Parmiters - siblings
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That has been their consistent position. All the Herts partial selectives have historically been reluctant to change their criteria.tense wrote:I was at a school meeting at Parmiter's on Wednesday night & the head was asked about the siblings rule. He said that there is no change whatsoever to the siblings rule this year (ie for entry in Sept 2009). I do not know whether the admissions rules have been published & the date for objecting gone, but this is what he said.
The head also said that Parmiter's strongly believes that children from the same family should have the opportunity to go to school together and that the school would fight hard to retain their siblings policy if necessary.
As for dates, the consultation period between the LEA and schools ended on 1st March. Final determined arrangements are due by 15th April. By 1st May each admission authority must notify each consulted party of their arrangements and the council must publish a notice in local papers saying where these arrangements may be viewed (last year, three locations in the county). The deadline for objections is 6 weeks from notification of the arrangements. After relevant information is gathered, adjudicators aim to decide on an objection within 6 weeks.
Herts CC have recently been directed by an adjudicator to clarify their sibling criterion asMarylou wrote:Yves - keep a careful eye on how things go with this. Bucks CC changed its ruling on this very point the year after my eldest started at a grammar school (we are OOC) and we now have a battle on our hands to get second daughter into the school next year even if she qualifies, as older one will be in 6th form when she is due to start and is not counted as a sibling.So this kind of hassle can and DOES happen! From what the head said, you should be OK - unfortunately our GS is not a foundation school so has to do as it's told by BCC.
The VA and foundations schools will presumably use compatible wording.Children who have a sibling at the school at the time of application, unless the sibling is in the last year of the normal age-range of the school. Note: the ‘normal age range’ is the designated range for which the school provides, for example Years 7 to 11 for an 11-16 secondary school, Years 7 to 13 in an 11-18 school.
Yes, it would be better for us if BCC were to adopt this wording. It's perfectly reasonable to expect a child at an 11-18 school to stay on into the sixth form, and to give the younger sibling the benefit of the doubt, since the number of families affected by this would be quite small anyway. BCC, however, object to the minor administrative inconvenience of checking with schools as to whether or not the older child is likely to still be at the school when the younger one joins.WP wrote:Herts CC have recently been directed by an adjudicator to clarify their sibling criterion asMarylou wrote:Yves - keep a careful eye on how things go with this. Bucks CC changed its ruling on this very point the year after my eldest started at a grammar school (we are OOC) and we now have a battle on our hands to get second daughter into the school next year even if she qualifies, as older one will be in 6th form when she is due to start and is not counted as a sibling.The VA and foundations schools will presumably use compatible wording.Children who have a sibling at the school at the time of application, unless the sibling is in the last year of the normal age-range of the school. Note: the ‘normal age range’ is the designated range for which the school provides, for example Years 7 to 11 for an 11-16 secondary school, Years 7 to 13 in an 11-18 school.
According to this double-barrelled press release, the minister intends to extend the window for objections from 6 to 16 weeks, from this year. I wonder if they've thought that through. It will move the objections deadline to late August, and we'll have adjudication decisions appearing in October, perilously close to the deadline for parents to submit their preferences. There's also the possibility that those decisions might be taken to judicial review.WP wrote:As for dates, the consultation period between the LEA and schools ended on 1st March. Final determined arrangements are due by 15th April. By 1st May each admission authority must notify each consulted party of their arrangements and the council must publish a notice in local papers saying where these arrangements may be viewed (last year, three locations in the county). The deadline for objections is 6 weeks from notification of the arrangements. After relevant information is gathered, adjudicators aim to decide on an objection within 6 weeks.
