h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The School Admissions Process in English LEA's - A2193419
Author: RickyCafe - U200331

School admissons is an area where I wish parents had a greater understanding of the whole process before it is too late.

The guide entry is based on 15 years experience as a School Governor.

Well done! An excellent idea for an entry and I'm going to post this link to someone straight away, as they asked me about the process yesterday.

You haven't mentioned grammar schools and the selection system for them. I know it's not many (about 160) and that they exist in certain pockets of the country only but the application process is very different in those LEA's. In some you can apply to both grammar and high schools then wait for the results of the test, but in others you have to make the decision about whether your child will pass or not before they take it since you are only allowed to apply for one type of school.

Also, you call it "The School Admissions Process in English LEA's" by which I know (but others may not) that you are referring to State schools so maybe you could add that into the title for clarity?

Actually, reading the entry again, I have no idea if you are talking about entry to infant school or secondary, and some LEA's still have 13+ entry schools. This misunderstanding is partly my own fault, I assumed secondary but I could be wrong. Can you clarify or say that the entry covers all?

Also "...Seldom written on any admissions policy, but vigorously enforced, schools will not admit a child into a year that is not the right chronological year for the child."
I'd take issue with that slightly. Although some schools do enforce this vigorously it's mostly because an out of year child will skew the school's league table position. I've know and worked in schools where there are children out of year with no problem, including my own daughter. So perhaps tone this down to:

"...Seldom written on any admissions policy, but sometimes vigorously enforced, schools might not admit a child into a year that is not the right chronological year for the child."
(Personally I wouldn't use the word "year" twice in the same sentence either and I'd substitute a word like "cohort" for the first one but I'll put the red pen away and leave that decision to you or a sub ed.)

Many thanks for your positive feedback.

I have made the process as general as possible, and the notes really apply to all state school's at seconary transfer level, as well as Grammar Schools. The notes also apply to primary schools.. The vital messages to get accross is for parents to understand the system, for them to be prepared in advance, and to go into the process in the right frame of mind.

I have seen many sad instances of parents who have not prepared well and worthy applications being unsucessful as a result.

Many thanks for this. I'll work on re-phrasing that part of the entry.

The main reason why schools inforce the correct year group is to avoid cases where parents try and get in using an out of year application. I know it is inbelieveable that folkswill try it - unfortunately they do.

Article now updated to reflect points made so far.

It's not that unbelievable since it's been highlighted in the press, along with pretending that the child lives with the garndparents who live closer to the chosen school and other devious means.

I would still maintain that since the SATs or GCSE scores of an out of year child do not show on the official government figures used for the league tables (which are based on birth dates) a school might use this as a reason to refuse to take on or move a child. That child would show on the figures as a fail and for example a school which is proud of a 100% record would slip.

An extreme example: Winchester (an independent school) enters all pupils a year early for GCSE. Consequently they come bottom of the GCSE league tables. State schools can't risk losing even one place in the tables since, right or wrong, that's what the national and local papers highlight for parents to read.

Ill take a look at the updates in a sec. (If I can. Rumour has it that an h2g2 server was spotted alone in the corner at the meetup yesterday downing several pints of )

You can include external links where apropriate in the entry or at the end. For example the BBC news story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/671954.stm
Or a link to the Dfes http://www.dfes.gov.uk

Please keep the observations coming. I'll be back later.

Sunday afternoon is actullay quite a bad time to stick something in Peer Review if you want comments. Monday morning is better. Lots of people are M-F posters from work. I might not get much of a chance to comment further, but I'm sure others will find it.

You could also see what other education related entries there are on h2g2 or include a link to the other dna site Parent and Child. A sub ed will do this anyway so you don't really have to, but it might speed up the process if you do it yourself.

Heres where all the other education related Guide Entries are. C18

BBC Parenting page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/parenting/

One final link. The h2g2 Parent and Child Group. A265169

Now I'm just being picky, so I really should go and do something else!

line 4 "...school governors perspective" - "...school governor's perspective"
Some of your bullet and numbered points have full stops and some don't. There is a "house style" and the sub ed will sort this out, so if you'd prefer then leave it to them.

line 3 after numbered point 3 "...you don't comfortably into the admissions criteria for the school.." - "comfortably fit"?

3rd paragraph from the bottom "If your application is rejected then you will be advised to tell the school if you still with to pursue..." - "wish to persue"

There might be more and the sub ed will find them and adapt it to the house style for punctuation and so on. You might want to think about any subheadings to break the page up a bit too.

I have made some further amendments to the article. I await the editorial comments of the weekday editors.

Very many thanks for all the highly contructive comments and corrections.

There are no "weekday editors" just other people like you and me. This is "Peer Review". But some of your peers are working day posters only. I'm a teacher and I have better things to be doing with my working day!

I'll go and look at the revised article now.

Do you think it worth mentioning the fact that most schools will take a 'first choice' child rather than a 'second or third choice' that perhaps fits the criteria better.

By this I'm referrring to the parents order of choice of schools. I'm also a governor and we take first choices first.

Obtaining a SEN by age of 11 usually requires an exceptional deviation from the norm, unless the process has been ongoing for several years - alas many primary schools are reluctant to initiate the process for having a child declared for this, and instead will use a teaching assistant to coach the child - something not practical in a secondary school.

True 'comprehensive' schools will take on your child regardless of ability, however some secondary schools are known to turn a blind eye to out of area applications for more talented pupils.

It is also important for the parent to consider the child in this, league tables hide a multitude of sins, but parents should consider size of school, special requirements, peer group etc before deciding on a school.

Some very interesting comments here. In my LEA, the schools never see the first/second/third choice rankings set by the parent. The rankings are used by the LEA only - or so they say. For the school where I am a governor (which is a comprehensive, and also VA) I know for certain that we don't recieve information about the rankings. I'll check with the DfES today about this point though in case there are differences between LEA's.

Most VA schools I think have some elements in their admissons criteria which give special priority to certain categories or abilities. Some are on the basis of religion, others add factors for a small proportion of the intake who may be strong in one or two of music, maths, IT, languages etc. I was going to add this into my article but was concerend that it might over complicate the message. I'd like some feedback about that.

As for league tables - I could not agree with you more. They have really added to the problem in areas where parents strive to get their children into schools that they consider to be the 'best' by the league tables, even though the difference between the 'best' and the 'worst' is not statistially significant. This has caused over-subscription in some schools and under-subscription in others - a phenominum which then becomes a self fulfilling prophecy as the under-subscribed schools tend to become the 'sinks' for children of parents who are perhaps less supportive of providing them with the essential mentoring from home.

As for parents taking the time to ensure they really are making the right choice - again, I wholeheartedly endorse your comments. Parent(s) and child must go and see the school and meet the staff. IMHO this is far more important than any league table. Each child is different and will thrive in diffeent environments.

I'll mull over all these points and see what others say. The main thrust of my original posting is to try and help parents who get their applications wrong because they are insufficiently prepared and have not properly researched all the options. This is especially true where they have real concerns about which is the right school for their child. Some go on to enter the whole process in a near hysterical state because they have convinced themselves that it is a battle - them vs the school, and that if they 'lose' then they have failed their child.

Too true - I'm a governor as well, but as our school is sitting 21 out of 22 in the local league, our job is more convincing people their children haven't drawn the short straw. Which means explaining value added scores and comparable schools etc.

Minor amendments to article

Like the entry. Would never have thought to make one like this myself.
Here's hoping it goes in to the Edited Guide
Oberon2001