Adjudications should not be used for school selection policies

3 Nov 05
The chief schools adjudicator has warned local authorities not to use adjudications to force schools to change their admissions criteria.

04 November 2005

The chief schools adjudicator has warned local authorities not to use adjudications to force schools to change their admissions criteria.

In his annual report, published on November 1, Philip Hunter said local education authorities should use the alternative legal tools at their disposal if they want to alter the character of a school.

'If a local authority or a group of local schools want, for example, to challenge the existence of grammar schools, they should use the statutory provisions for making a change of that kind, not try to do it though admissions arrangements,' he said.

But Hunter also reminded schools that admissions arrangements needed to be drawn up for the benefit of local parents, not for schools themselves.

He said: 'Adjudicators are still seeing too many cases where arrangements are not clear enough for parents to make a realistic assessment of their chances of getting places, or where schools are accused of selecting by ability or social group.'

The independent Office of the Schools Adjudicator rules on education disputes that cannot be resolved locally, chiefly on admissions issues and statutory proposals for the opening, closing or alteration of schools. In 2004/05, adjudicators considered a total of 140 objections to admissions arrangements and 29 statutory proposals.

On the latter, the chief adjudicator said LEAs needed to focus their attention on raising educational standards. 'Adjudicators have one central question in mind when considering a referral: “Are the children in this area likely to be better educated if I approve this proposal?” Local authorities and objectors should bear that in mind in their deliberations.'

PFnov2005

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