Postby mamaclapham » Wed May 15, 2013 6:47 am
This is the answer I got from the council after having my petition refused on their website. It was a petition against the current admission criterias and checks on genuine renters(I will log it on another website)
Apparently the only way forward is to try and have them determine a pre-established area. We live 272mt from Honeywell and are n 41 on the nursery waiting list. Out of 64 places 54 were given to siblings.
Dear Ms ,
I am responding to your comments about the policy of giving priority to siblings irrespective of where they live. Giving priority to siblings in oversubscription criteria is a long-established principle which is endorsed by the Department for Education in its School Admissions Code. In primary schools, in particular, it is recognised as important that children can attend the same school, wherever possible.
In any year some siblings offered places will live outside of the immediate area around the school and therefore further than the distance of the last applicant offered a place under the proximity criterion. However, many of these still live locally and will have secured a reception place at the school in previous years when pressure on places was not as great as this year and children were admitted from further away. Others may have obtained a place for an older child through a vacancy arising in a higher age group where the pressure on places is not so great. The instance of these places being obtained through renting a property in the area whilst owning a property elsewhere is considered to be low. That said, and as made clear in Mr Belloli’s reply, the Council has a thorough address verification process in place and does what it can to expose fraudulent applications within the constraints of practicality of investigation and available resources.
As Honeywell school does not have a pre-determined geographical priority area, there is no defined boundary (or what you describe as a ‘catchment area’) within which the school is expected to admit children. Although such areas are in place at a few other schools in the Borough, these were put in place many years ago to address the issue of some parents having access to several schools in the area, whilst others had no access to any local school.
Council officers have considered whether it would be possible to limit priority to siblings of children who live within a prescribed distance from a school, or to families whose address remains the same as when the older sibling was admitted. It was concluded that such restrictions would create difficulties for families moving locally or due to circumstances beyond their control, and would make it more difficult for parents to assess the potential outcome of their application when expressing their preferences. For both reasons, it was considered that such a limitation would be seen as lacking transparency and equity and would therefore be open to challenge under the School Admissions Code.
Officers judged, therefore, that the only means of giving a lower priority to siblings living some distance from a school would be to establish a pre-determined priority area, giving priority to all residents within it, over siblings living outside. That said, drawing boundary lines on the map can prove difficult unless they can be objectively justified.
The Governing Body of Honeywell School are the statutory Admission Authority for the school and any variation to the admission arrangements would need to be proposed by them. Admission Authorities are required to determine and publish their Admission Arrangements annually in the year prior to the academic year of admission. The Office of the Schools Adjudicator determines objections to admission arrangements where these are considered to be unlawful or not compliant with the School Admissions Code.
Yours sincerely,
Head of Pupil Services
