Admissions policy - divorcing from the LEA

Mikey · Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 3

Our LEA, or specifically their admissions appeals panel, is being
a royal pain in the backside.

Our KS1 is full. The LEA tell parents it is full but tells them
they can appeal. They appeal and the appeals panel *always* finds
with the parents. So now both of our year 2 classes have 33 pupils
this term.

Questions

1) What would happen if we flatly refused to take a child that
the appeals panel had said could come to the school.

2) Is there a way (or a precedent) to divorce ourselves from the
LEA as our county-wide admissions body and instead give the power
specifically to the governing body (or even to the local federation
of schools)?

regards,

Mikey

Archived from group: uk>education>governors

Martin Frey · Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 49

Mikey wrote:

>2) Is there a way (or a precedent) to divorce ourselves from the
>LEA as our county-wide admissions body and instead give the power
>specifically to the governing body (or even to the local federation
>of schools)?

Go for foundation status: have a look at

www.fasna.org.uk

The Foundation and Aided Schools National Association have a guide to
how to achieve foundation status and the benefits and consequences
that flow from it.

Don't hesitate to email Joan Binder from the site, she is a governor
and co-chair of the executive committee and can certainly answer most
of your questions.

--
Martin Frey
http://www.hadastro.org.uk
N 51 02 E 0 47

frere cadfael · Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 3

Does the school run its own admissions procedure?
The only real basis that an appeal panel can find for the parents is if the
admission policy has not been properly implemented...
The appeal panel should be clerked by a member of the Legal Dept of the
council who will tell them what they can or can't do

Or am I just being naive??

"Martin Frey" wrote in message@4ax.com...
> Mikey wrote:
>
> >2) Is there a way (or a precedent) to divorce ourselves from the
> >LEA as our county-wide admissions body and instead give the power
> >specifically to the governing body (or even to the local federation
> >of schools)?
>
> Go for foundation status: have a look at
>
> www.fasna.org.uk
>
> The Foundation and Aided Schools National Association have a guide to
> how to achieve foundation status and the benefits and consequences
> that flow from it.
>
> Don't hesitate to email Joan Binder from the site, she is a governor
> and co-chair of the executive committee and can certainly answer most
> of your questions.
>
> --
> Martin Frey
> http://www.hadastro.org.uk
> N 51 02 E 0 47

Mikey · Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 3

frere cadfael wrote:
> Does the school run its own admissions procedure?
> The only real basis that an appeal panel can find for the parents is if the
> admission policy has not been properly implemented...
> The appeal panel should be clerked by a member of the Legal Dept of the
> council who will tell them what they can or can't do
>
> Or am I just being naive??

Naive? No.

The LEA runs admissions for the whole county. The appeals panel seems to
pay no attention to them. I spoke to the DFES today and got the
impression that they can do exactly what we don't want to do which is
admit children to our school during the academic year even if it
means our KS1 classes are over the legally compelled limit of 30 children.
That, it seems is actually OK as long as the school takes steps to change
it at the start of the next academic year. Our actual problem right now
is that the appeals panel has resulted in us having 33 children in each
of our year 2 classes. Next term (year) KS1 years 1 and 2 will be just
under the legal limit - at least at the start of the year. We really
don't want to get into this state again - especially if they add children
over the limit in Year 1. That is our nightmare scenario as we could not
then legally allow more than 30 for each class to go forward when they
change to year 2.

My frustration is immense.

I like the idea of the legal dept clerking the appeals meeting. I will
talk to the LEA (whom I have no major beef with) about this.

regards,

Mikey

nospam · Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 1

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 18:48:15 +0100, Mikey
wrote:

>frere cadfael wrote:
>> Does the school run its own admissions procedure?
>> The only real basis that an appeal panel can find for the parents is if the
>> admission policy has not been properly implemented...
>> The appeal panel should be clerked by a member of the Legal Dept of the
>> council who will tell them what they can or can't do
>>
>> Or am I just being naive??
>
>Naive? No.
>
>The LEA runs admissions for the whole county. The appeals panel seems to
>pay no attention to them. I spoke to the DFES today and got the
>impression that they can do exactly what we don't want to do which is
>admit children to our school during the academic year even if it
>means our KS1 classes are over the legally compelled limit of 30 children.
>That, it seems is actually OK as long as the school takes steps to change
>it at the start of the next academic year. Our actual problem right now
>is that the appeals panel has resulted in us having 33 children in each
>of our year 2 classes. Next term (year) KS1 years 1 and 2 will be just
>under the legal limit - at least at the start of the year. We really
>don't want to get into this state again - especially if they add children
>over the limit in Year 1. That is our nightmare scenario as we could not
>then legally allow more than 30 for each class to go forward when they
>change to year 2.
>
>My frustration is immense.
>
>I like the idea of the legal dept clerking the appeals meeting. I will
>talk to the LEA (whom I have no major beef with) about this.

I only have experience with a Foundation school so some of these
comments may not apply if your school is not.

If you have more than 30 in your year 2 class then they when they pass
into year 3 there will not be such a problem as the 30 child limit
does not apply. I guess the appeals panel took this into
consideration and would not have done the same if the children were
going into JR or J1.

However I am surprized that the appeal panel allowed that many any
extra children - maybe your admissions policy need clarifying -
although there is little flexibilty in KS1 admissions.

AFAIK, however, you are obliged to take the children if the appeal
is successful. Maybe they are expecting you to run split Y1/2
classes?
If your policy excludes split classes then you would have more chance
that future appeals would be turned down. However an appeal may be
successful anyway if no other local schools can take the children.

Hope this helps, M

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