School placement allocations (FOI)

Request

The Education department policy entitled "School Admissions to Non Fee Paying Primary schools" states in footnote 2 that "If a school is oversubscribed by families living in the catchment area during the annual Reception allocation process, priority is applied on a case by case basis, taking into account factors including (but not limited to) driving distance from home to the closest school with available space".

Please could you provide details of what the other factors are.

Response

If a school is oversubscribed then Reception places are allocated based on the published criteria in the Admissions to non fee paying Primary Schools Policy, available at the following link:

School Admissions to Non Fee Paying Primary schools

The criteria is as follows:

1. have a special educational need and must access a specific school / are looked after

2. have brothers or sisters in the school (Reception to Year 5)

3. are living in the primary school catchment area

4. are living in the secondary school catchment area

5. have brothers or sisters in the school - Year 6

6. have other requests supported by a good educational reason

Once the above criteria has been applied and if schools are oversubscribed for families living in the catchment area, then the majority of allocations are based on driving distance from the family’s home to the closest school with available space.

In the last five years, the Department have also applied the following:

• if two families live equal distant from their catchment school, and there is only one place available, then neither family were offered the place - both families were invited to appeal so that a decision could be made by an appeals panel in accordance with Admissions Appeals Policy

• for families living in the Springfield catchment area walking distance from home to the closest school with available space has also been taken in account