Page 3 Agenda Item 2 Admissions Forum – 8 February 2011 Item 2 Minutes of Sutton Admission Forum Monday 18 October 2010, 10.00am, Civic Offices Present Core Membership Local Authority Cllr Kirsty Jerome A Cllr Moira Butt Primary schools – A Louise Austin (Primary Head) Dorchester Primary Community Karen Rhodes (Primary Head) Rushy Meadow Primary Terry Gorley (Primary Governor) Robin Hood Junior Primary schools – Brian Stevens (Primary Chair ) St Dunstan’s C of E Primary Voluntary-Aided Margaret Sinclair (Primary Head) St Mary’s Infants Secondary schools A Jane Pascoe (Secondary Chair ) Stanley Park High School – Community Will Smith (Secondary Head) Greenshaw High School Secondary schools Rosemary Satchell (Secondary Chair) Cheam High School – Foundation Barbara Greatorex (Secondary Head) Wallington High School for Girls Simon Brown (Secondary Chair) Glenthorne High School Secondary schools A* Philip Howard (Secondary Governor) The John Fisher School – Voluntary Aided Diocesan Board Carol Jerwood Church of England Simon Parr Roman Catholic Parent Members A Gemma Fitzpatrick tba tba tba Local Community To be confirmed Representative A = Absent A* = Absent, but represented by an alternate. Others Present Pam Cooper Cheam Park Farm Infants’ School Jackie Saddington Cheam Park Farm Junior School Gordon Ironside Sutton Grammar School John Hordley St Philomena’s School pp Philip Howard Paul Harding Carshalton High School for Girls Steve Hume Glenthorne High School Karin Rowsell Nonsuch High School for Girls Peter Smart Wallington County Grammar School Brenda Morley Overton Grange School Sharman Lawson Executive Head, Parent, Pupil & Student Services Peter Gasparelli Interim Head of Admissions Meera Leavey LBS Legal Dept Bob Dixon LBS School Governance – Minuting Clerk Also present was Cllr Wendy Mathys. Mr Qamar Khan attended briefly but left when it was explained that members of the public were not normally invited to address the Forum. 1 Agenda Item 2 Page 4 Admissions Forum – 8 February 2011 Item 2 1. INTRODUCTION & APOLOGIES Cllr Jerome welcomed members to the meeting. Apologies had been received from Cllr Moira Butt, Jane Pascoe (Stanley Park High School), Gemma Fitzpatrick, Martin Kearsey (Devonshire Primary), Ian Birnbaum and Philip Howard (The John Fisher School). RESOLUTION noted Clerk’s Note: Subsequent to the meeting an email apology was received from Gary Kirkwood, Foresters Primary School. Cllr Jerome and Dr Satchell proposed a vote of appreciation and thanks to Claire Potier, who had worked in Sutton for the past 16 years. Members enthusiastically agreed. Cllr Jerome pointed out that that day was Dr Birnbaum’s last day as Strategic Director (although he would be staying in Sutton as Interim Chief Executive) and the Forum expressed their thanks to him for his 20 years of service to education in Sutton. 2. MINUTES & MATTERS ARISING Minutes of the meeting held on 11 June 2010 had been circulated. There were no comments, and the minutes were agreed. There were no matters arising not covered elsewhere on the agenda. 3. PARENT & LOCAL COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES Sharman Lawson introduced Enclosure 1, which described the steps taken to recruit parent and local community representatives to membership of the Forum. Dr Satchell was concerned that the names of the applicants had been suppressed, since this was unlike any other situation where she was asked to choose between applicants. It was important that any information known to any member of the Forum about an applicant should be shared. Sharman Lawson replied that the object of the recruitment exercise was to obtain a balance of parents from a cross- section of schools, and that this school information had not been removed from the applications. Members then considered why, with 18 expressions of interest, there had been only 5 definite applications. It was suggested that this might be due to the timing of the meetings. During discussion, there emerged a consensus that members were willing to accept changes in the timing of the Forum meetings, provided that they were not always evening or twilight sessions. Cllr Jerome suggested that the matter be deferred pending a reconsideration of the timing of Forum meetings and enquiry of those who did not apply as to whether the timing of meetings had been a factor in their not following up their initial interest. 4. ADMISSION ARRANGEMENTS 2011 – Update on Schools Adjudicator reports 2 Page 5 Agenda Item 2 Admissions Forum – 8 February 2011 Item 2 Sharman Lawson reported that three objections had been made to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator since the last meeting of the Forum. The objection by the local authority to the admission arrangements of Cheam Park Farm Junior School had been upheld, and the adjudicator had ruled that the school’s admission number should increase to 105 for the next three years. A parental objection to the arrangements of the John Fisher School had not been upheld. The determination in respect of a parental objection to the admission arrangements for the boys’ selective schools had not yet been received; it was expected in the following week. The objection relating to the John Fisher School had been in respect of nominated feeder primary schools. A similar objection to arrangements at Richard Challoner School in Kingston had been partially upheld. Simon Parr said that the diocese was actively reviewing these arrangements involving feeder primary schools. Cllr Jerome said that she felt the Cheam Park Farm Junior School situation had been very difficult. She was pleased that a definite decision had now been reached and thanked the Junior School for agreeing to the increased admission, so that everybody could move forward. Mrs Saddington said that the Governing Body had asked her to confirm to the Forum that they would not be seeking a judicial review of the determination. She had however, written to Dr Birnbaum expressing the Governor’s concern over breaches of procedure; she thought that that the draft adjudication which had been sent to the local authority for comment had been released to the public, since the school had received many phone calls prior to the formal publication of the adjudication seeking to take advantage of the extra places which would be made available. Mrs Saddington stressed that the Junior School was actively trying to work with the Infants’ School. Mrs Saddington also said that her Governing Body was concerned about the way in which the adjudicator had given priority to children with special needs. By placing such children at the head of the list, in advance of other application criteria, there was the potential that not all children in the Infants’ School would automatically transfer to the Juniors. She was also concerned that the sibling link applied only in an upwards direction, giving priority where the applicant had an older sibling at the Junior School, but did not operate to give priority admission for a younger sibling to the Infants’ school where the Junior School was able to offer a place to the older sibling. She had discussed both these points with Clare Potier and thought that an agreement had been reached, but the adjudicator had rejected arrangements. Mrs Saddington asked, on behalf of the Governing Body, for the views of the Forum. Sharman Lawson commented that the admission of children with special needs was something that could enable the school to go beyond its published admission number. However, she felt it necessary to defer the matter and consider the question of sibling links outside the meeting. Dr Satchell commented that the Admissions Code was not entirely clear; in one place it specified that siblings should be older, whereas in other 3 Agenda Item 2 Page 6 Admissions Forum – 8 February 2011 Item 2 places it made no such restriction. Mrs Saddington responded that a major intention of the Admissions Code was to accommodate family wishes by keeping children together so far as possible. 5. FAIR ACCESS PROTOCOL Enclosure 3 was the draft of the Fair Access Protocol 2009/10 & 2010/11. The major change was the introduction of cross-border arrangements with Merton, which had already been agreed at the Secondary Headteachers meeting. Discussions were now being held with Croydon and Kingston to see whether similar arrangements could be put in place. The Protocol had been sent to secondary schools for consultation. Dr Satchell said that she was concerned about the time required to admit a child under the provisions of the protocol. Peter Gasparelli accepted this but said it was an inevitable consequence of the need to pass information between several different parties. Sharman Lawson agreed with this explanation but said that nevertheless she would like to see quicker admissions. Steve Hume, on behalf of Glenthorne, said that his school was not inclined to sign the protocol in its present form. They had suggested a number of changes which he hoped would be discussed at the next meeting of secondary headteachers. He had already received some responses, had requested a reply by early November in order that the matter could be discussed at a meeting in the second week of November. His chief concerns was that schools were being asked to admit too many pupils, he suggested a maximum of four and that there should be a more even spread between schools. In view of the discussion being undertaken by secondary headteachers, it was agreed to defer this item to the next meeting of the Forum. 6. MID-TERM ADMISSION PROCEDURES Peter Gasparelli said that this was the first report about the functioning of the new mid-term co-ordinated admissions system. The new system was complex to operate, as it was London-wide, and teething difficulties, within some LAs and pressures following the summer holiday period meant that there had been some delays in processing applications.. However, there was a statutory requirement for such a system and, as it was a new process, procedures would be reviewed across London during the academic year.