Supplementary memorandum submitted by
DfES (SA 43)
ADMISSION ARRANGEMENTS—ACADEMIES AND
CTCs SELECT COMMITTEE— CTC ADMISSIONS
ACADEMIES
Academies are required in their funding agreements
to comply with admissions law. Academies must consult on their
admission arrangements in the same way as maintained schools;
they must comply with the code of practice on admissions and must
take part in co-ordinated admission arrangements and admissions
forums; but adjudicators have no role in relation to Academies.
Decisions by Academies are subject to judicial
review. The Secretary of State could himself take an Academy to
court in order to enforce its funding agreement (because the funding
agreement is a contract between the Secretary of State and the
Academy and in the event of a breach of contract by either party
the usual legal remedies apply).
Academies are required to comply with the code
of practice on admission appeals, and appeals are dealt with by
independent panels. The Department has no record of any representation
to the Secretary of State about the non-admission of a child to
an Academy or about the conduct of an appeal.
The Department does not collect data on appeals
made to independent appeal panels against non-admission to an
Academy.
CITY TECHNOLOGY
COLLEGES
1. CTC Funding Agreements stipulate that
CTC intakes should be representative of the full range of ability
among pupils in the catchment area and broadly representative
of the community in the catchment area; and, subject to those
requirements, students who are in the judgement of the Principal
most likely to benefit from what the College has to offer, have
the strongest motivation to succeed and intend to continue in
full-time education or training until the age of 18.
2. It is for CTC governing bodies to determine
a College's admission policy but it must be in line with the Funding
Agreement requirements.
3. Since 1999 CTCs have followed a common
set of guidelines agreed with Ministers and developed to ensure
greater fairness and openness in CTC admission and appeal procedures.
A copy of the guidelines is at annex A. The key points of the
guidelines are as follows:
— all CTCs to use a common nationally
standardised test to check the appropriate distribution of ability;
— there will be no unstructured interviews
with students;
— there will be no interviews or structured
discussions with parents;
— the criteria for assessment will
be clear and be capable of being fairly replicated;
— the selection process will be as
objective as possible, and provide the same opportunity to all
and be capable of faithful replication;
— no factors outside those to be assessed
will have a bearing on the decision;
— the Principal's judgement will be
on the basis of clearly set out and detailed grounds and from
a clear evidence base;
— appeals will only be allowed where
the College's published admissions procedure has not been properly
and fairly applied;
— appeals will be heard by a panel
or committee including the involvement of a person independent
of the College; and
— where an appeal is upheld the application
will be considered afresh following the procedure in its entirety
so far as the changed circumstances permit.
4. This means that the CTCs follow a two
stage admissions process:
— All eligible applicants are invited
to take the common NFER admissions test which is used to allocate
the applicants to one of nine ability bands. NFER inform the Colleges
of the number of applicants they should be admitting from each
ability band according to the national distribution of ability.
(The national distribution is used because of the lack of information
available about the distribution of ability within each CTC's
catchment area.)
— The second stage of the process is
for the CTCs to select from within each ability band those students
who are, in the judgement of the Principal, most likely to benefit
from what the College has to offer, have the strongest motivation
to succeed and intend to continue in full-time education or training
until the age of 18. Each CTC decides how they will conduct this
stage of the process eg one College uses structured discussions,
another taking part in a practical exercise and a third information
provided as part of the application form. The method chosen must
take account of the guidelines attached at Annex A. Information
about the process is included in the CTC's published admissions
information.
5. Once decisions have been made about who
will be offered a place at the CTC the unsuccessful applicants
are placed on a reserve list. Places on the reserve list are allocated
within the ability bands using the same methodology as that used
for the allocation of places. Places from the reserve list are
allocated according to the place that becomes vacant. CTCs publish
the date at which the reserve list for the new intake is dissolved.
Vacancies thereafter are filled using the College's casual entry
policy.
6. Appeals against non-admission are only
allowed on the grounds that the College's published admissions
procedure has not been properly and fairly applied. Each College
determines its own appeals process but again this must take account
of the principals included in the guidance at Annex A. Information
about a College's appeals procedure is included in the College's
published admissions information.
7. Since the guidelines were agreed, the
Department has been monitoring the admissions policies of individual
Colleges, now on an ad hoc basis when changes are made, offering
advice where necessary to ensure that they are in line with the
agreed guidance.
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