Consultation on school admission arrangements for 2021/22

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As the admission authority for all community and voluntary controlled schools in Hampshire (not including Portsmouth and Southampton), Hampshire County Council is seeking your views on its proposed admission arrangements for the school year 2021/22

This consultation will run from 29/11/2019 until 17/01/2020.

Background

The School Admissions Code (Dec 2014) published by the Department for Education, requires all admission authorities to consult on their admission arrangements if they are seeking to make changes from the previous year or if the arrangements have not been subject to a public consultation for at least 7 years, to ensure all views are heard. Consultation must be for a minimum of 6 weeks between 1 October and 31 January 2020. The final arrangements must be determined by 28 February 2020.

The admission arrangements include, an admission policy for each phase of school, a list of school specific criteria, the published admission number (PAN) and catchment area for each community and voluntary controlled school.

The full admission arrangements including proposed changes are detailed below:

Published admission numbers (PANS)

We are proposing a reduction to the published admission number for the following schools:

  • Bedenham Primary School, Gosport from 45 to 30
  • Grange Infant School, Gosport from 90 to 75
  • Grange Junior School, Gosport from 90 to 75
  • Hart Plain Junior School, Waterlooville from 90 to 60
  • Kings Furlong Junior School, Basingstoke from 90 to 60
  • South Wonston Primary School, Winchester from 60 to 45
  • The Westgate School, Winchester from 240 to 180

The full list of PANS for all community and voluntary controlled schools are available below:

Admission policies

We are proposing an amendment to the definition (iii) of children of staff, below.

3. Children of staff (see definition iii) who have, (1) been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, or (2) have been recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

Current definition:

(iii) Staff includes all those on the payroll of the school. Children of staff refers to situations where the staff member is the natural parent, the legal guardian or a resident step parent.

Proposed definition:

(iii) Staff includes all those on the payroll of the school who (specific to clause (1)) have been an employee continuously for two years at the time of application.

Children of staff refers to situations where the staff member is the natural parent, the legal guardian or a resident step parent. We are also proposing the inclusion of a new school specific criterion for the following schools (details are included on the school specific criterion document attached below):

  • Anstey Junior School, Alton
  • Hatch Warren Junior School, Basingstoke
  • North Baddesley Junior School, North Baddesley
  • Portway Junior School, Andover
  • Sarisbury CE Junior School, Sarisbury Green
  • St Michael’s CE Junior School, Aldershot
  • Velmead Junior School, Fleet
  • Westfields Junior school, Yateley
  • Hamble School, Hamble

The proposed 2021/22 admission policies for Hampshire community and voluntary controlled schools are listed below. There are no proposed changes from the previous year other than those referred to above.

You can view the previous year’s admission policy (2020/21) on the ‘Find a school’ webpages.

Catchment areas

We are proposing changes to the catchment area for the following schools:  

Any comments previously received in response to the initial consultations with local schools and residents will be included in this wider admission arrangements consultation. Consultees do not need to resubmit their earlier comments.

How to respond to the consultation

Send your comments by e-mail to [email protected] or you can write to: 

School Admissions Team
Hampshire County Council
Children’s Services Department
Elizabeth II Court North 
Winchester 
SO23 8UG

All responses will be collated and considered by the Hampshire Admission Forum at their meeting of 30 January 2020, who will make recommendations to the Executive Member for Children’s Services and Young People, Cllr Patricia Stallard, in advance of her decision day on 26 February 2020.

The final arrangements will be published on the County Council website by 15 March 2020. If you have any queries relating to this consultation or would like to request a paper copy of the consultation, please e-mail [email protected] or phone 0300 555 1377.