Academies and changing admission requirements

[awayinamanger]

Hi - I was hoping someone in the know could give me some insight? Our local junior school, which became an academy in the summer, currently operates a feeder system from infant schools. It is planning to to impose a catchment area and abandon the feeder system, which will exclude some children who attend a school that is currently a feeder. There is no obvious other place for these children to go, so they will likely be split up and sent wherever there are remaining places. Providing the governors of the junior school approve does the junior school have free rein given it is an academy? Is there any way of appealing this/or any legal leg to stand on for affected families?

Many thanks in advance.

They have to go through a consultation process between now and next March in order to change their admission arrangements for 2013. It is already too late to change anything for 2012. Relevant parents must be included in the consultation. Once the consultation is over they may modify their proposals. If you are still unhappy you can object and that will be considered by the Secretary of State - the current government plans to change this so that objections are considered by the Schools Adjudicator as for other admission authorities. Whether or not the objection would be upheld is, of course, impossible to tell.

By the way, they cannot exclude children who are outside the catchment area. A catchment area simply gives priority to those children living within that area. If there are fewer children in catchment than places the remaining places will go to children outside the catchment area.

thanks so much - how do you know this info btw? It would be helpful to know when I communicate it to other parents. I fear we have a battle ahead...

You will find most things you need to know in the current Admissions Code which you can find here.