Schools Admissions

[PizzaBase]

Has anyone else noticed this?

The website www.eadmissions.org.uk is currently being used for schools admissions in London. The website is shared by thirty-three London boroughs, as well as Surrey County Council.

It is not unusual for such a form to ask for Gender instead of Sex, but what is interesting is the (i) icon which appears next to Gender, and was not there in previous years. Clicking on the (i) brings up a dialog box which states:

CHANGING A CHILD'S GENDER: If you wish to update a child's gender after an application has been submitted, you will first need to remove any single sex schools you have applied for from that application. After doing this, you will then be able to change the child's details and submit. If required, you can then apply for the new single sex schools.

This is a clear instruction on how to circumvent the single-sex mechanism for schools admissions. This is very concerning. Schools are specifically exempted in the Equality Act and are perfectly entitled to insist on being single-sex, yet here is explicit instructions on how to get into the admissions system when your child has "changed gender".

I really think people need to be aware of what's going on here: parents select single-sex schools for good reasons, and they should not be converted to "single-gender" by stealth like this.

That’s disturbing

What have people's experiences been like elsewhere in the country?

• are all local authorities on-board with Gender Reassignment being a legitimate reason for attending the school of the opposite sex?

Can you complain saying that you expect a written response and also raise it with eg Sex Matters?

Is that guidance there for if there was a mistake when submitting the application (I just presume, if that guidance is now added, then it's because if you select female when you move to the next section then all single sex boys schools will have disappeared as an option to select? If a mistake you'd have to remove the schools from the amended application).

I may be wrong, but don't all school applications need a form of ID for the child's date of birth, such as a birth certificate or passport? Children can't 'change sex' on those surely? I presume that may be possible, only if there was a mistake, or for a medically defined reason. I have never applied to one but I presume single sex schools would require one of those documents (prepared to be proven wrong).

Passports are self-ID

Bellendejour I've mentioned it to a couple of orgs, such as SSA - but yes, I definitely will raise it with Maya as you suggest.

BunnyBerries No - the language is clearly not about correcting an error. Firstly, it says "update" not "correct" and secondly, it talks about removing single sex schools that you've "already" applied for, then changing gender and applying for "new single-sex schools"

Update info is a standard system term, for example if amending a name also.

This is what I took it to mean:
Eg. your child is female and you made a mistake selecting 'male' and then selected your nearest schools which happen to include single sex male, and you can't find the female sex school you want.
You then want to simply correct the account info to female - from the wording you provided, it seems to me to say it won't allow you to complete this and save to submit until it highlights that you should remove the male single sex schools too so you can't apply to them by accident - I was a system administrator and therefore that seems to make sense to me to save admin errors.
(Disclaimer - I haven't gone and made a dummy account to check but that is what I would assume from that wording).

BunnyBerries

No. That is quite clearly not about someone wanting to "simply correct the account info to female" unless you genuinely think someone accidentally declared their girl as a boy, mistakenly filled out applications to (e.g.) "Camden Boys School", "Moorcross School for Boys", and "North London Boys Academy" and then after "accidentally" doing all that thought "Oh, gosh what am I thinking? Sarah is a girl!"

But nice try at "nothing to see here, move along"...

The text in the dialog specifically says:
you will first need to remove any single sex schools you have applied for

I'm not trying at anything. I simply explained clearly my example at how I understood the system would allow someone to change a mistake in their application. You can edit your choices after submitting them as many times as you like up until the deadline, so yes someone could have applied already then noticed a mistake when logging in again. I don't think all single schools have "girl" or "boy" in the name.

I presume single sex schools probably asked the local authority to ensure the application system makes sure that people who apply as female can't select male schools to stop wasted choices. Therefore it's logical if you try to change the sex/gender then I presume the system would say you first need to edit your already completed application to remove any opposite sex schools that you may have selected, to make absolutely sure you still have a submitted application, but you are aware your application to them would be denied. Then, you can change the sex marker and add new different single sex schools.

That's how I understand it to make sense, anyway. I don't really have any more to add..