Education and learning

Where can I get detailed information about individual schools?

Every school publishes its own prospectus which it gives to parents on request. In the prospectus parents will find the following information about the school.

• aims and values
• organisation of teaching
• public examination results
• national Curriculum assessment results
• attendance figures
• admissions policy
• level of demand for places in the previous year (secondary schools)

What types of school are there?

Community Schools

These are schools which are established, maintained and controlled by the Council. There are 5 community schools in the borough. The Council is responsible for all admissions to community schools.

Voluntary Schools , Foundation Schools and Academies

Each of these schools makes its own admission arrangements. A brief description of the different admissions criteria for these schools is included in the Transfer to Secondary School booklet.  Some schools are established and owned by a voluntary body, usually the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church. A majority of the governors or governing body are appointed by the church authority or foundation to look after their interests. They would, for example, seek to preserve any religious associations which the school has. Voluntary Aided Schools are responsible for all their own admissions arrangements. Admissions decisions are taken by the governing body. Voluntary Controlled Schools, like community schools, have their admissions handled by the Council.

When can my child start secondary school?

Transfer from primary to secondary education takes place in the September following a child's eleventh birthday. In September 2007 parents of children in Croydon schools who are due to transfer in the following September will receive the Transfer Booklet 'Transfer to Secondary School' a letter from the Director of Children Young People & Learners along with an application form and guidance notes which explain how to fill it in.

Supporting Information

The admissions authority, which is the local authority for community schools and the governing body for voluntary aided schools and Academies, has a duty to operate its published admissions procedures fairly and equally for all applicants. So that this can happen, it is important that all the information which parents provide in support of an application is accurate and honest. This ranges from the child's normal place of residence through to information about any exceptional medical or social circumstances which the authority is being asked to take into consideration. If any of this information is shown to be false, for example if a child is not normally resident at the address given on the application form, then the offer of a place may be withdrawn at any time.

Changing schools other than at the normal transfer age

Parents who wish to transfer their child to another school at any time other than the normal stages of 11 plus or 16 plus should first of all discuss it with the headteacher before completing an application form. Parents applying for places in voluntary aided schools should write to the Headteacher direct. Parents applying for places in community and voluntary controlled schools other than in the normal intake year will be advised by the Council on the availability of places in the relevant year group.  If the school is full, advice will be offered in respect of other community or voluntary controlled schools that do have places available. All applications for community and voluntary conrolled schools must be made to the Council and not to the school.

Parental Preference

Parents have the right to express a preference for the school they would like their child to attend. All schools must admit children up to their admission limit which is published in the brochure and in each school's own prospectus. When possible, places are offered in the school which the parents prefer. However, if there are more applicants for a school than there are places available, there has to be a way of deciding which children will be admitted.

Local Authority's Published Policy for Allocating Community School Places

Where the demand for places at a community school is greater than the number of places available, decisions on the allocation of places are made in accordance with the Authority’s published admissions policy as follows:

• Priority 1. 'Looked-after children':  Children in public care who have expressed a preference for a school.
• Priority 2. 'Sibling' :  Priority of admission is given to pupils who have a brother or sister (living at the same address) who will be in attendance at the school at the date of enrolment of the new pupil. The sibling priority also applies to children, other than brothers and sisters, who are part of the same family unit and who are living at the same address (Note: sibling status is granted only where the applicant has parental responsibility for the children concerned.  It does not apply to children of different family units living at the same address).
• Priority 3 'Medical':  Priority of admission is given to pupils with serious medical reasons for needing to attend a particular school. Medical circumstances must be verified by a doctor or a consultant and must be declared at the time of application, if known at the time. Decisions on priority of admission on medical grounds will be made on the basis of recommendations by the Authority's Medical Adviser.
• Priority 4. 'Geography': Finally, places are then allocated on a geographical basis.  The address is marked on a large map. Two distances are measured; firstly from the child's address to the preferred school by the shortest reasonable route on foot; secondly, from the child's home to the nearest alternative Community school. Priority is given both to those for whom the first distance is shortest and to those for whom the second distance is unreasonably large. (A school's geographical area of intake may change from year to year depending upon the level of over-subscription and the location of the applicants).

Places are offered on the first working day in March. Parents will then be given 10 days in which to accept or decline the offer.

All applications received by the closing date on the form are treated equally. Any late or amended applications will be considered after these, unless there are particular circumstances which prevented the application being made earlier.

Co-ordinated Admission Arrangements

The allocation of secondary school places will be undertaken in accordance with the scheme for the co-ordination of admission arrangements which operates across London. All 33 London boroughs, together with seven councils bordering the capital, are "signed up" to this system to co-ordinate admissions to their secondary schools. This system is designed to ensure that each applicant receives no more than one offer of a place at a maintained secondary school on national "offer" day 3 March. (The scheme cannot ensure that all parents receive the offer of a place at one of their preferred schools.)

Under the scheme parents are required to list on a single form, which they submit to the Local Authority for the area in which they live, all the maintained schools they wish to apply for (the Croydon form allows for up to a maximum of six preferences). The schools must be ranked in order of preference and the offer of a place is made for the highest ranked school on the form to which successful application has been made.

The order of preference expressed on the preference form by the parent does not affect the outcome of their individual applications to schools. Information about other preferences or the order of preference on the form is not released to the schools applied for.

How applications are dealt with

• The "home LA" (in whose area the parent lives) manages the co-ordination process to ensure that parents receive no more than one offer.
• Applications for community schools within the area of the home LA are considered by the home LA.
• Details of applications for foundation and voluntary aided schools within the area of the home LA are passed to the schools concerned.
• Details of applications for schools in other boroughs are sent to the LAs which maintain those schools (maintaining LAs). This is done via a computerised system called "the Pan-London Register".  These LAs ensure that the application details reach the admission authorities for the schools in their areas.
• Decisions on whether places can be offered are taken by school admission authorities in the usual way (LAs take the decisions on the allocation of community school places).
• Each school admission authority produces a list of applicants for the school which is ranked in potential "offer" order, i.e., ranked in the order in which the applicants should be offered places at the school. Schools then send their "offer" lists to the LA which maintains their school.
• Each maintaining LA identifies which children are potentially in a position to be offered a place at more than one of its schools. In such cases, the LA holds the offer of a place at the school the parent has ranked highest on their form. Other lower ranked offers are released, allowing further offer to be made to children who are next on the schools' lists.
• Via the Pan-London register, maintaining LAs inform the home LA (where different) of the highest ranked offers for its schools.
• The home LA then determines the highest offer to be made to its resident pupil from all the schools applied to. Lower preference offers are released for allocation to other pupils who are next on the schools' lists.
• The outcome of the above process is passed back to each maintaining LA, via the Pan-London Register, allowing more released places to be offered to other children who are next on the list.
• This process of the home LA allocating the highest preference offer and releasing lower offers for reallocation by the maintaining LA continues between LAs until there are no further changes and all places have been allocated.