4A 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. 1 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 2 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 3 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. 4 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.