Issue - meetings

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, People, on School Admission Arrangements for 2022.

The Board was advised that in October 2020, Halton Local Authority issued a statutorily required consultation on the proposed admission arrangements and co-ordinated admission schemes for the September 2022 intake for Primary and Secondary Schools (attached as appendices 1 and 2 respectively).  The Primary Scheme also included the proposed oversubscription criteria for community and voluntary controlled schools for whom the Local Authority was the admission authority. 

Since the publication of the Executive Board agenda, the Board was advised of a proposed amendment to the Primary Co-ordinated Scheme, this was presented on screen.  It was proposed that Paragraph 9.1, under Oversubscription Criteria be amended to four criteria instead of three, so criterion 1 would be split into criteria 1 and 2.  The reasons for this were provided to the Board and the proposal was agreed.

The report provided details of the consultation, which ran from 1 October 2020 to 13 November 2020.  No changes were proposed to the current oversubscription criteria for admission to Local Authority maintained community and voluntary controlled primary schools. 

It noted that all Halton secondary schools were either academies, free schools or voluntary aided and were therefore their own admission authorities, with responsibility for consulting and determining their own admissions criteria and their own Published Admission Number (PAN).

Reason(s) for Decision

The decision was statutorily required.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

Other options considered and rejected included the allocation of places to community and voluntary controlled schools through random allocation (lottery), as this method could be seen as arbitrary and random.

Implementation Date

The Policy and co-ordinated schemes would apply for the September 2022 academic intake.

RESOLVED:  That the Board approves the School Admissions Policy, Admission Arrangements and Coordinated Schemes for admission to Primary and Secondary schools for the 2022/23 academic year.