Schools Admission Code question

[FrancesHB]

Hi All,

I know there are some experts here. I have read through the SAC and it is not clear on a point I'd like to know the answer to.

If you have a secondary school (comprehensive, community, non-selective), is it allowed that they have a religious feeder primary school which selects on faith?

We have a local comp which has five feeder schools. Three are non selective selecting only by siblings/nearest school/distance/catchment. The other two are still local but select by religious attendance.

I'd have thought that you could get your 4 year old into a religious primary which would then allow you to leapfrog into the feeder secondary, even if you lived miles away; hence wouldn't be allowed. Am I right?

Thanks :)

There is nothing to stop a non-faith secondary school having a faith school as a feeder provided the selection of the school is made on reasonable grounds. As an example, Tudor Grange Academy in Solihull was referred to the Schools Adjudicator for using a faith primary school as a feeder. The Adjudicator decided this was a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, in this case improving the feeder school, and therefore upheld the Academy's right to use the faith school as a feeder. So there is no blanket ban. The Schools Adjudicator will look at each case individually.

And going to an RC Primary may not give you a realistic chance of getting into the nearest RC secondary.

that's helpful, thank you prh47bridge

So basically, it's about proportionality and reasonableness, rather than blanket rules.