APPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL PLACES
A representative from Children and Young People’s Services on will be present to provide information to the meeting.
Minutes:
Cathy Dobb, Head of Service for School Organisation and Assets gave the meeting a brief presentation on the admissions for school places process. The following points were noted.
- It was currently the time of year for parents to submit their 3 choices in order of preference for secondary school, deadline of 31st October.
- Schools were unaware of the order of preference when choosing to make an offer to parents; this allowed for the more efficient allocation of places.
- The Choice Advice Service was a body, independent of the Council which could advise parents on making the choice for their child’s school.
- After the secondary school process the Foundation (reception) places are dealt with – deadline 15 January.
- It was noted that with Foundation level, it couldn’t be assumed that if a child attended a nursery at a school that a school place would be automatic.
- Applying online was recommended as choices could be amended up until the deadline date and it could be guaranteed that the application had been received.
- If unsuccessful there was an appeals process and you could go on a school’s waiting list, but there was no guarantee of success.
Questions / comments were raised on the following areas:
- The importance of putting three choices – Cathy advised that it was always important to put three choices down. If only one choice was made and it wasn’t successful, any school could be allocated.
- The importance of getting the application in on time – all applications received on time would be dealt with first and only then would late applications be dealt with.
The Chair thanked Cathy for her presentation.
He also congratulated Councillor Dempster and all those involved in the city’s education for the improved results in the city this past year. In particular, it was noted that Babington Community College’s performance had improved from about 23% 5 A-C in 2008 to over 70% this year.
Councillor Dempster asked those present to spread the message about admissions and that people shouldn’t make assumptions about city schools, they were improving and people should go and see them.