Leadership

Secondary School Choice And Selection

This research, commissioned for the Department for Education by Lancaster University explores how choices and admissions vary across different English cities, and for different socio-demographic groups within those cities.

The results shows that in London, a black child is less than half as likely to be admitted to a church school, which means a Catholic or Church of England school, for a remaining place there than a white child who also applies for that place.

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Leadership Briefing 5.07 (55)"
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      string(4053) "ResourceCHOICE AND SELECTION IN SCHOOL ADMISSIONSOriginal DocumentChoice and Selection in School Admissions – the experience of other countries. This report by Professor Alan Smithers and Dr Pamela Robinson for the Sutton Trust education charity is calling for GCSEs to be taken at the age of 14, with a clearer divide between lower and upper secondary school, since GCSEs will no longer be relevant as end-of-school exams for 18 year-old school leavers. After GCSEs, pupils would specialise in academic or vocational courses until they leave school.KeywordsGCSEs, school leavers, education 14-19, 14-year-olds, national examinationSummaryThis report by the Sutton Trust education charity is calling for GCSEs to be taken at the age of 14, with a clearer divide between lower and upper secondary school, since GCSEs will no longer be relevant as end-of-school exams for 18 year-old school leavers. After GCSEs, pupils would specialise in academic or vocational courses until they leave school.Main Points:The authors of this report, Professor Smithers and Dr Robinson at the Centre for Education and Employment Research, propose a radical solution to bring England into line with international practice: undertake national examinations at age 14 instead of age 16, and offer pupils a set of distinct and credible educational routes thereafter.· There are lessons for the new Coalition Government from international comparisons of admissions to, and the structure of, the ‘lower’ and ‘upper’ stages of secondary education.· 26 of the 30 OECD countries have a clear array of pathways in the later years of schooling, spanning pre-university, technical training and preparation for employment. In the USA, Canada and New Zealand the pathways open up post school. England with its untidy mix is a conspicuous exception.· The authors say that the Government could make ‘education 14-19’ a reality by moving and adapting the GCSE to become the national examination for 14-year-olds.· “This would then become the natural starting point for an array of awards taking young people in different directions. If these were sufficiently attractive, young people would want to stay on for as long as it took to gain a qualification and there would be no need for the sticks necessary to impose compulsory staying on.”· While such a major reform may be a step too far for the Government, the Sutton Trust believes that clearer educational options from age 14 onwards are needed to ensure that children from non-privileged backgrounds pursue the choices that genuinely reflect their interests and abilities.· On admissions, the authors challenge the Government to decide how they want pupils to be distributed across secondary education:· If it is happy for pupils to divide on social lines as now then it could take much of  the  pain  out  of  school  admissions  by  ensuring  children  get  a  place  at  their local school.· If it wants school intakes to become more like each other, it should back random allocation among applicants.· If  it wants  children  to  be  grouped  on  educational merit,  it  should  allow more academic selection.· They conclude that “it would not be necessary for the Government to determine centrally if it allowed schools to set their own enrolment policies.” It could follow the example of New Zealand, (where there is unregulated choice though pupils are assured of a place in a local school) or it could go the whole hog and allow state schools the same freedoms as independent schools.· The Sutton Trust continues to believe that a national admissions framework that applies to all schools is necessary.ActionNotesAuthorRaspal Chima, Imaginative MindsDate CreatedDecember 2010Enquiries to:raspal.chima@yahoo.co.uk (Authoring Unit)Month / YearPage 1 of 1©Birmingham City Council"
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Leadership

Choice and Selection in School Admissions

1 Dec 2010

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      string(339) "... been allocated aplace in the reception or secondary school of your choice?1) It is advisable, in most cases, to choose one and only one school to appeal to. You need to decideon your preferred school and think about the reasons you have for appealing to that school. In doingso ..."
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Leadership Briefing issue 8.08 (92)"
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      string(5911) "Legal BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.SCHOOL CHOICE APPEALSKeywordsSchool, choice,appeals,independentpanels, localauthority,parents,legal advice,allocation,placesSummaryUnder the existing Law parents have a right to decide the school at which they may want theirchildren to attend in accordance with s.9 Education Act 1996.  However, this right is subjectto limitations – the most common being that the school is full and cannot take any furtherchildren.  In those circumstances a parent can appeal to the Local Education Authority, andhave their case heard before an independent appeal panel.HDue to the large volume of appeals before independent panels these days, it is becomingincreasingly difficult for parents to succeed especially when up against a local authority which hasexperience of large numbers of independent appeals per year and whom are often represented by anexperienced advocate.Admission appeals can be stressful for parents and obtaining the right legal advice at an early stagecan often make the difference between winning or losing at an appeal hearing.When an admission authority (Local Authority, Academy, Voluntary Controlled School) refuse to admita child to the parents preferred school, they are required to follow a set of procedures that involvesthe correct application of a number of policies.  It is therefore necessary to ensure that the admissionauthority has acted lawfully when allocating places for children at its schools.In previous years around 20% of parents across the UK have not got an offer for the school theywanted. And this year is unlikely to be any better.So what do you do if the outcome is not what you wanted and your child has not been allocated aplace in the reception or secondary school of your choice?1) It is advisable, in most cases, to choose one and only one school to appeal to. You need to decideon your preferred school and think about the reasons you have for appealing to that school. In doingso you need to consider the admissions criteria for the school and the reason why your child hasbeen refused a place there.Remember that there are some common criteria that schools use to decide on the allocation of placeswhen they are over subscribed. Some of these include having a sibling at the school, having a socialor medical need, living within a catchment area, belonging to a particular faith, attending a feederprimary school, partial selection by aptitude or banding. It is likely that your child has been refused aplace at the school of your choice because they have failed to fulfil one or more of these criteria.Legal BriefingLeadership Briefing – www.teachingtimes.comReports Summaries – a weeklyservice of essential summaries,in-depth reports and criticalanalysis that’s new and relevantto education, linked to originalsource documents.2) Lodge your intention to appeal within the deadline set by the school. You will be able to submit adetailed case statement and supporting evidence when you are informed of the date of the hearing.You will be given at least 14 days notice of this.Your ‘grounds of appeal’ or ‘case statement’ should start with an introduction to yourself, your ties tothe area, whether you have other children at the school etc. and then set out your grounds of appeal.Panels like to see well researched and rational parents who are rejecting the school offered for validand evidenced reasons. Think about why your child has been refused a place. Consider the followingareas:Distance – Check how distances are measured and from which point to which point. Check thedistance of your home from the school and the “cut-off” distance. Think about the journey your childwill make. Consider the safety and security of the route and the implications of your child making thejourney e.g. getting up early and returning late or missing opportunities to make local friends.Single sex – State your reasons for your preference and quote research on how single sex schoolsfare better academically.Faith – State your reasons for your preference. Has your child attended a faith primary and are theyinvolved in the faith outside of school? If you failed to demonstrate sufficient religious commitmentcheck the “test” set by the school.Medical – Are there any medical reasons that necessitate your child going to your preferred school?Evidence must be provided which should specifically address why your child ought to attend thatparticular school.School strengths – Match your preferred school’s strengths and specialisms to your child’s talents orpassions. Check the school’s Ofsted report, website and prospectus. Look at the facilities on offer, theafter school activities, the ethos, the foreign languages taught etc. Compare the school you want withthe one that has been offered. ALWAYS visit the schools even if you have no intention of sending yourchild there.Family trauma – your child’s emotional state is important.Bullying – This must be evidenced.Childcare issues – Set out your work arrangements and consider the availability of breakfast and afterschool clubs.Friends – If most of your child’s friends are attending the school or your child will not know anyone atthe school offered, then this needs to be covered. Link this point, if appropriate, with the fact that yourchild is sensitive and vulnerable and will need the stability of a close friend to"
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Leadership

School Choice Appeals

27 Feb 2014

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      string(440) "... fiverecommendations to prevent failure and promote completion of upper secondaryeducation:1. Eliminate grade repetition2. Avoid early tracking and defer student selection to upper secondary3. Manage school choice to avoid segregation and increased inequities4. Make funding strategies responsive to students’ and schools’ needs5. Design equivalent upper secondary education pathways to ensure ..."
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      string(5658) "11Vol 4.1School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comTrendsAbilityGroupsRecent government figures suggest that halfof secondary school children in the UK arebeing taught in mixed ability lessons, despitefears that bright pupils are being held backby weaker classmates. Which suggests that half of allchildren are being streamed or set into ability groups. Sois streaming a good thing or a bad thing?Some 55% of lessons in English state schools lastyear involved children with different academic needs,and recent government data on secondary schoolsshows a decline in the amount of setting and streamingwitnessed over the last two years in the UK.Figures released by Ofsted show that in most caseswhere setting exists, children are banded for individualsubjects, but a minority of schools retain streaming inthe conventional sense – when pupils are placed in thesame low, middle and high ability sets for all lessons.Of the 22,834 lessons observed by Ofsted inspectorsin 2010/11, some 45% employed some form of abilitysetting.Streaming requires top, middle and bottom setsand classes of children to be taught all of their subjectstogether. Setting is far more specific. One can be in thetop set for English and bottom set for Maths, and oneis therefore never in the same class twice. Mixed abilityteaching is where everyone is thrown in together, andAccording to an OECD study,countries that stream pupilsinto ability groups at anearly age tend to have lowerlevels of achievement, andseparating pupils into abilitygroups locks them into a cycleof disadvantage.To Stream ornot to stream?12Vol 4.1School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comTrendsAbilityGroups the challenge is for the teacher to manage both to stretch the clever ones and cater tothe slow ones.In the UK one in six pupils are divided according to their academic ability by theage of seven, according to a study conducted last year by the London University’sInstitute of Education.So why is the argument for streaming back? In part, it’s because of the predictedshortage of talented young people studying Science, Technology, Engineering andMathematics (STEM subjects), and it also follows research published in March thisyear that showed having large numbers of low-achieving pupils in each lesson had anegative impact on academic results among the brightest children.Chris McGovern, a former head teacher and chairman of the Campaign for RealEducation, said: “Teachers cannot properly cater for children who are destined forOxford and Cambridge at the same time as others who can barely read or write. It isblindingly obvious that if you teach these children together it is not going to be veryeffective.”So do teachers object to setting on ideological grounds? And if a child is in a lowerset is it going to cause discouragement from participation or damage self-esteem?Common sense tells us that if a teacher has low expectations of a student then thatstudent will tend to comply with those expectations.Beatriz Pont, an education analyst and one of theauthors of the OECD’s study, said streaming by ability atan early age fuelled a vicious cycle in which teachers hadlow expectations of students in the lowest sets.These students were often locked into a lowereducational environment before they had a chance todevelop their potential. Her study – Equity and Qualityin Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students andSchools – found the most experienced and capableteachers often taught pupils in the highest sets.Streaming by ability exacerbates other inequalities– for example for immigrants and pupils who comefrom low-income families or have English as a secondlanguage, and are therefore more likely to be placed inlow-ability groups.Interestingly, dividing pupils into ability groups wascommonplace in the UK in the 1940s and early 1950s.By the early 1990s it had virtually disappeared becausestudies had shown it had no effect on overall attainment.However, it is gradually being re-introduced into UK schools, and is being aided bygovernment rhetoric, such as the call from David Cameron to create a “grammarstream” in every comprehensive school to enable the very brightest children toproceed at their own pace.Yet, in an analysisof the successes andfailures in educationsystems in 39 ofthe world’s mostdeveloped nations,the Organisation forEconomic Co-operationand Development(OECD) found thatcountries that dividedpupils into abilitygroups at an early agetended to have highernumbers of schooldrop-outs and lowerlevels of achievement.The OECDstudy recommendscountries improveStreaming by ability at anearly age fuelled a viciouscycle in which teachershad low expectations ofstudents in the lowestsets.“”13Vol 4.1School Leadership Todaywww.teachingtimes.comTrendsAbilityGroupstheir education systems by stopping pupils from re-taking a year, eliminating settingby ability and allocating funding according to students’ needs. It goes on to make fiverecommendations to prevent failure and promote completion of upper secondaryeducation:1. Eliminate grade repetition2. Avoid early tracking and defer student selection to upper secondary3. Manage school choice to avoid segregation and increased inequities4. Make funding strategies responsive to students’ and schools’ needs5. Design equivalent upper secondary education pathways to ensure completionHowever, there is no simple answer to the question of streaming. Despite the OECDstatistics, setting is seen by many to make far better sense than either streaming ormixed ability teaching. But setting isn’t always possible,"
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Leadership

To stream or not to stream?

4 Jul 2012

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      string(781) "In England, as in a number of other developed countries children from more affluent families tend to be educated separately from those less affluent.  In England the historic division is between the maintained and private sectors, but state maintained schools of all types also differ markedly in terms of the social and economic status of their intake. This social segregation of English schools is due to unevenness in social background of the parents. This Department for Education research investigates whether changes to the School Admissions Code in 2003 and 2007, concerning school admission arrangements, appear to have had direct effects on the published admissions policies and the social composition of particular schools.
Leadership Briefing 5.05 (53)"
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      string(5766) "ResourceTHE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN PUBLISHED SECONDARY SCHOOL ADMISSIONS ON PUPIL COMPOSITIONOriginal DocumentThe Effect Of Changes In Published Secondary School Admissions On Pupil Composition. In England, as in a number of other developed countries children from more affluent families tend to be educated separately from those less affluent.  In England the historic division is between the maintained and private sectors, but state maintained schools of all types also differ markedly in terms of the social and economic status of their intake. This social segregation of English schools is due to unevenness in social background of the parents. This Department for Education research investigates whether changes to the School Admissions Code in 2003 and 2007, concerning school admission arrangements, appear to have had direct effects on the published admissions policies and the social composition of particular schools.  KeywordsPupil composition, maintained and private sectors, School Admissions Code, social and economic statusSummaryIn England, as in a number of other developed countries children from more affluent families tend to be educated separately from those less affluent.  In England the historic division is between the maintained and private sectors, but state maintained schools of all types also differ markedly in terms of the social and economic status of their intake. This social segregation of English schools is due to unevenness in social background of the parents. This Department for Education research investigates whether changes to the School Admissions Code in 2003 and 2007, concerning school admission arrangements, appear to have had direct effects on the published admissions policies and the social composition of particular school.Early studies suggest that the schooling system could become more segregated for three inter-related reasons:First, because parents from differing social backgrounds vary in how strongly they engage with the process of choice and how far they are able to negotiate the process; second, because parents from different social backgrounds appear to choose different schools on different criteria (including material resources available); and third, because schools, in response to market incentives, will look to select more socially advantaged pupils. In the case of schools, it has been argued that some such schools are more able and willing to do this than others partly because of differing admission arrangements. For example, it is possible for a school that interviews parents in order to determine their religious adherence also toKey Findings:· Schools differ widely in the social composition of their intakes meaning that children from more affluent families tend to be educated separately from those less affluent.· The children of poorer parents tend to go to schools that perform less well. This suggests that poorer parents may have unequal access to good schools partly because of covert and explicit selection by schools.· For these reasons admissions have been increasingly subject to regulation by successive Codes.· The 2003 and 2007 School Admissions Codes appear to have been at least in part responsible for changes in social composition of pupils at schools with criteria and arrangements that were subsequently deemed inadmissible. These relationships still held once the authors had controlled for changes in neighbourhood composition.· Contrary to expectations, school type was not strongly associated with change in composition.· However, a significant number of the schools experiencing very large changes in composition were foundation or voluntary-aided and responsible for their own admissions.Conclusions:Contrary to expectations, school type was not strongly associated with change in composition. Given that previous studies have shown that the admission arrangements of voluntary-aided schools offered more potential for covert selection than other types of schools, this was not the case except in terms of ethnicity where they have become more ethnically diverse. However, amongst the schools identified with more extreme changes a significant number were foundation or voluntary-aided and so responsible for their own admissions.What implications, if any, do these findings have for admissions policy? First, it emphasises that, if the differentiation of school intakes is a concern, then regulating admission arrangements does appear to have an impact but that how a school admits its pupils is only one of the factors determining the composition of a school’s population. Relative to all contributing factors some admission arrangements can have a very small impact and others a very large impact.Further tightening of the Admissions Code would be desirable given that there is still much room for discretion in the kind of information required in supplementary information forms (SIFs). It would be helpful if what is and is not acceptable were made more explicit.Looking to the future the effect of new schools within an area will depend on the kinds of admission arrangements they adopt. Regulation to avoid unfair practices and, more radically, balanced intakes will be crucial. Area wide banding and random allocation offer powerful tools to achieve a maximally functioning education market and to focus competition and popularity on the quality of provision rather than the social characteristics of the intake.ActionNotesAuthorRaspal Chima, Imaginative MindsDate CreatedOctober 2010Enquiries to:raspal.chima@yahoo.co.uk (Authoring Unit)Month / YearPage 1 of"
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Leadership

Secondary School Admissions & Pupil Composition

13 Oct 2010