Meeting with Minister casts doubt on the long term position of siblings at Hertfordshire schools

The long term prospects for partially selective schools being able to maintain priority for siblings in their admissions policies looks grim.

The long term prospects for partially selective schools being able to maintain priority for siblings in their admissions policies looks grim after a Government minister confirmed that schools will be vulnerable to having their policies overturned by the School Adjudicator.

The Schools Admissions Code, debated today in Parliament, will mean that schools will have to comply with Government guidelines on admissions policies. One controversial area relates to those schools which select 10 per cent or more of their pupils – partially selective schools such as Rickmansworth School, St Clement Danes, Parmiters and the Watford Grammar Schools – and who give priority to the siblings of existing pupils. The initial draft Admissions Code prohibited partially selective schools from giving priority to siblings but the Government made a partial retreat by putting in place transistional protection for those families who will have a child on the school roll by 2008. A school will also be able to maintain priority for siblings if, in the event of a complaint, it can convince the School Adjudicator that the admission policy as a whole does not exclude families living nearer the school.

A number of Hertfordshire and North London MPs met with Schools Minister, Jim Knight MP, last night (5 February) at the Department for Education and Skills to discuss the matter.

MP for South West Hertfordshire, David Gauke, commented:

“It is clear that partially selective schools will be vulnerable to a decision of the School Adjudicator to overturn their admissions policies. The way the Government has drafted the rules will make it very difficult for schools to maintain their current policies. I asked if the policy of any partially selective school would currently satisfy the test and the Minister was unable to say that they would.”

Mike Penning, MP for Hemel Hempstead, commented:

“The Government’s compromise on sibling priority has simply deferred this issue for a few years. Families whose children get a place at a partially selective school after 2008 will have the uncertainty that younger brothers and sisters will not get a place at the same school as their older sibling.”