Issue - meetings

School Admission Arrangements for Voluntary Aided Schools and Academies

Meeting: 27/01/2016 - School Admissions Forum (Item 13)

13 School Admission Arrangements for Voluntary Aided Schools and Academies pdf icon PDF 147 KB

To receive and consider a report informing on consultations issued by the admission authorities for voluntary aided schools and academies.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Sue Riddick introduced the Admission Arrangements for Voluntary Aided Schools and Academies report which was set out on Agenda pages 11-52.  The report contained information of consultations issued by the admission authorities for voluntary aided schools and academies where known.

 

Sue commented on the proposed school arrangements which had been brought to the Forum at the last meeting:

 

All Saint’s CE Aided Primary School

·           Sue recommended greater clarity regarding the timetable for hearing school appeals.

 

St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School

·           The wording around children being admitted outside of their age group was confusing and needed reviewing;

·           Criterions 2 and 7 were not clear if they included pre-school children;

·           Amalgamation of criterions 3 and 4 was proposed;

·           The definition of practicing Catholics needed was clearer;

·           It is recommended that waiting lists would close at the end of the academic year and parents would have to re-apply for the following academic year in order to continue on the waiting list.

 

Evendons Primary

·           The school was advised to reword the third paragraph relating to ‘walking to school’ to say ‘expected to be in the vicinity of the school’;

·           Sue had corrected a few typo errors;

·           It was suggested that it would be a good idea to give an indication to parents of the likelihood of obtaining a place at the school.

 

Forest School

·           Sue suggested that the reference to the requirement for Year 11 exam results should be published in the school’s website and signposted in the policy;

·           Sue was concerned with the proposed change in catchment area as there was an expectation that places would be offered to local children.  Also, given that it was a single sex school, there was a correlation to the allocation of places at the Holt.  Phiala Mehring, Forest School Governor explained that the change had been introduced in an effort to ensure the school remained full and financially sound.  David Babb suggested that the school included in its marketing literature the statistics of how many boys had been admitted who were from Bracknell and Reading, this would give parents and indication of the likelihood of obtaining a place at the Forest;

·           Sue commented on the tie breaker, the distance from the school and the medical grounds, as these had been amended.

 

Members suggested that it would be helpful to include a space in application form for ‘single sex’ preference.  The Chair advised that as applications are received from out of the Borough residents this was not necessary on the application form, the onus must be on parents advising their reasons for choosing the school when expressing a preference for the school.

 

The Forum was informed that the following schools had commenced consultation on the proposed admission arrangements for 2017/2018 since the last meeting of the Forum: St Sebastian’s CE Aided Primary School; The Piggot School and Oakbank School.  The proposed changes and Sue’s comments to the schools is described below.

 

St Sebastian’s CE Aided Primary School

The school proposed a simplification of its oversubscription criteria  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13