Memorandum submitted by Mr Paul Robinson,
Director of Education, London Borough of Wandsworth (SA 30)
THE LONDON
CONTEXT
Features:
— Hierarchy of schools in the eyes
of parents which condition choice and satisfaction with the system.
— Large number of different admission
authorities, a mixture of admission criteria and appeal arrangements.
— Significant movement of pupils across
borough boundaries.
— Secondary schools with a large number
of feeder primary schools.
— Highly developed independent sector,
which attracts a higher percentage of able and motivated pupils
than the national average.
— Large number of multiple acceptances
of offers effectively blocking the offers to other children—a
state of affairs, which will be largely though not totally eradicated
by the new co-ordinated admissions, arrangements.
— Variable picture in terms of transition
and attainment between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3.
— High pupil mobility means that in
most LEAs there is a significant but changing group of children
without a school place in-year (ie outside the normal admission
round). Most LEAs do not have a common source of information,
for schools for which they are not the admission authority, on
which children are admitted and who is on waiting lists. When
LEAs track children with no school place it is difficult to obtain
up to date information, particularly for children getting school
places in neighbouring LEAs.
— As vacancies appear in all year groups
in successful schools during the year (because of mobility) this
often means places are offered to pupils on waiting lists who
already have a place in another school rather than placing children
with no school place.
A few of the issues:
— Building confidence and trust in
the whole system.
— Balancing the interest of individual
schools with a wider corporate responsibility to support the interests
of all pupils.
— Cracking the conundrum of admissions
outside the normal admissions round.
— Reducing the negative influences
on the transition between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 and building
on the positive.
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