ADA 2557 Referrer
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DETERMINATION Case reference: ADA 2557 Referrer: A member of the public Admission Authority: The governing body of Archbishop Blanch Church of England High School, Liverpool Date of decision: 29 November 2013 Determination In accordance with section 88I(5) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, I have considered the admission arrangements of Archbishop Blanch Church of England High School for admissions in September 2014. I determine that the arrangements do not conform with the requirements of the legislation and the School Admissions Code in relation to the fact that parents must easily be able to understand how any faith-based criteria will be reasonably satisfied and priority must not be given on the basis of any practical support. They do comply with the requirement to provide clarity about the definition of the ‘family’. Further, in accordance with section 88I I have considered the arrangements for admissions in 2014 as a whole and I determine that there are matters that do not conform with the requirements of the legislation and the School Admissions Code. By virtue of section 88K(2) of the Act the adjudicator’s decision is binding on the admission authority. The School Admissions Code requires the admission authority to revise its admission arrangements as quickly as possible. The referral 1. The admission arrangements (the arrangements) of Archbishop Blanch Church of England High School (the school), a voluntary aided girls’ secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 18 years, for September 2014, have been brought to the attention of the Adjudicator in an email dated 24 September 2013. The referrer makes three points: the arrangements do not explain to parents how they might meet the requirement for ‘involvement of the family in Church life beyond simple attendance at weekly worship’ and that this breaches paragraph 1.37 of the Code: whether or not the arrangements breach paragraph 1.9 e of the Code; and finally the arrangements do not sufficiently define ‘family’ (as there is reference on the school’s website to the church attendance of grandparents). Jurisdiction 2. These arrangements were determined under section 88C of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (the Act) by the governing body which is the admission authority for the school. The referrer brought these determined arrangements to the attention of the adjudicator on 24 September 2013. The arrangements that come to the attention of the adjudicator may be considered under section 88I of the Act. I am satisfied that it is within my jurisdiction to consider the arrangements under section 88I of the Act. 3. Having reviewed the arrangements for 2014 in relation to the matters brought to my attention I have also used my power under section 88I of the Act to consider the arrangements as a whole. Procedure 4. In considering this matter I have had regard to all relevant legislation and the Code. 5. The documents I have considered in reaching my decision include: the email from the referrer dated 24 September 2013; the school’s response to the referral dated 18 October 2013, with supporting documents; a response from the Diocese of Liverpool (the diocese) dated 25 October 2013, with supporting documents; Liverpool City Council’s , the local authority (the LA) booklet, ‘Secondary School Admissions 2014/15’, for parents seeking information about admission to schools in the area in September 2014, a copy of the minutes of the meetings of the governing body on 30 January 2013 at which the admission policy for 2013 was considered; and of the meeting on 19 June, at which it was confirmed that the arrangements had been determined by Chairman’s action on 27 March 2013; and a copy of the determined arrangements and confirmation of when consultation on the arrangements last took place. 6. I considered the arrangements for September 2014 and sought a meeting with the school, the diocese and the LA to discuss the matters referred to me and my additional concerns about aspects of the arrangements which I considered might not be fully compliant with the Code. 7. I have taken account of information received during the meeting I convened on 28 October 2013 at the school and further information which has been submitted since that meeting by the LA and by the school. The referral 8. The referral has three aspects and in the first of these the referrer says that the arrangements do not explain to parents how they might meet the requirement for ‘involvement of the family in Church life beyond simple attendance at weekly worship’ and that this breaches paragraph 1.37 of the School Admission Code (the Code) which says, “Admission authorities must ensure that parents can easily understand how any faith-based criteria will be reasonably satisfied.” 9. In the second aspect the referrer questions whether or not the arrangements breach paragraph 1.9 e which says, “It is for admission authorities to formulate their admission arrangements but they must not give priority to children on the basis of any practical or financial support parents may give to the school or any associated organisation, including any religious authority.” 10. Finally, the referrer says it is unclear how the school defines ‘family’ as there is reference on the school’s website to points being awarded for the church attendance of parents or grandparents. The referrer contends that this would unfairly advantage girls who had four living grandparents since only one grandparent would need to attend church regularly or to be involved in church life beyond normal weekly attendance for the applicant to awarded qualifying points for admission and if step-parents are allowed then this also increases an applicant’s chances of gaining admission to the school. Other Matters 11. At the meeting I held at the school, I raised other aspects of the arrangements for admission to Year 7 and Year 12 that appeared to contravene the requirements of the Code. These relate to the admissions policy, the application form and to the set of supplementary information forms (SIFs) as follows: the requirement to consult on changes to the arrangements; the inclusion within Category A, of an oversubscription criterion for admission of children with statements of special educational needs (A1i); the requirement for parents of children to complete the medical/social section of the application form; the clarity of the definitions of looked after and previously looked after children; the separation of looked after children (A1ii) from previously looked after children (A1iii) in two criteria; and the requirement for parents of looked after and previously looked after children to complete the medical/social section of the application form; the lack of clarity about criterion A2, ‘Children of staff employed at the school for 2 or more years, or staff who meet a skills shortage’. (Priority may be given); the arrangements in Category E, ‘All other applicants’ gives no indication to parents about the likelihood of gaining admission, unlike other criteria; the arrangements for admission to the sixth form required a fixed published admission number (PAN); the accuracy of the application form as it relates to the admission policy and to the SIFs; and finally the information required on the set of SIFs. Background 12. The school is a voluntary aided Church of England secondary school for girls, with a co-educational sixth form that operates in collaboration with five other secondary schools in Liverpool. It has a PAN of 140, with 926 pupils on roll including 220 in the sixth form. In the past the school was oversubscribed for a number of years but numbers are reducing, due to a demographic dip across the city, which is affecting many schools; and which has been exacerbated by families moving out of the city. 13. The most recent Ofsted report (May 2012) describes the overall effectiveness of the school as good. Inspectors describe the school as slightly smaller than average and the report says, “The proportion of students known to be eligible for free school meals is below average, so too, is the proportion from minority ethnic groups. The proportion who speak English as an additional language is well below average. The proportion of disabled students and those who have special educational needs, including those supported by school action plus or with a statement of special educational needs, is below the national average.” 14. The school is designated as having a religious character and the Code says in paragraph 1.36, “As with other maintained schools, these schools are required to offer every child who applies, whether of the faith, another faith or no faith, a place at the school if there are places available. Schools designated by the Secretary of State as having a religious character (commonly known as faith schools) may use faith-based oversubscription criteria and allocate places by reference to faith where the school is oversubscribed.” In other words, faith schools can decide whether or not to include faith based criteria within their arrangements and the school has decided to do so. 15. The first page of published admission policy includes the following information: ‘Archbishop Blanch School is a Voluntary Aided Church of England School. Girls are admitted to Year 7 at the age of 11, and boys and girls to Year 12 at the age of 16. How many pupils will be admitted? Each year 140 girls are admitted to Year 7. Places are awarded in the following categories: Category A1 i: Children with a Statement of Special Educational Need, where the school is named in the Statement ii Children in Public Care; iii Adopted children who were previously in Public Care (or have become subject to a residence or special guardianship order) allocated as required Category A2: Children of staff employed at the school for 2 or more years, or staff who will meet a skills shortage priority may be given Category B1: Christian applications* 107 places *A Christian application is considered to be from families attending any Church in membership with, or sharing the statement of belief of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, or in full sympathy with its Trinitarian stance.