Decision details

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services seeking determination of Admission Arrangements for 2014/15.  The Local Authority is the admission authority for community and voluntary controlled schools in the City.  It needs to determine its admission arrangements each year, regardless of whether changes are made to the existing arrangements. 

The Local Authority is considering making changes to the arrangements for transfer from infant schools to junior schools to enable transfer from an infant school to the linked junior school without the need for the parent to make an application.

(i)  To note the responses from the admissions consultation with Southampton Admissions Forum, schools, other relevant admission authorities, and the Church of England and Roman Catholic dioceses.

(ii)  To approve the admissions policies and the published admission numbers (PANs) for community and voluntary controlled schools including Bitterne Park, selection by aptitude and 6^th form arrangements; the schemes for co-ordinating primary and secondary admissions for the academic year 2014-15 as set out in Appendices 1- 6;

(iii)  To authorise the Executive Director for Children’s Services and Learning to take any action necessary to give effect to the admissions policy, and to make any changes necessary to the Admissions Policies where required to give effect to any Acts, Regulations or revised Admissions or Admissions Appeals Codes or binding Schools Adjudicator, Court or Ombudsman decisions whenever they arise.

1. The Local Authority has a statutory duty to determine the admission criteria on an annual basis and ensure all rising 5’s have an allocated education place.
2. The proposed policy is at Appendix 1.  This has been consulted on and the responses are available at Appendix 2.
3. Implementation of the policy is dependent on these schemes:-

·  admissions policy for Infant, Junior, Primary, Secondary and Sixth Form pupils to community and voluntary controlled schools, see appendix 1;

·  the outcomes of the annual consultation with school governing bodies and the relevant Church of England and Roman Catholic dioceses, see appendix 2;

·  published admission numbers (PANS) for community and voluntary controlled schools, see appendix 3;

·  the co-ordinated scheme for year R entry to infant/primary schools, see appendix 4;

·  the co-ordinated schemes for entry to junior school, see appendix 5;

·  the co-ordinated scheme for primary to secondary transfer, see appendix 6;

The two alternative options considered were:

(i)  To not determine local admission arrangements.  This was rejected on the basis that it would result in the imposition of admissions arrangements upon local schools by the Secretary of State for Education, and the failure of the Council to have met its statutory obligations to children and parents under the Admissions code.

(ii)  To not change admissions arrangements in relation to the relative status of children attending an infant school linked to a junior school.  This was rejected on the basis that this change was felt to give parents more confidence that their child’s primary education would follow a natural progression more similar to that of children attending a Primary school.