year after year. Surely they should take a look?

[Smiler]

Renata's post on this subject on another thread is quite mealy-mouthed IMO.

[intexasatthe moment]

Do you mean the post including this bit Smiler ?

The local authority's view is that the school admissions policy of the Charter School, including use of a safe walking distance oversubscription criterion, is in keeping with the School Admissions Code of Practice. Southwark Council does not provide a safe walking distance measurement service to The Charter School nor does it advise on which routes to include/exclude as ?safe routes? for school admission purposes. Our view is that this aspect of the policy is a matter for the academy to determine as it is its own admission authority.

[Renata Hamvas]

In response to some of the above, the reason for my vague postings about the admissions forum was in light of the changes in regulations I wanted to make sure I posted the correct information.

* I have had it confirmed that Southwark has not abolished the Admissions Forum. It still exists and the next meeting is coming up shortly, at the end of February. The Admission Forum has a fixed structure of participants, representing different schools/groups within the community.

* The current government has scrapped the requirement for there to be local Admissions Fora. At the next meeting, as it's no longer a statutory requirement, members will decide if they still want to have the forum in its current form (The council hopes they do).

The membership of the Forum is laid out in its constitution and this its membership consists of:

Representatives of the local authority (one to five)

Community and voluntary controlled schools (one to three)

Foundation schools (one to three)

Voluntary aided schools (one to three)

Church of England diocese (one to three)

Roman Catholic diocese (one to three)

Parent governors (one to three)

Local community (up to three)

Academies (one per academy)

City technology colleges (one per college)

* Southwark secondary schools are all academies or voluntary-aided, none of the secondaries are run by the local authority. That means these schools are their own 'admissions authority' which means that they, not Southwark, have the legal power to set their own admissions criteria (within national guidelines). Some primaries are also academies/voluntary aided and the same applies to them. Free schools are a type of academy, so they will be setting their own admissions criteria. The only schools where Southwark has direct control of admissions are community primaries (when they convert to Academies, their admissions policy is no longer under LA control). This is why there are such a wide variety of admissions policies in Southwark's secondaries! As many Southwark secondaries decided to administer their own banding tests, it became unworkable for a boroughwide banding test to be done, as why subject children to an banding exam which wouldn't be used for admissions purposes for schools they applied to?

Any person or body is able to raise an objection with the Schools Adjudicator against admission arrangements they feel are unlawful or not compliant with the school admissions code.

I hope this is useful,

Renata

[Carbonara]

Does anyone know how to raise an issue with the Schools Adjudicator? If an Admissions Forum has the duty to make sure admissions information is clear for parents, why can the Admissions Forum not deal with it?

I do feel that the KD Admissions procedure is very badly articulated and makes no sense if you try and piece together the information on the website and on the prospectus with regard to how they achieve a 15% intake on scholarships if they have no idea whether the scholarship awardees will even get a place in the school. Or what happens if scholarships are awarded and then more than 15% of those get places in the lottery. Applicants are told whether they have a scholarship or not very early in the admissions timetable, but not whether they have a lottery place. The explanation given to parents on the phone is nothing short of garbled. However I do not subscribe to the various conspiracy theories that this naturally provokes, I just want them to explain their procedure and the process in a way that can be understood.

[prickle]

> I do feel that the KD Admissions procedure is very

> badly articulated and makes no sense if you try

> and piece together the information on the website

> and on the prospectus with regard to how they

> achieve a 15% intake on scholarships if they have

> no idea whether the scholarship awardees will even

> get a place in the school.

As I understand it, they pick the best amongst the scholarship applicants to fill the 15% quota. The rest are put with the others into the lottery. However, it said in the letter offering the scholarship (but crucially not a place) that if the child attends KD, then it will only be with a scholarship. What is not clear then is whether there is a separate scholarship waiting list or whether they could just be offered a normal lottery place.

When it happened to my child, I spoke to the headteacher on the phone but his explanation was not clear. KD could not tell me where my child was on the waiting list. This was three years ago so it is shocking that the school has done nothing to make the process clearer and more transparent.

[Carbonara]

Having suffered one embarrassing admissions debacle, Southwark would do well, in my opinion, to look into this through the Admissions Forum or some other mechanism. Can the Admission Forum take comments from the public? (how do they know the public understand a school's procedure unless they communicate with the public?).

I know I am not alone in not having understood the KD policy - I googled looking for information when the school could not answer my questions found and several threads on MumsNet showing that confusion and misunderstanding is common.

[intexasatthe moment]

Carbonara - I read those threads on Mumsnet ,I think the suggestion was that someone should refer this issue of confusion over scholarships and how the waiting list operates at Kingsdale to the Schools Adjudicator on the grounds that the lack of clarity is in breach of the Admissions Code.

This http://www.education.gov.uk/schoolsadjudicator/howwecanhelp/a0076144/how-to-raise-an-objection-to-school-admission-arrangements link to the Schools Adjudicator explains that a parent or parents can raise issues themselves .It looks as though you intially complete an online form.

[Dorothy]

Yes, there is a poster on Mumsnet who is an expert on school admissions and posts exclusively on that subject. Re. Kingsdale he/she said (in November) "the whole scholarship thing seems very unclear to me and I've read it several times. I still can't figure out how it works. I think someone should refer this to the Schools Adjudicator on the grounds that the lack of clarity is in breach of the Admissions Code."

I'd like to see it happen.

(guess we frequent the same threads on MN itatm :))

[intexasatthe moment]

I feel very unconvinced that Southwark want to have anything to do with secondary education in the borough .

Renata - my point was that it cannot be desirable for children going through secondary transfer to sit a number of tests ; I would have hoped ( expected ) that the local authority members on the Admission Forum would have been trying to win support from the Academies/Foundation school in the borough to agree on one test that would be acceptable to all .

I don't expect Southwark to shrug it's shoulders and go "oh well as academies want to

carry out their own individual tests let's let them get on with it " .

Both the main political parties ( with the Lib Dems changing horses mid stream to suit their own political agenda ) pushed for schools to become Academies ,schools to be free of local authority control , and amongst other things to formulate and administer their own admissions policies .

Southwark embraced this move unlike some authorities who are still resisting .

Now ,when there are problems ,rather than acknowledge and address them the driving motivation is to shift the blame

- re Charter " oh it wasn't our fault they mismanaged their admissions ,that's nothing to do with us ,we do as the crow flies ". Yes switched from safe walking distance soooooo long ago oh at least 2 years wasn't it ?

re schools deciding they want to have their own banding tests to suit their individual and varying banding systems - oh that's what they want ,better let them get on with it .

From the lack of clarity over Kingsdales scholarships to the Charter's attitude that they are above the law ( I see the Southwark News is reporting the school as "provisionally " accepting the OSA's judgement ) it would seem that parents can't sit back and assume that schools will abide by codes of practice and statutory requirements .

I would have thought that Southwark has a role to play here but I don't think this is going to happen .