What role do governors have in admissions

[Sally65]

I have just applied for a very popular comprehensive for mid year admission for my DD, and the admissions administrator told me that my DD's application will be presented to the governors shortly. Is this normal and why would governors make the decision as to whom to admit anyway?

I'm a governor at a primary and have never been involved with admissions. Mind you, our school is undersubscribed!

Hope your DD gets a place .

For academies the governors are the, oh, I forget what it is called, the admissions authority for the school. For in year admissions they are the admissions authority. They still have to run admissions strictly according to the published admissions criteria for the school, though.

Just to correct Blu a little...

For academies, free schools and VA schools the school is its own admission authority. Decisions regarding admissions are made either by the governors or by a committee appointed by the governors. In the normal admissions round they simply put all the applicants into order using the school's admission criteria then send it back to the LA. The LA decide who actually gets an offer from the school. In putting the applicants into order the governors must stick to the published admission criteria.

For community and VC schools the LA is the admission authority. Governors at those schools play no part in the normal admissions round. The LA may get the school to manage in year applications but the LA is still the admission authority.

Sally65 I used to sit on the admissions committee in a VA primary school. As prh said, we are our own admissions authority and each year present a list to the LA of pupils to whom e wish to offer places. However, we absolutely had to follow the admissions criteria to the letter and couldn't decide who to admit based on anything other than the published admissions criteria. I think the administrator was slightly pompous in her wording, yes your application will be looked at by the school but if there is a place available and you meet the admissions criteria you have to be given the space. Is this a Faith school? Have you had any indication that there are spaces in that year group?