Halp needed on admissions criteria for TWGSB?

Tracy · Post by **Tracy** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:14 pm

Can anyone confirm that schools do NOT know where it is placed on the CAF?

I had a discussion with a friend who said that schools not knowing would create an awful lot of work for admissions staff who would have to list all applicants when the school in question could be a last choice anyway and not particularly wanted. I argued that this does unfortunately happen as schools don't know where they are on the CAF and have to treat each application as if it was a first choice.

We were particulary interested in religious schools where the parents do not put the religious school first but choose a grammar instead.

Has anyone seen what comes through from the authority to ask the school to allocate a child a school place? Does the request state where the school is on the CAF?

shuff · Post by **shuff** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:29 pm

Tracy, schools definitely do not know where they are placed on the CAF form. About 5 years ago they did, so you had to be very careful what you put down, in what order. It is a lot safer now!

Tracy · Post by **Tracy** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:35 pm

Thanks, Shuff, I thought that was the case.

kentmum1 · Post by **kentmum1** » Mon Feb 09, 2009 9:21 pm

It is one of the few community controlled schools left, whereby KCC own the buildings and control the admission procedures and recruitment of staff, etc.

Villagedad · Post by **Villagedad** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:40 am

kentmum1 wrote:Villagedad - TWGSB is one of the few community controlled schools left, whereby KCC own the buildings and control the admission procedures and recruitment of staff.. etc By becoming a foundation school, the Govening Body take over these roles, giving greater flexibility in deciding their own admission criteria and recruitment of staff, etc. Most schools have chosen to go down this route. Maidstone Grammar School for Boys are probably the most recent school to switch ovr to this status and have consequently changed their whole admission criteria as a result.

Thanks kentmum1

When this happens, what do you anticipate the main changes will be to the admissions policy at TWGSB..? Also is it likely to happen in the next couple of years?

It would be interesting to know what the main changes were to the Maidstone GSB admissions criteria following their switch to foundation status.

Many thanks, appreciate it
Villagedad

kentmum1 · Post by **kentmum1** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 7:18 pm

TWGGS is a foundation school and still takes a basic pass, apart from the 14 governor places, which are based on aggregate scores. I think the fairest way of getting into a school is to allocate places based on an equal distance around the school. That way, students are not forced to make ridiculous journeys by train, etc.

perplexed · Post by **perplexed** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 7:47 pm

Maidstone Grammar do not just take children with scores over 390. This is just one part of the oversubscription criteria. You should be able to see the full policy on the KCC website in the school admission booklet.

Although the changes to the admissions policy look radical, have they in reality made much difference to either the overall breakdown in scores of the children at the school, or the localities in which they live?

I know nothing about Maidstone Grammar, but the new policy looks to me like one that would have written to apparently satisfy several different viewpoints without making any huge changes to the school intake.

kentmum1 · Post by **kentmum1** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 11:17 am

perplexed - you are quite right that Maidstone simply doesn't just take boys over 390. I knew this but didn't want to go to far into the complexity of the changes. The scores over 390 is just one of the examples of the changes in their admission criteria in having switched status.

jimmymack · Post by **jimmymack** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:27 am

kentmum1 wrote:There are a large number of students from Kent who travel into East Sussex to Uplands and Beacon, who operate in this way.

The admission critieria for all the East Sussex schools are, in priority order: 1. Looked after children. 2. Children with strong medical needs. 3. Siblings. 4. Children wishing to transfer between a linked infant and junior school. 5. Children living within a pre-defined community area. 6. Children living outside the pre-defined community area.

If the child live outside East Sussex, they should apply through the local authority where they live. The local authority will send the application to the East Sussex School Admissions team for 'consideration', which doesn't sound very encouraging.

The community areas do not, as far as I can see, include any parts of Kent. So children from Kent will only get in if they have siblings at the school, went to a linked primary or there are 'spare' places at the school that local children do not want. The clear preference is for children from East Sussex. There is no comparision with the Kent grammar schools.

kentmum1 · Post by **kentmum1** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 11:14 am

Many pupils from our two local primary schools manage to get places there. I think we just fall into the main catchment area, being very close to the East Sussex border. Uplands is harder to get into but Beacon usually spreads out further into Kent, of course, depending on the birth rate and no of siblings.