Another Primary School Admissions Question

[RainbowFlutterby]

My friend has a child in Nursery and has not been offered a place at the school (out of catchment I think).

The head teacher has told my friend that if she appeals then she (the head teacher) will admit the child. Just agree and say - yes that child can have a place.

So my question is - can a head teacher do that?

Thanks.

No..It isn't up to the school as far as I'm aware - they certainly don't get any control over who is admitted when applications are processed (unless they are VA and have their own admissions criteria).

Thank you. That was what I thought - particularly because the PAN is 90 and there's the Class size rule. I'm also a natural born pessimist and I'm a bit worried that my friend is getting her hopes up.

I think the HT probably means she won't put up much of a case against admission (the Admission Appeals code does not allowed her to positively support admission) I'm guessing this means it is not an Infant Class Size Appeal (classes of 30) so the HT would be happy to have an additional pupil.

However if a number of people appeal for places it will be up to the Appeals Panel to decide who gets the places not the HT. Eg say the PAN was 28, they could admit two more children without breaching ICS regs - if 4 families appeal the panel would decide which two children to admit based on who had the "best" case.

x-post - if the PAN is 90 then the HT is talking out of her hat!

Can a class size not go over 30 at all? Or is it just up to a certain age? Apparently there were 32 in a class at one point. Can they do that if they employ an extra TA?

Sorry for so many questions. I've already had my friend crying on me once - I just really want her to be prepared if it's not as easy as the HT is making out.

The law is generally 30 per teacher (not TA) in R/1/2. 32 in year 3 or above would be OK.

Excepted children aren't counted, so you could have 30 plus two excepted children in reception. You can become an excepted child in a few ways, one of which is winning an appeal (for reasons of admissions mistake or unreasonable decision, neither of which would appear to apply here).

The number in the class would need to drop below 30 before any were admitted from the waiting list.

Thank you. I'm still going to keep my fingers crossed for her - but I want her to be realistic about her chances.

I hope the head actually said that if she appeals successfully her child will be admitted. The decision is made by the appeal panel. The head cannot simply award a place to anyone who appeals.

Thanks prh47. I don't think it's looking to good for her now tbh. She missed out on distance by quite a long way from what she's told me.