Admissions Criteria
What are 'admissions criteria'?
Every school will have a set of rules by which it chooses its pupils. In the private sector, these can be anything. There's an astonishing variety in the private sector. You just have to live with what they offer. In the state sector, by and large, they are regulated. They can only be particular kinds of criteria and the rules will be set out very clearly in the prospectus, in the local authority documentation. They can vary by schools, but they will all be much the same. You need to study them carefully because they will give you the best possible indication of whether you've got a chance of your child getting into that particular school.
How can I find out about a school's admissions criteria?
The first place I would turn to is the local education authority documentation, because you only have to get one booklet and that will tell you about every school in their area. The fount of information is the school, and they may or may not provide you with more or better information. It's worth looking in the prospectus or asking them what their admissions criteria are but the local education authority, for a state school, is where you should turn.
Who decides the school's admissions criteria?
It depends on the school. For most state schools, it's the local education authority who will set a particular pattern throughout the authority. Some state schools through religious or other association have more control over their own admissions criteria. The new city academies have control over their admissions criteria, so within any area you will get a group of schools which have not entirely set their own criteria, but have had a voice in their own criteria and have evolved what it should be in discussion with the rest of the schools in the area. You can get schools which will give preference to one thing, particularly religious schools which give preference to religious background and other things which may be specific to that particular school. You've got to look at the brochure as a whole and not think that just because one school in the area has a particular set of criteria that it will apply to others.
What kind of admissions criteria might a school apply?
The key one is usually where you live, and that can take various forms. Sometimes it is the distance from the school as the crow flies, and they will just draw a line around the school and in it you're in and out of it you're out. Or, they will do it by walking distance, and then they will have some acute computer program that traces a safe walking route from the school to your home. Or, they can do it by individual parishes, or by the pupils that went to individual primary schools. There's all sorts of different geographical variations you can go for. Sometimes that's also split up by what's called banding, where they will give children an exam, not to decide whether they get into the school or not, but to split them into academic bands. They will then take an equal proportion of each band of academic ability. That means that the geographic limits will vary according to academic ability. They might be quite tight for the top band, and really quite loose for lower down. Or, they may vary, which makes it difficult to know. Obviously, grammar schools will select on academic criteria. Religious schools will have some sort of relgious hurdle to get through. Many schools will allow preference for siblings, so that parents aren't having to go to one school there and the other school the other way, so that they can organise their lives properly. Beyond that, there is almost always preference for children with special needs of some kind or another, whether it's medical or educational, and for children that are in care who have priorty at any school.
How do schools choose which children to accept?
Within the state system, they have to do it entirely by the book. They will be presented with a list of children who've applied and the information will be there for them to be able to judge whether they fit within their criteria or not. They will have an address attached to them or they will have a letter from a priest or an examination result. They have to go exactly by the book wherein no scope of variation, whatever, there used to be lots of ways around things, but interviews have been banned, there is other selection criteria which was subjective [untillegible] banned. And, now they can't even know whether you've expressed a preference for the school or not. They know its on your list, they know they're on your list, but they don't know whether your their first choice or third choice. So they can't even judge by that, they just have to go by the basic statistics that match against their criteria. So there isn't any selection really, it comes down to it being your choice which strikes me as the right way.
Do schools keep waiting lists, and how do they work?
Yes, all schools keep waiting lists. When you're looking at the school you would really like to go to but is clearly going to be hard to get into, then put it there on your preferences and you'll get on the waiting list. Say you're number 85, on some primary schools that's a mile and a half away and you never had a hope that you'll get into, but 2 or 3 years later, pupils may have moved on. Particularly if you're in an area where people move a lot, like Upton. They will get down to you and then you will suddenly get a letter saying "Do you want to check the place up?" So it's worth hanging on for waiting lists. They all have them, and particularly where you very much put a school as your first preference, you stay on that waiting list, and you keep having hope of getting into it.
My child's nursery is linked to the primary school I want them to go to, do I still need to formally apply?
Yes, you do. You don't get any preference at all from having been to the nursery school. You're in there with everybody else and will be ranked according to the school's criteria.
My child's siblings are at the school already, does that make a difference to our application?
Yes, it often does. It often gives you a passport to the school. For schools that do allow siblings to follow, generally the sibling has to still be at the school. It's no good that a brother or sister went there earlier, it's not that kind of association. It's about making the parents' life easier, giving them one school run, or one school bus to catch rather than two. So a lot of schools will do it. If you've got it, it's an absolute passport, it's wonderful. You don't have to worry at all about meeting the criteria or getting in there on preference. If you haven't got it, then you've got all of these pesky parents who've got siblings at the school getting in there ahead of you. So, it works both ways. But once you're in there, it's a great advantage.
Is there anything I can do to improve my child's chances of getting into their preferred school?
Yes, absolutely. Simply fit into the school's admissions criteria. Mostly, that's a question of moving house. It can often be changing religion or tutoring your child for academic selection, but the most common way of doing it is for parents to rent somewhere firmly within the cachement area and move there for the crucial period of a year or two, and then once you've secured the place to move back. And that is perfectly legal, if frowned upon. If you try and cheat on that, if you just rent somewhere and don't move there you're liable to find that the headmistress has stuck her head through the letterbox, seen the pile of unopened circulars and crossed you off the list.
We don't live in the catchment area of a perfect school, can we still apply?
Absolutely, yes. You'll get on the waiting list. Put it as your first choice. You'll end up on the waiting list. You won't get it, but you may get a chance later on. Or, something may suddenly turn up trumps, and you will find your way to being there. But don't count on it. Don't ever think that you can get there by appeal or by some other mechanism. You're giving yourself a chance to get in later. You shouldn't think that you will.
