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SHROPSHIRE LOCAL ADMISSIONS FORUM

Present: Bob Thompson (BT) – Community Member (Chair) Roger Evans (RE) – Council Member Phil Adams (PA) – Own Admissions Authority Schools Head Teacher Lisa Crossley (LC) – Telford & Wrekin CYPS Cathy Hobbs (CH) – Telford & Wrekin CYPS Mark Davies (MD) – Lichfield Diocese Cary Tay (CT) – Early Year’s Representative Carol Morgan (CM) – Diocesan Boards of Education – Shrewsbury Catholic

In Attendance: Carol Sneddon (CS) – Shropshire Local Authority Ruth Griffiths (RG) – Shropshire Local Authority

Apologies: Joyce Barrow (JB) – Council Member Phil Wilson (PW) – Shropshire Local Authority Martin Watson (MW) – Parent Representative Karen Morris (KM) – Primary School Head Hilary Burke (HB) – Secondary Head Teacher Sabrina Hobbs (SH) – Special Schools Phillip Sell (PS) – Hereford Diocese – CofE Claire Gaskin (CG) – CE Primary

Date: Wednesday, 30 November 2016 Venue: Oswestry Room, Shirehall, Shrewsbury

No Action Owner 1. Apologies for Absence

Apologies were confirmed as above. 2. Welcome to New Members

BT welcomed the following new members to the group; Cary Tay – Early Years Representative Carol Morgan – Diocesan Boards of Education – Shrewsbury Catholic

3. Declaration of Interest in Agenda Items

BT explained that this is a standard item and asked members to declare their interest as and when required.

4. To Approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 July 2016

The minutes were read and agreed as an accurate record with the note that on page 3 the Corbet School had been incorrectly spelt.

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5. Matters Arising from the Minutes Owner

5.5 Lacon Childe Admission Arrangements – see Appendix 5B

CS reported that prior to the Summer break, LAF members discussed the proposals The Lacon Childe School had put forward regarding their oversubscription criteria. The school was proposing to give;

 a higher priority to children transferring from any of the Trust’s primary schools, over and above other feeder-linked applicants.  priority to members of staff who had been employed at the Trust’s schools for more than 2 years.

LAF members felt the first criteria would be unfair on those children who

attend feeder-linked primary schools and who may have made the

decision to start at that school seven years earlier. For this reason, an

objection was made by the group to the Governors at The Lacon Childe

School. Despite this objection, and a further letter from Karen Bradshaw,

the Governors continued to pursue their proposal. Shropshire Council

therefore raised an objection with the Office of the Schools Adjudicator

where it transpired that The Lacon Childe School had determined its

admission arrangements before it went out to consultation. Despite

several requests by the School Adjudicator for both a copy of the

admission arrangements once they were determined, along with the

minutes of the meeting, these were not forthcoming. Therefore it was

concluded by the Adjudicator that the Governors had not formally

determined any arrangements for 2017.

The Lacon Childe School has now decided to revert to the admission

arrangements that were originally in place and therefore at this time no

higher priority is given to children transferring from any of the Trust’s

primary schools. Similarly, priority for children of members of staff has

not been introduced.

CS explained that if The Lacon Childe School wish to make any changes

to their admission arrangements for 2018/19, they would need to make

the Local Authority aware of this by the 14 December before the start of

the consultation. She questioned whether the LAF group would wish to

continue with its objections should this criteria be raised again. BT

confirmed that he would wish to raise the same objections as last time

and he felt that it reinforced the need for some overview of the situation

and also the purpose of the LAF group. This was supported by the

group.

CS agreed to keep this group informed.

CS

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Phone App via a Portal – Item 6 page 4 – CS stated that paper Owner applications are no longer issued to parents. Parents are either able to apply online or by phoning a member of the admissions team who will take a telephone application on their behalf. She explained that it is still early days regarding the portal.

6. Admission Arrangements 2018/19 – Item 6C

CS explained that with the increase in number of own Admission Authority schools, Academies, Aided schools etc, more and more are being required to determine their own admission arrangements.

LAF members were firstly asked to consider Shropshire Council admission arrangements. These are applicable to all community and voluntary controlled schools. Consultation on admission arrangements is only required every 7 years where no changes are proposed in the intervening period.

CS highlighted the changes being proposed this year;

 St Giles CE Primary School, Shrewsbury is a voluntary controlled school and is proposing to reduce its PAN from 46 to 45. Whilst this is a popular and oversubscribed school, a large number of the children in the school do not actually live in the St Giles’ catchment area. With an admission number of 46, it is always

difficult in terms of class organisation, particularly within Key Stage 1 classes, where there is Government legislation restricting the number of children in the class. Within Key Stage 1, there is a minimum of 138, which equates to 4½ classes. Equally, a number of appeals are heard for St Giles throughout the year, some of which are allowed which puts additional pressure on resources and also means that the School is frequently at its maximum capacity in terms of workspaces within the school. Year groups can be as many as 48/49 and class organisation becomes very difficult. With an admission number of 45, it would allow the school to have one class of 30 and another mixed class of 15 from two year groups. This would work particularly well within Key Stage 1 classes.

CS explained that the Local Authority doesn’t have any reason to

object and so therefore is happy to support this proposal. If new housing is built within the school’s catchment area, then it would be necessary to revisit the School’s admission number but based on their ‘known’ children, the Local Authority is happy to support the school’s proposal at this stage.

 Proposed merger of the catchment area of Hope, Worthen and Westbury should the proposed plans for the three schools go ahead. Governors of these schools have proposed the merger of

Hope CE Primary School, Worthen CE Primary School and

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St Mary’s CE Primary School, Westbury and to move the Owner provision of education onto the current Worthen CE Primary School site. There would need to be expansion of the Worthen site.

CS shared copies of the individual school’s catchment area maps

and a final map showing the proposed merger of the three

catchment areas should the proposal be supported by Cabinet

Members at its meeting on 21 December 2016. The proposal is

currently out for consultation. If the merger is approved, then it

would be logical for the 3 catchment areas to be combined. The

merger does not form part of the admission arrangements

discussions, CS explained that those are part of the

Worthen/Hope/Westbury merger paper.

 Anomaly Properties – CS shared copies of three maps where

historically there has been some anomaly in terms of primary and secondary catchment areas. The first relates to Foxglove Cottage – the proposal is to bring the red secondary school line in sync with the green primary school line. This would result in Foxglove Cottage falling under Lacon Childe catchment area as opposed to Ludlow CE School

The second relates to Ganderbeach. Again it is proposed to bring the red secondary line in sync with the green primary line. This would result in properties in that loop falling under the Community College at Bishops Castle catchment area. Ganderbeach would also be involved in the Hope/Worthen/Westbury consultation. CS stated that she is not aware of any children living in these properties but residents will be written to as part of the consultation process.

The third map relates to Roughton. Again, the proposal is to bring

the red secondary line in sync with the green primary line which

would affect both Roundabout Farm and Roughton Coppice. CS

explained that to the left of the red line is Bridgnorth Endowed

catchment area and to the right is Oldbury wells. With agreement

these two properties would fall under the Bridgnorth Endowed

catchment area.

BT felt that the changes being proposed are both logical and

sensible. The group supported the changes and CS explained

that they will now go out for public consultation. As part of the

consultation, letters will be sent to the current occupiers of all

these properties explaining what the Local Authority is proposing

to do and asking whether they have any objections to the

proposals.

 William Brookes Academy Trust – copies of the proposed Admissions Policy for 2018/19 were circulated to the group.

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CS explained that the change being proposed is the priority given Owner to children of current members of staff. This is detailed in priority three and is below those who live out of area with a sibling at the school, and those who have attended a feeder linked primary

school for more than a whole academic year prior to transfer. It was recognised that this criteria is now being introduced by a number of own admission authority schools and its position in terms of oversubscription criteria was considered very fair by the LAF group. This was therefore supported.

 Shrewsbury Academy Trust – CS explained that the Sundorne School and the Grange School became one establishment from September 2016 and this new establishment is known as the Shrewsbury Academy. At the time, there was no proposal to change or reduce their combined Published Admission Number and the feeling by the Local Authority was that there was sufficient need for the 237 places (the two school’s combined PAN) to remain in the Shrewsbury area.

The LA agreed to the schools becoming one establishment and to

move to one site, with the understanding that the combined PAN must be maintained. It did however, express some concerns as to how the school could maintain that number on one site, but the Trust stated that it was seeking new funding to build a new school.

Since then a proposal has been received from the Shrewsbury Academy Trust to reduce its PAN to 187. Essentially this would

be a reduction of 50 places in each year group – which would result in a loss of 250 places across the whole school. CS circulated copies of a letter dated 14 February 2014, that Anne Gribbin, the then Head of Education, Improvement and Efficiency wrote to the Chair of Governors at Shrewsbury Academy Trust. Also tabled was a grid showing the Nearest School for the period 2012 to 2017. Clearly this shows that whilst there was a dip in

numbers between 2013 and 2014, the higher pupil numbers in 2016 and 2017 certainly demonstrates that there is sufficient need for these school places to be maintained.

CS explained that applicants for whom a school is their ‘nearest school’ are given a higher weighting when considering their application. She explained that the Shrewsbury Academy Trust at Sundorne is now the only school on the north side of the town.

Whilst the school has not received 237 applications, from the information available, it shows that there is a sufficient potential market for those places to be taken up. Equally, parents from the north side of Shrewsbury have currently been able to access other Shrewsbury schools, but the time may come when that may not be possible.

PA questioned the reasoning behind the Trust’s proposal to reduce its PAN. He asked whether the school could access funding for pressure on places. BT said that the school may be seeking to have some level of flexibility on who they offer places

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to. If it is the only school in Shrewsbury with vacancies, the Owner school would have difficulty in refusing requests such as exclusions etc.

CS said that undoubtedly the school’s intention of moving to one site was with the aim of gaining funding for a new school. However, it was probably very optimistic given the current financial pressures. She explained that the LA is responsible for place planning and essentially public money has been used to purchase 237 places and from pupil forecast figures, there is a real need for those places to be maintained. The LA would not agree to a reduction in those places unless they could have the equivalent places and funding for use elsewhere. Equally, with the level of housing being built and also being proposed within Shrewsbury, this will result in an increase in demand for school places. The LA has to ensure there are sufficient places in the town for parents who require them.

Presently, the Trust holds both sites – the Grange and Sundorne. The Trust’s headquarters are located at the Grange Site. It is a multi-school trust and also includes both Longlands Primary School and Grange Primary School. CS understands that there may be a proposal to use the Grange site for alternative provision, for example there is a hairdressing salon on site.

RE stated that he was aware of a proposal for 50 places for pupils who are physically less able, but who would not necessarily need to attend Severndale. CS was unsure of this proposal and said it may be something that the SEN team is involved in.

CS stated that the LA is likely to see an increase in demand for school places and it needs to ensure that there is sufficient capacity to meet those demands. The LA will be looking to expand schools where it can. However, the LA cannot direct academies to expand.

LC said that there are also wider issues to consider such as transport. If pupils cannot be accommodated at their nearest school, then the LA could then be responsible for picking up transport costs to more rural schools.

BT summarised discussions by confirming that as a Local Admissions Forum, it would be opposed to any reduction in the Published Admission Number at the Shrewsbury Academy Trust.

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Owner 7. Any Other Business

RE queried the situation with regard to primary school catchment areas. He was particularly interested whether the LA is seeing an increase in applications as a result of the house building that is taking place. CS said that whilst the LA has not seen a particular increase as yet it is something that it is keeping a close eye on in terms of place planning monitoring. She explained that some discussion have taken place about the need for a new primary school in the Shrewsbury area. It is predicted that this would be needed around 2026. If this was to go ahead, then there may need to be a review of catchment areas.

8. Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 31 January 2017 at 5.00 pm at the Shirehall, Shrewsbury.

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