Fair Access Protocol

[katd64]

I have a 15 nearly 16 year old. He has been home educated for 2 years due to medical problems and ASD. He now wants to return to school and we applied for a local free school. Three months on we have just been rejected, following no contact from the school, only brief replies from secretary. Anyway is says on letter they have passed application onto the Education authority under the Fair Access Polucy. What does this mean and do I have to contact the local ed authority about this?

That is also disregarding anything 'course work' wise, that may have been completed in Y10? I know this is rarer now, but may still be relevant for some subjects e.g. Music, Art,. D&T.

You may, btw, have included your child's name in one of your posts, in which case you may need to request deletion.

Have you considered college as a different option to school?

I don't know where you are in the country, but many colleges are now offering bespoke pre-16 GCSE courses. The GCSEs courses are covered in one year (so entry at the start of Y11 wouldn't be an issue) and he would only have to attend lessons for his chosen subjects if tiredness is a problem.

Many home educators are choosing this option as a way of accessing GCSEs.

Are budget cuts making schools try to avoid having pupils with additional needs? I ask this because, while hearing appeals recently, SENCOs from three different secondary schools claimed it would be difficult to manage the needs of the pupil allocated to them; hence the parents appealing. None of these pupils had exceptionally severe needs.
And one of these schools was a faith school that prides itself on its caring ethos!

The more I am reading different local authority policies the more I am convinced it's the fact your son will be entering in Year 11 which is the reason for refusal. This automatically comes under fair access.

eddie some schools have always tried to avoid taking SEND pupils. The cost money and are a lot of effort. Some do it in less obvious ways though.

I applied in March and was hoping for in year application being quick so that he wouldn't have missed a significant account. Wasn't banking on it taking months to hear anything. We looked at colleges but our only offer English, Maths. Sciences and then practical subjects, none of which my son wants to do or could tolerate being made to do. We also visited Youth Connexions for advice but they couldn't find us anything else. They told me that this Free school were good and thought' outside the box' for solutions .
Thing about the refusal is they haven't told me a precise reason or asked me what my sons current level of education is. I was told they would contact me to ask about his current levels and they didn't so they can't have refused on this point.

kat,

Sorry, I should have been clearer.

I don't think the Y11/Y10 thing is necessarily why they refused entry (though like AlexanderHamilton I can find counties where in-year applications relating to Y11 go straight to FAP)

However, if your DS wants to take GCSEs, and get results in any way linked to his ability, then starting GCSEs from scratch in September of Year 11 in a school where everyone else will have started in Y9 or at the latest in September of Y10 is setting him up to fail.

Therefore, educationally - completely unrelated to admissions - you should be looking to start at the beginning of Y10 if at all possible. Even then, it is worth discussing with the school when they start GCSE courses, and what he needs to do ion his final months of Home Edcto prepare. DD is just coming up to the end of Y9. She has spent much of the year doing GCSE Science modules, and has just started explicitly on GCSE Maths (though of course much of what she has done in the remainder of the year will also appear in the GCSE paper in some form, as will be the case for languages). She will start all other GCSE courses at the beginning of Y10.

(Other local schools start GCSE option at the beginning of Y9, and by the start of y10 will have been working on GCSE material in all subjects for a year - with e.g. maths and sciences being much harder in the new 9-1 specs, this will be increasingly common)

It's probably worth saying that DD is highly able, as is DS who has just finished doing his GCSEs. However in subjects such as English Literature (2 classic novels, 1 Shakespeare play, 1 poetry anthology) Science, History, Languages etc it would simply not have been possible to acquire sufficient subject knowledge in 2 terms of Y11 - GCSEs start in May, before half term - to do well.

Also if it's a smaller school then their options may not be as large with regard teaching/ courses. Making comments such as 'courses my son cannot tolerate' will not adhere you to the place. Your son may be 'gifted and talented' but you are asking a lot of a school with regard to getting him up to scratch and with a track history of absence. They are held to account if his results are poor....

We never take children in year 11 unless told we have too (we are over pan)

Obviously I wouldn't tell a school my son couldn't tolerate subjects and in the first place wouldn't apply. I am talking about subjects like drama, dance, photography that the local UTC does.
Also I don't expect any school to get him up to scratch as I see that as my job.
With the delay in the school in question taking a long time to bother replying I did email a request that due to delay in procesding could they consider a place in year 10 for him but they had already typed up the rejection letter.

I'm slightly confused about the years here.

When is he 16?

If it's before the end of August, then an in year application in March would have been for a year 11 place to start immediately but that makes no sense to have done educationally because all the study for GCSES is effectively over by March in yr 11. There would have been zero point him joining a school at that point given he hasn't been studying for GCSEs so far.

If he is 16 after end of August, an in year application in March would have been for Year 10 anyway, so the idea that he was put forward for FAP because it was year 11 wouldn't be correct.

Also I don't expect any school to get him up to scratch as I see that as my job.

The thing is, I don't see this as quite consistent with your earlier comments that you didn't feel able to teach him to GCSE level at home?

Let's suppose for a moment that a school said 'yes' to taking your son at any point over the next few weeks, to start Y11 in September.

Your responsibility for catching him up would then be:

• to decide on his combination of GCSE subjects, based on available places within classes / sets.
• to establish which GCSE boards and which options within that board (e.g. English texts) he will be doing.
• to establish exactly what has been covered in each subject up to this point, in detail.
• to teach him the school's scheme of work, or exactly equivalent content, for every GCSE subject, from Y9 (possibly) and Y10 (certainly)

This would all be needed by the first week in September.

I know HE is more efficient than school-based learning - been there, done that - but for someone who doesn't feel confident HEing their child to GCSE and can't afford to buy in tutors, this does seem quite a big ask?

Ok so have been researching and found another UTC I didn't know existed. They start GCSE in year 10 which is what I need to ask for, all points about year 11 accepted and subjects that he is interested in.Have emailed them about likelihood of a year 10 place for a techically year 11 child . So I will wait and see.

To second what Patricia said your year 11 child would have left by now. I think what your asking is unrealistic.

Wanna, I think the OP's DS is an old Y10, not a young Y11. Just to clarify, OP - is your DS's 16th birthday after 31st August this year?

If he becomes 16 before 31st August, then tbh your chance of 'normal' GCSE preparation in a school is gone, as starting Y10 would be a deferral of 2 years, so your best bet is FE college or similar.