Parents' Experiences of the Process of Choosing a Secondary School

general ability. The most common allowable circumstance for refusing application
is that the school has more applicants than places. In that event the admission
authority must follow the over-subscription criteria in its published admission
arrangements to decide which applicants get the places.
The present government has introduced a new admissions framework, to replace the
previous system. The new framework is in the School Standards and Framework
Act 1998. The Act’s admission provisions came into force between October 1998
and September 1999. The Act requires the Secretary of State to issue a Code (or
Codes) of Practice on Admissions, giving statutory guidance to which all admission
authorities must have regard. The main Code came into force on April 1 1999. A
supplementary Code on Admission Appeals came into force on 1 September 1999.
Both apply to arrangements that lead to primary and secondary school intakes from
September 2000 onwards. The immediately previous intake (school year
commencing September 1999) may have benefited somewhat from Interim DfEE
Guidance to admission authorities issued in September 1998, but this could not say
anything inconsistent with previous legislation and admission authorities were not
obliged to take account of it.
The new legislation and Code included the introduction of the following:
• requirements for all admission authorities to consult each other on their
proposed admission arrangements and criteria, with the possibility for other
admission authorities (and in the case of existing partial selection arrangements,
parents) to complain to the Schools Adjudicator if they think the arrangements
are not in the interests of local children and parents;
• the outlawing of any new selection by ability, while allowing up to 10%
selection by aptitude to be introduced in certain cases;
• requiring all admissions criteria, in particular over-subscription criteria, and all
ability and aptitude testing arrangements to be clear, fair, objective and
published;
• encouragement in the Admissions Code for admission authorities in an area to
have standard application forms and common timetables and agree
arrangements in new Admissions Forums;
• requiring LEAs to publish composite prospectuses with summary admissions
information for all schools in their area, including how over-subscribed they
have been in the past;
• ruling out admissions interviews, except for church schools checking religious
commitment and boarding schools checking boarding suitability;
• making appeal panels independent of the LEAs and governing bodies who made
the decisions appealed against, and smaller so as not to intimidate parents.
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