why don't church primary schools publish stats like community schools do?

[krisskross]

I am RC and hope to send DD to RC school nearby in sept 2012. Its 50/50 whether we'll get in, so obviously we are looking at other catholic schools nearish by. But- we are trying to make calculated choices about where we might have a chance, but we cannot look at stats for last few years the way we could with community schools- why? (I know you can call the school, but they vary in hope helpful they are).

ps stats i mean are how far the catchment went out, no. of siblings, no applications etc.

Thanks.

the VA church schools in my area (both CofE & RC) publish the same stats as the community/VC schools publish, so I guess it's probably up to what the admissions authorities of the VA schools choose to do, as opposed to their being a "rule" as such?

I agree not very helpful though.

Your LA must include in its composite prospectus (i.e. the booklet giving details of all schools) the number of children applying for the school last year and should include the number of successful applications last year, including the criteria under which they were accepted. They are required to include this information for all schools, not just LA-controlled schools. If they don't include the number of applications last year that is a breach of the School Information Regulations. The other information is a "should" so is not compulsory. Having said that, if they have the information for LA-controlled schools they ought to include it for the other schools as well in my view.

thanks prh and betsy.

Our LA def don't include it and when you call they say, we dont hold this, speak to the school.

Can you tell me where to get more info on School Information Regs?

Would you advise telling the LA this and seeing what gives.

Advice pls. Thanks again.

Another factor is that they might have no catchment area as such, and admit qualifying children (by published criteria bands) using distance as the means to deal with oversubscription.

The map of the footprint of recent years' admissions should be available in the same way as all schools. If it's hard to find, it's probably more a reflection of how many of its resources the school allocates to website and admissions than anything to do with being a faith school.

BTW - it's pretty difficult to predict some schools' footprints. As well as the obvious factor of birthrate and sibling priority, RC schools take a lot of new arrivals to UK (they are typically more diverse than the "average" school - mainly because of the transnational nature of the RC church).

aargh their THERE being a "rule" - can't believe I actually typed that , can't even blame the wine, I've not had any tonight!

Didn't know about School Information Regs, you learn something new every day :)

If you look at the Admissions Code here you will find the information in Appendix 4. You can find the regulations themselves on www.legislation.gov.uk if you fancy reading them - they are reasonably intelligible as these things go.

I have to say, though, that your LA is not alone in breaching this aspect of the School Information Regulations. I see a lot of admissions booklets from LAs who don't even give the number of applicants in the previous year for LA-controlled schools.

thanks prh and betsy. will look into it.

its a bloomin nightmare. how on earth we are meant to make reasoned decision with no info to go on is beyond me. also what a waste of money- the schools must have hundreds of parents calling in sept to get this info??!!