Agenda item

Officers provided an update on school admissions in the Borough. This updated the Committee on the allocation of primary and secondary places offered in Hillingdon for September 2015.

All applications for a school place for September 2015 had been made a reasonable offer of a place, including applications that had been received late. In response to a Member question, officers advised that the definition of reasonable was receiving an offer of a place for a school that was within three miles of a pupil's home or within an hour's travel time. In practice, pupils had been offered a school within 2.5 miles of their home, unless the applicant had expressed a preference for a school further away.

It was noted that performance had been good with a high proportion of parents having been offered one of their top three preferences. Hillingdon was 6% above the London average in terms of the number of pupils offered a place at their first preference school. Performance in Hillingdon had also been above average in previous years. There had been a 3.4% increase compared to 2014 in applications for reception places and a 2.9% increase in applications for secondary places. This equated to a total of 4,126 applications for a primary place and 3,044 applications for a secondary place. The national offer day for primary school places had been in April and there were currently around 400 places remaining. It was anticipated that this would be sufficient to accommodate late applications.

Hillingdon had achieved the highest number of first preference offers and first to third preference offers for secondary school places of any local authority in West London. All admissions appeals for entry to community schools in the Borough during the 2014/15 academic year had been successfully defended. There had been 26 such appeals and it was noted that this figure was significantly lower than in other nearby local authorities.

Officers had started to make preparations for the 2016 admissions cycle and it was anticipated that publicity brochures would be available for September. Staff would attend school open days to inform parents about the admissions process. The main aim of this and other publicity was to increase the number of admissions made on time. Officers had presented to a Hillingdon Improvement Programme (HIP) meeting in April and had started work with the Access Channel Manager to enable the School Admissions service to be more pro-active. One example of this was encouraging would be parents to register for updates before their children had been born.

The Committee welcomed the school admissions performance and the improvements made. In response to a Member question, officers advised that over 90% of applications for school places had been made online, although some parents had submitted both electronic and paper versions of their applications.

Members asked whether the increased capacity had been fully utilised at schools that had already been expanded. It was confirmed that 11% of places in reception had been vacant for entry in September 2014 and that the figure for September 2015 would be 8%, excluding late applications. The Borough was broken down into a number of Primary Planning Areas and full capacity was being used in some of these, with some individual schools, such as John Locke and Lake Farm Park being full or close to full. There was a need to balance availability of places with demand. Successful balancing was reflected in the number of applicants offered their first choice.

Members questioned why the overall number of primary places available for September 2015 had fallen slightly. Officers confirmed that this was due to Nanaksar Primary reducing their published admission number to zero, over which the Council had no control. In the event that Nanaksar's published admission number had remained at 120, the total number of places available for reception applicants would have increased by 70. The Education Funding Agency had factored places that were expected to be offered by Nanaksar's into its funding calculations, which could cause difficulties if anticipated places did not materialise for 2016. In the event that places are offered at Nanaksar for 2016 there was a likelihood of some parents looking to move children from other schools.

Pupils living outside the Borough and attending schools within it did put some pressure on places, but this was balanced by pupils living in Hillingdon who travelled to school outside the Borough. A number of children commuted into the Borough to attend faith schools, but a number of others travelled out of Hillingdon to attend selective schools. Each application for a school place was considered against specific criteria and it was noted that although distance from school was a factor, it was not possible to prioritise applicants living within Hillingdon over those from outside the Borough who lived closer to a particular school.

The Committee questioned what action was being taken in relation to pupils not being offered a place due to the applicant not using their maximum number of preferences, or where an application was submitted for a school that the pupil was unlikely to meet the admissions criteria for. Officers responded that admissions staff attend open days to provide information about the admissions process. Literature had been provided to nurseries, infant and primary schools and a publicity video was being developed for the Council website. Parents that had submitted applications with limited or unsuitable choices were contacted to ask if they would like to reconsider their choices ahead of places being allocated. It was noted that Hillingdon had the highest percentage of any London Borough for the percentage of applicants offered their first choice of primary school.

The Committee asked whether there had been an increase in the number of applications to faith schools, for details of place availability across the Borough and for timescales in relation to school expansion. There was no noticeable trend with regard to faith schools. There had been a slight fall in applications for September 2014 entry, followed by an increase this year. There was, however, a noticeable trend towards applications for schools that had new facilities. In the north of the Borough there were 60 places available in Northwood and Harefield, while in the south of the Borough there four secondary with a good availability of places. However, it was anticipated that there would be a pressure on school places within the next three years. This was particularly the case in the north of the Borough, due to there being fewer schools and therefore, fewer places available. This demand was being addressed in a number of ways. Plans were progressing for the rebuilding or expansion of Northwood, Abbotsfield and Swakeleys secondary schools and the possibility of expanding three primary school sites was being investigated.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Children's Services had been briefed on the school expansion proposals. A feasibility study would be undertaken during the summer in order to facilitate the development of proposals in the autumn. It was noted that a number of secondary school sites were constrained in terms of the opportunity for expansion, especially as secondary expansion required more space than primary expansion. Five secondary sites were under consideration for potential expansion.

Resolved: That:

1.    The School Admissions Update be noted.