School Admissions

2.21.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 18th Dec 2007

Letters went out late, and schools did not know what was going on.

The 'equal preference' system for school admissions was first used for admissions to Surrey schools this year, September 2007. It means that parents don't have to worry that they will lose a place in the second or third of their preferred schools if the first school is full, just because they did not place those schools first.

Overall the new system should have saved parents anxiety. Last year, throughout the county fewer than 5% of children were not admitted to one of their three preferred schools. [Find the figures for your area in Annex 1 to Executive Report "School Admission Policy Review 2009" - see Related Link below.]

Unfortunately letters went out late, and schools did not know what was going on.

Then there were conflicts around admissions where the new way of applying the criteria changed customary geographical patterns for 'getting in' to some schools. This was particularly acute around the Howard of Effingham School. Children from the Horsleys were no longer accepted, and their protests went to the Schools Adjudicator. Then the tiebreak to the 'nearest school' criterion was changed by the Schools Adjudicator to 'nearest alternative school', pitting the interests of communities in the Horsleys and Fetcham against each other.

For admissions in 2008, outside consultants are being brought in to work with the computer data base, and the offer letters to parents will be printed by an outside company. Diana Smith, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Schools and Learning, said:"We're also told that this year there will be a preliminary review of applications so that 'pinch point' and 'capacity issues' can be identified, and proposals developed to identify problems".

County Councillor Diana Smith added: 'It's a pity the Conservatives in charge at County Hall were too preoccupied with overall restructuring and making cuts last year to make sure the staff had the resources to get the administration right first time round, and then to identify more quickly and effectively where the emerging problems were."

Related Link:

Executive Report - see pages 9 and 10