Admission procedures consultation

Consultation on Salford's admission arrangements for the academic year 2013 to 2014

Please note that the consultation has now closed. Salford's admission arrangements will be published for the academic year 2013 to 2014 by 15 April 2012, after the findings of the consultation have been considered.

Local Authorities are now required to consult with parents and community groups who may have an interest in the local area, on admission arrangements for entry to school in September 2013 to 2014. The consultation ran from 14 November 2011 to 16 January 2012.

Full details of the admission arrangements proposed by Salford City Council are published below in two documents, one for community and voluntary controlled secondary schools and one for community and voluntary controlled primary schools.

Voluntary aided, foundation and academy schools are required to consult on and publish their own admission arrangements.

The proposals for the admission arrangements to community primary and secondary schools include the following proposals:

To keep the secondary admission numbers the same as presently, but to make some changes to admission numbers at some primary schools
To vary the over subscription criteria for primary and secondary schools to include the use of child benefit information to resolve disputes regarding a child's address
To change the oversubscription criteria to end the system of linked or associated primary schools

The proposed Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme for 2013 to 2014 includes the following changes:

To process late applications (or late changes to applications) after all the applications which have been submitted on time have been processed
To no longer maintain a waiting list beyond the end of the statutory period (31 December)
To automatically offer an alternative school place to parents where it has not been possible to allocate a place at one of the schools for which they expressed a preference

Nursery admissions for 2013 to 2014

It is proposed to give the responsibility for coordinating the applications for nursery classes to school governing bodies rather than the local authority.

How can I comment on these proposals?

The consultation closed on 16 January.

Further information is available by emailing the Admissions and Exclusions Team at school.admissions@salford.gov.uk.

Frequently asked questions

Please can you give me more details about why the authority wants to end the system whereby children are given preference for admission when applying to the high school which is associated with their primary school. (This is criterion 5 of the oversubscription criteria)

It is proposed that this criterion is removed because:

The present system educationally disadvantages significant numbers of children who move into the area at a later age who have less chance of getting into the high school of their choice, because they were not able to attend a particular primary school.
The authority believes that it is unacceptable for some children to be disadvantaged at 11 years old on the basis that they could not access a particular primary school when they were four years old. This situation is made worse by the recent increase in primary numbers. This means that some children cannot get into their preferred primary school aged four and then because of this, may not get into their preferred secondary school aged 11. These children are therefore being denied their preferred school twice.
A child's educational needs can change significantly between the ages of 4 and 11, but the current system can restrict parents' ability to access the high school which is most appropriate for their child's needs, once these have been identified. Schools themselves can also change significantly in character and quality over this period of time, but the current system makes it harder for parents to change their preference for a high school, unless they change the child's primary school, which some do. A change of primary school is often detrimental to a child's education.
Now that many primary schools are approaching capacity, this system makes the process of admission to primary school very pressured. It means that parents are competing with each other for a primary place on the basis that this will get them into their preferred secondary school seven years later. The proposed new system would allow parents to express a preference for a primary school which is best for their four year old child and then be able to consider the most appropriate option for their child when they reach secondary school age.

Are there any other advantages of the proposed new system?

Whilst not being a perfect system, distance from the school is a much more widely used criterion nationally, and in the authority's view, considerably fairer. It caters for children who move into the area and is a factor that everyone can take into account when planning ahead for their children's education.
These proposals will not prevent primary and secondary schools retaining informal links and working together on issues such as curriculum development and to ensure that the transition from primary school to high school is a positive one.

Won't some families lose out by not getting into their preferred school?

Currently it is possible to live in any area of Salford and obtain a place at any community school. Whilst numbers of children in the primary sector are rising in reception and year one, numbers in high schools are still falling and are not projected to start rising again until 2016/17. At the moment the associated primary school does not need to be used to decide which pupils to admit to community schools.
In addition, the authority has just increased the size of Walkden High School by an extra 300 places and The Swinton High School (although now an academy) is no longer planned for closure. There is therefore a very high likelihood that children will be allocated a place at a community school for which they have expressed a preference, without reference to the primary school which they have attended.

Will these changes affect schools which are not community schools?

Roman Catholic and Voluntary Aided schools are not affected by this proposal as they decide their own admission arrangements. Academy schools are also unaffected by these proposals, but so far they have chosen to follow the local authority admission criteria.