PRESENT: -
Elected Members: -
Councillors Mrs Simpson, Waltham and Whiteley.
Community/Voluntary Aided Schools Representatives: -
Mrs M Readhead (substituting for Mrs M Travers), Mrs C Tong and Mr R Marshall.
Academies
Mrs J Barnes
Diocesan Representative
Michael Green
School's Representatives
C Salmon (Gunness and Burringham CE Primary)
Parent Governor Representatives: -
Mrs A Dunkerley and Mr P Bacon.
Early Years Representative
Mrs S Collinson
Ethnic Communities Representative
Ms S Choudry
J Irving, M Windle, D Hyde, B McIntyre and A Dawson also attended the meeting.
The Forum met at Pittwood House, Scunthorpe.
134 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE - Apologies for absence were received from Cllr A Davison, Cllr W Eckhardt, Mrs M Travers, Mrs C Riches, Mrs S Bond, Mrs S Morris, Ms M Lister, Mr P Warrington.
SCHOOL'S APOLOGIES - Apologies for absence were received from the following schools: -
- Winterton Infant CE Infant School
- Barton St Peter's Primary School
- Frederick Gough
- Ulceby St Nicholas CE Primary School
135 DECLARATIONS OF PERSONAL OR PERSONAL AND PREJUDICIAL INTERESTS - Councillor Mrs Simpson declared an interest in item 5 as she had a grandchild who attended the nursery of one of the schools discussed.
136 MINUTES - Resolved - That the minutes of the proceedings of the meeting held on 30 September 2008, having been printed and circulated amongst the members, be taken as read and correctly recorded and be signed by the chair.
ITEMS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES
Membership of the forum - Mr Irving reported that at the time of the meeting, there had been no nominations received for a replacement for Mr D Devovan, who had represented Community and Voluntary Controlled schools. The item would be raised at the next Primary Heads meeting in the hope of obtaining a representative.
School Admissions Code - DCSF Consultation 2008 - New regulations arising from the consultation were still awaited. Responses to the consultation could be found on the Department for Children, Schools and Families website.
137 SCHOOL APPEALS - The Service Director Children, Strategy and Partnerships submitted a report giving details on the number of School Admission Appeals that had been received during 2007/08.
Appeals for places at schools were generated from:
- parents who had been refused a place at school for their child at the time of the initial allocation of places, or
- in year requests for places at schools resulting from parents moving into the area, moving house or requests for transfers.
The report gave information on appeals both on allocation, and over the academic year for 2006/07 and 2008/09. A high percentage of appeals had been successful. A possible reason for this could have been that appeals panels generally seemed to support appeals from parents requesting the child's catchment school. Another possibility was that North Lincolnshire had a large rural community with schools in rural areas serving a distinct community. Where a parent was unable to access a school place in that community and lived in the catchment area, appeals panels often supported the appeal.
An article from the Internet had also been distributed showing information on appeals nationally.
Resolved - (a) That the report be noted, and (b) that head teachers be made aware, via the heads' consortium, of the importance of submitting supporting information for admission appeals.
138 ARRIVALS FROM OUTSIDE THE UK TO NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE SCHOOLS - The Service Director Children, Strategy and Partnerships submitted a report detailing the number of arrivals from outside of the UK to North Lincolnshire schools for the academic year 2007/2008.
The report and accompanying appendices gave information on the split of different nationalities that had come into North Lincolnshire schools. Most of the pupils had settled in the northern part of Scunthorpe, which had placed pressures at schools in that area. So far requests for places had been met but many of the years groups in those schools were now full.
In addition to admission issues there was also a pressure on the Diversity Service and individual schools to support all of the different nationalities in their learning programme.
Ms Choudury advised that discussions were ongoing on changes to the way the Diversity Service worked with schools, the role of teaching assistants was to be explored in order to ease pressures on the Service.
Resolved - (a) That the information be noted, and (b) that an annual report on the ability to admit arrivals from outside the UK be submitted to the forum.
139 DRAFT ANNUAL REPORT - Admissions Forums were advised to publish an Annual Report.
At the last meeting of the Forum it was agreed that officers draft an Annual Report for consideration by the group. The forum were asked to take ownership of the report, any recommendation made within it was a recommendation by the forum to all admission authorities within North Lincolnshire.
The draft report was discussed in detail and the following additions/amendments were agreed:
(a) That the following be added to the Chair's introduction:
"All the above admission authorities are represented in the production of the report.",
(b) that the following be added under paragraph 1.1 of item 1:
"It should be noted that North Lincolnshire experienced a 100 percent return on application forms for admission to schools.",
(c) that paragraph 1.4 under item 1 be amended to read:
"The percentage of pupils gaining their preferred school is still very high and among the top quartile nationally for parents gaining a place at the school of their choice.",
(d) that the following be added to the recommendation under item 1:
"In consultation with all other parties involved in the review of childcare provision, where necessary.",
(e) that a recommendation be added to item 2 to reflect the need for ongoing training for independent appeals panel members, and
(f) that recommendation ii) under item 5 be amended to read:
"The review on behaviour strategy is noted. The Admission Forum requests that details of any proposed changes which affect the admission of hard to place pupils or changes to the in year fair access protocol are brought to the Admission Forum, for consideration before implementation".
Resolved - (a) That the report be amended in line with the forum's agreed changes, and submitted to the Chair and Vice Chair for comment, (b) that subject to approval the report then be printed and distributed, and (c) that officers be thanked for their input and effort in producing the forum's annual report.
140 SCHOOL'S ADJUDICATOR ANNUAL REPORT 2007/2008 - The Service Director Children, Strategy and Partnerships submitted a report giving details of the Chief School's Adjudicator's annual report, the report referred to the year September 2007 to August 2008.
In the last six years the number of cases annually referred to the adjudicator had increased from 78 to 537 in 2007/08.
The three main areas of the adjudicator's role was to:
- Resolve disputes about statutory proposals on opening, closing and changing the size and character of schools
- Resolve disputes about admission arrangements, and
- Determine applications for variations to admission arrangements.
- In 2007/08 the Chief Adjudicator was asked to take on a further two tasks - the compliance with the Admission Appeals Codes by appeals panels, and the compliance with the Admissions Code by admission authorities.
The report and accompanying appendices gave details of cases, showing the number and type of referrals to the Adjudicator, as well as information on investigation into compliance with both the Admission Appeals and Admissions Codes.
Resolved - That the information contained in the Chief Adjudicator's report be noted.
141 DATE AND TIME OF FUTURE MEETINGS - Resolved - That the next meeting of the forum be held on Tuesday 10 February 2009, and will take place at 9.30 am in the International Room, Pittwood House.