Haberdashers’ Aske’s Borough Academy – Admissions Policy Consultation Background As part of the process of opening Haberdashers’ Aske’s Borough Academy for a September 2019 intake, Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation held a public consultation regarding the proposed admissions arrangements for the new school. The consultation ran at the same time as a consultation under Section 10 of the Academies Act 2010 regarding Funding Agreements with the Secretary of State for Education. The consultations ran for 6 weeks from 7th June to 19th July 2018. Details of the consultation were posted on the Federation’s website (www.haaf.org.uk/Consultation- June-2018) where respondents could reply electronically or download a form to do so by post or by email. Leaflets were produced detailing the consultation and advising people to visit the web page to view the policy and provide responses. These were distributed either by email or hard copy to local authorities (Southwark and surrounding Boroughs); all schools within the Southwark Borough; schools within a 30 minute travel commute to Borough Academy; interested parties locally including councillors and MPs, and hard copies were provided to local primary schools. A full list of who was written to regarding the consultation can be found in Appendix A. The proposed admissions arrangements were described as follows on the website, including a link to the full admissions policy. We intend to have a simple, fair, and easy to understand admissions policy that will use home to school distance as the main criterion for allocating places. If the school is oversubscribed, first priority will be given to children with an Education, Health and Care Plan or Statement of Special Education Needs naming the school followed by children who meet the following criteria, in priority order: 1. Looked after children 2. Children with exceptional medical or social needs 3. Siblings of pupils attending the school at the time the application is received (this will not apply for the first year of admissions as there will be no older siblings in the school) 4. Pupils who live nearest to the secondary school on the basis of a straight line home to Academy distance. Responses 77 responses were received to the consultation (including the Section 10 consultation). Of these, 70 were received via the electronic form, 2 by paper and 5 by other means such as direct emails to the Borough Academy email address. 72 of the respondents identified as ‘local parents with primary school aged children’, 6 as ‘other resident’, 1 as local authority, 3 as ‘local community group’ and 5 as ‘local school’. It should be noted that respondents were able to tick more than one box for this question and of those who selected local school, all also selected local parents. It is therefore likely that parents ticked this box as their children attend local schools rather than as a result of representing the views of local school organisations. Responses relating to admissions Respondents were asked ‘Do you have any comments regarding the proposed admissions arrangements for Haberdashers’ Aske’s Borough Academy?’ 52 responses were received and 25 respondents left the comment section blank. All responses, with individual names removed, are included in Appendix B. 24 of the responses directly expressed support of the proposed admissions arrangements or to distance as the main admissions criteria. 4 of these responses directly referred to the proposed admissions arrangements as fair or clear. 8 of the responses made clear that they felt the school should be for local children or the local community. 2 responses disagreed with the proposed admissions arrangements: o ‘I think simple distance to the site is an unfair criteria as housing that near to central London is expensive. Perhaps some places could be awarded on more of a lottery basis to residents living in Southwark given that the shortage of decent secondary schools is borough wide’ o ‘Not sure if the sibling policy is fair. We have seen it many times in the primary setting where families get one child into school and move away from the area knowing their other children will benefit from the policy. While I also understand having 3 children myself that juggling multiple school calendars is a nightmare. 31 of the responses listed areas that they felt should be included in admissions arrangements. o 22 of these expressed a desire for feeder primary schools and priority for the children that attended them. Of these, 8 referred to the educational and social benefit to children of progressing from primary school to secondary school as one cohort. For example one respondent said, ‘I think priority should be given to feeder schools rather than places awarded on proximity to the new school. Currently children in the local primary schools ‘graduate’ to a worryingly high number of different secondary schools. This is troubling from a friendship point of view but also there is good evidence that when children progress to secondary school with their existing primary peer groups this has a very positive impact on performance and results for the school (and vice versa if they do not). It seems to me that it is beneficial to all to keep year 6 cohorts together’. o 3 responses opposed the idea of feeder schools. o 10 of the responses listed other areas of focus such as lottery allocation, scholarships, SEND or becoming a faith school. Southwark Local Authority responded to the consultation and provided its view on the proposed admissions arrangements. It was supportive and said that they were ‘clear, fair and transparent and do not cause any undue prejudice to the community. The full response, including suggestions for clarity regarding waiting lists are included in Appendix C. Conclusion The following issues were raised in the consultation. Distance and siblings as unfair criteria Whilst we understand the desire to ensure that all children within the Borough have access to the school we disagree with this point as we feel that distance is the simplest and fairest way to allocate places. The siblings criteria will not apply for the first year of applications. Feeder schools Whilst the Federation has feeder school arrangements with its existing primary schools we have not proposed any feeder arrangements with local schools for Haberdashers’ Aske’s Borough Academy. We do not have feeder arrangements with any non-Haberdashers’ Aske’s primary schools at any of our existing secondary schools. We feel that it would not be fair to include feeder arrangements for any local primary schools within the admissions criteria for Haberdashers’ Aske’s Borough Academy for the following reasons: The four schools mentioned most as possible feeder schools were Charles Dickens Primary School, The Cathedral School of St Saviour and St Mary Overie and Friars Primary Foundation School. These schools are located within less than 1km of the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Borough Academy site. There are 10 other schools within this distance (data gathered from the Mayor of London’s School Atlas) and their catchment areas most likely overlap in a number of places. If the Federation were to give feeder school preference to these closest schools it could disadvantage children who may live closer to the site but attend a school a bit further away, but still less than 1km away. It is likely that the overwhelming majority of the children who currently attend the primary schools closest to Haberdashers’ Aske’s Borough Academy live close to their schools and as such will be within the likely catchment area for Haberdashers’ Aske’s Borough Academy as well. The Office of the School Adjudicator, which regulates schools admissions, has reported in its most recent annual report, cases of adjudicators finding that the use of named but not related feeder schools (i.e. not part of an existing Multi Academy Trust) to be unfair on the grounds that children who did not attend them would be unfairly disadvantaged and in some cases face significantly longer and more difficult journeys to school. A number of the responses given within our consultation made reference to children travelling long distances to school within the existing school provision and as such we would not wish to add to this disadvantage by introducing feeder schools arrangements. Benefits of a cohort moving together A number of responses referred to the benefits of cohorts of children staying together and progression from primary to secondary together. In some cases this was used as an argument for having feeder school arrangements. We recognise and share the view that there is a benefit in children staying together when they move to secondary school, and we also feel that there is a benefit from a continuous strong ethos throughout primary and secondary schools. This is why as a Federation we support all-through schools – all of our existing Academies (Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College, Haberdashers’ Aske’s Knights Academy and Haberdashers’ Aske’s Crayford Academy) are all-through from 3-18 years. If Haberdashers’ Aske’s Borough Academy were to have its own primary phase then it would have feeder priority as our other primary schools do. Comments from Southwark Council In Southwark Council’s response they recommended a number of changes that regarding the proposed admissions arrangements. These are listed below as well as our response to these: ‘Admission of children outside their normal age group: For safeguarding purposes Southwark Council’s school admissions team is co-ordinating the process for requesting admission of children outside of their normal age group. However, the decision as to whether to agree or refuse such requests would still remain with the Academy. You may wish to include that any such requests from Southwark residents must be made using Southwark Council’s request form which is available on the website at www.southwark.gov.uk/schooladmissions.