rs1812405.661-667

House of Commons

Session 2005 - 06
Internet Publications
Other Bills before Parliament

Report Stage Proceedings: 24th May 2006
661

Education and Inspections Bill, continued

(6)
The person responsible for admissions administration within a local

education authority must be employed or commissioned by the local

education authority.

(7)
In this Chapter “admissions administration” means the person

responsible for the administration of arrangements for the admission of

pupils to any school within a local education authority’s area.”.’.

Retention of selection by ability or aptitude after parent ballot

Mr David Chaytor

Colin Challen

Roger Berry

Mr David Crausby

Dr Ian Gibson

Jon Trickett

Joan Walley

Negatived on division  NC39

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)
‘The Secretary of State shall by regulations make such provision as he considers

necessary or expedient which may include the repeal, amendment or revocation

of any legislation enacted prior to the coming into effect of this Act, for the

purposes of giving full effect to the principle set out in subsection (2).

(2)
The principle referred to in subsection (1) is that no admission arrangements for

any school providing secondary education may, following the commencement of

a school year on or after 1st August 2010, continue to make provision for the

selection of pupils by ability or aptitude other than under section 101 of SSFA

1998 (permitted selection: pupil banding) unless the continuation of such

selection has been approved in a ballot of parents of pupils attending primary

schools from which such pupils may by choice of their parents transfer.’.

Independent body to review admission arrangements for secondary education

Mr David Chaytor

Colin Challen

Gwyn Prosser

Roger Berry

Mr David Crausby

Dr Ian Gibson

Joan Walley

Not called  NC40

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)
The Secretary of State shall, not later than six months after the passing of this Act,

appoint an independent body to review the arrangements in England relating to

Report Stage Proceedings: 24th May 2006
662

Education and Inspections Bill, continued

the admission of pupils for secondary education in Part 3, Chapter 2 of SSFA

1998 and section 36 of this Act.

(2)
The Secretary of State shall invite representatives of—

(a)
teacher associations,

(b)
local authorities,

(c)
parent groups,

(d)
employer bodies, and

(e)
such other persons as he considers appropriate,


to make submissions to the body established under subsection (1); and the report

of that body shall be laid before each House of Parliament not later than 1st April

2008.

(3)
The Secretary of State, at the request of the independent body , may commision

research into the admission of pupils for secondary education and related

matters.’.

Secretary of State to implement independent review body report

Mr David Chaytor

Gwyn Prosser

Roger Berry

Mr David Crausby

Dr Ian Gibson

Jon Trickett

Joan Walley

Not called  Nc41

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)
Following the receipt by him of a report of the body established under section

[Independent body to review admission arrangements for secondary education],

the Secretary of State shall enter into consultations with such bodies as he

considers appropriate on proposals to give effect to the recommendations of that

body by a date no later than 1st September 2008.

(2)
Following such consultations as are mentioned in subsection (1) the Secretary of

State may by regulations make such provision as he considers necessary or

expedient, which provision may include the repeal, amendment or revocation of

any legislation enacted prior to the coming into effect of this Act so as to give

effect to proposals whether or not recommended by the body established under

section [Independent body to review admission arrangements for secondary

education] for the reform of the arrangements for admission to secondary schools

in England.’.

Report Stage Proceedings: 24th May 2006
663

Education and Inspections Bill, continued

Definition and use of oversubscription criteria

Mr David Chaytor

Gwyn Prosser

Jeff Ennis

Not called  NC42

To move the following Clause:—

‘The requirements referred to in section 84(2) of SSFA 1998 shall include

references to the following categories of pupils and these categories shall be taken

as the criteria to be applied in the event of oversubscription in the order as set out

below—

(a)
children with a statement of special educational needs;

(b)
children in public care;

(c)
children for whom the school is most appropiate on medical or social

grounds;

(d)
children whose sibling or siblings will be enrolled at the school on the

first day of term and who permanently reside within the area from which

the school’s intake is normally drawn;

(e)
children for whom the school is the nearest appropriate school to their

home;

(f)
safe walking distance from the school;

(g)
ease of access to the school by public transport;

(h)
transfer from a named feeder primary school.’.

Restriction on oversubscription criteria in code for school admissions

Mr David Chaytor

Gwyn Prosser

Lynne Jones

Not called  NC43

To move the following Clause:—

‘The requirements referred to in section 84(2) of SSFA 1998 shall exclude the

following from the criteria to be applied in the event of oversubscription—

(a)
giving higher priority to children whose parents are more able or willing

to support the ethos of the school or to support the school financially or

in some other way;

(b)
giving higher priority to children according to the occupational or

financial status of their parents;

(c)
giving higher priority to children according to the educational or social

group or background of their parents;

(d)
seeking or take account of, in giving priority to a child or in deciding

whether or not to offer a place to a child, reports from his primary or

nursery school about past behaviour or attitude;

(e)
allocating places at a school on the basis that a sibling or other relative is

a former pupil;

(f)
the behaviour of other members of a child’s family, whether good or bad,

inluding a good or bad attendance record;

Report Stage Proceedings: 24th May 2006
664

Education and Inspections Bill, continued

(g)
parent’s marital status;

(h)
giving priority to children whose parents are staff or governors or who

have another connection to the school;

(i)
giving priority to children who (or whose parents) have particular

interests, specialist knowledge or hobbies;

(j)
giving priority to children based on the order in which applications were

received;

(k)
in the case of grammar schools, giving priority to siblings of pupils.’.

Admissions report by local education authority

Mr David Chaytor

Gwyn Prosser

Paul Farrelly

Lynne Jones

Joan Walley

Not called  NC45

To move the following Clause:—

‘After section 85B of SSFA 1998 insert—

“85C
Admissions report by local education authority

(1)
A local education authority shall once in every school year make a report

to the admission forum containing the following information—

(a)
the authority’s plans for acting in accordance with the code for

school admissions,

(b)
the proposed admission arrangements for every school,

including academies and city colleges, in the local education

authority area,

(c)
the number of applications for each year group admitting pupils

for each school,

(d)
the number of pupils accepted for each year group and, if

oversubscription criteria are used, the number of pupils selected

using each oversubscription criterion, and

(e)
the area which the school recruits pupils compared to the area in

which the school is situated.

(2)
The opinion of the local education authority shall be included in the

report as to—

(a)
whether the proposed admission arrangements for each school

complies with the code for school admissions,

(b)
what changes, if any, each admission authority, or as the case

may be the governing body of each academy or city college,

should make to their admission arrangements to comply with the

code for school admissions,

(c)
the accuracy and appropriateness of information given to parents

seeking admission to the school, and

(d)
whether

Report Stage Proceedings: 24th May 2006
665

Education and Inspections Bill, continued

(i)
the totality of the admission arrangements for the area

produces fair access to schools for all pupils, and

(ii)
if not, what further action the authority intends to take to

ensure fair access to maintained schools and academies

and city colleges.”.’.

Administration of pupil admissions

Mr David Chaytor

Gwyn Prosser

Paul Farrelly

Not called  NC46

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)
Chapter 1 of Part 3 of SSFA (admission arrangements) is amended as follows.

(2)
In section 88 (admission authorities and admission arrangements), in subsection

(2) after “means the” leave out “arrangements” and insert “criteria”.

(3)
In section 89B (co-ordination of admissions arrangements)—

(a)
in each of subsections (1) and (2) leave out “co-ordinating” and insert

“administering”,

(b)
leave out subsection (5), and

(c)
in subsection (6) at end insert “in particular that the local education

authority admits pupils to each school in accordance with the admission

criteria established by the admission authority for that school under

section 89 (procedure for determining admission arrangements)”.

(4)
Leave out section 89C.’.

Academy admission arrangements

Mr David Chaytor

Gwyn Prosser

Paul Farrelly

Not called  NC47

To move the following Clause:—

‘In subsection (4) of section 482 (Academies) of the Education Act 1996, insert

after sub-paragraph (a)—

“(aa)
conditions and requirements imposed for securing that—

(i)
the proprietor of the school consults on the admission

arrangements as if the school were a maintained school

under section 89 of SSFA 1998 (procedure for

determining admission arrangements),

(ii)
pupil admissions to the school are managed by the local

education authority under section 98B of SSFA 1998

(co-ordination of admission arrangements), and

Report Stage Proceedings: 24th May 2006
666

Education and Inspections Bill, continued

(iii)
objections relating to the admission arrangements are

determined by the adjudicator under section 90 of SSFA

1998 (reference of objections to adjudicator or Secretary

of State).”.’.

Parliamentary control of code for schools admissions

Mr David Willetts

Mr Nick Gibb

Mr John Hayes

Mr David Evennett

Not called  NC51

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)
Section 85 of SSFA 1998 (making and approval of code of practice) is amended

as follows.

(2)
For subsections (4) and (5) substitute—

“(4)
If, within the 40-day period, each House resolves to approve the draft, the

Secretary of State shall issue the code (or revised code) in the form of the

draft, and it shall come into force on such date as the Secretary of State

may by order appoint.

(5)
If no such resolution is made within the 40-day period, the Secretary of

State shall take no further steps in relation to the proposed code.”.’.

Prohibition on interviews: exceptions in the case of religious schools

Mr David Willetts

Mr Nick Gibb

Mr John Hayes

Mr David Evennett

Not selected  NC54

To move the following Clause:—

‘After section 88A of SSFA 1998 (inserted by this Act) insert—

“88B
Prohibition on interviews: schools with religious character

(1)
Section 88A does not apply in relation to any interview for the purpose

of assessing religious or denominational commitment where this is

provided for in the school’s admission arrangements and

oversubscription criteria and where the school is designated as having a

religious character under subsection 69(3).”.’.

Report Stage Proceedings: 24th May 2006
667

Education and Inspections Bill, continued

Admissions criteria

Mr Edward Leigh

Mr Brian Binley

Not selected  nc67

To move the following Clause:—

‘Schools shall publish their admissions criteria and may take all reasonable

measures, including interviews, to establish that applicants to the school meet

those admissions criteria.’.

Admission of children of staff

Mr Edward Leigh

Mr Brian Binley

Not called  nc70

To move the following Clause:—

‘Any child of staff currently serving at a maintained school shall be eligible for

preferential admission at the discretion of the school governors.’.

Admission of excluded pupils

Ms Sally Keeble

Mr David Chaytor

Dr Alan Whitehead

Not called  nc75

To move the following Clause:—

‘(1)
A local education authority may direct any school in the authority’s area to admit

a pupil who has been excluded from any other such school.

(2)
Before making a direction under subsection (1) the local education authority

must—

(a)
consult the head teacher of the school to which the direction is to be

issued;

(b)
have regard to local policies on exclusion; and

(c)
have regard to the well-being of the pupils who are likely to be affected

by the direction, whether directly or indirectly.

(3)
In this section “school” means—

(a)
a community, foundation or voluntary school, or

(b)
an Academy, city technology college or city college for the technology

of the arts.’.