School Intake Approval Procedures

[andyl]

This may well be a very long shot but.... does anybody know what the approval procedures are for increasing intake of a voluntary-aided school. A local councillor has just told me, at a council meeting (ie lots of witnesses!) that the LEA has no say over the level of intakes which, frankly I find hard to believe/swallow.

There is a very specific reason why I ask. They're trying to close schools in Bury on the basis of falling rolls (not bread ones Nugget - pun free thread, this is serious!) and yet a voluntary-aided school was allowed to increase it's intake just two years ago (ie it is taking pupils away from non-voluntary aided schools who face closure. The VA schools are excluded from the closure consultation).

Any advice would be very gratefully received for obvious reasons.

[ntluser]

This may well be a very long shot but.... does anybody know what the approval procedures are for increasing intake of a voluntary-aided school. A local councillor has just told me, at a council meeting (ie lots of witnesses!) that the LEA has no say over the level of intakes which, frankly I find hard to believe/swallow.

There is a very specific reason why I ask. They're trying to close schools in Bury on the basis of falling rolls (not bread ones Nugget - pun free thread, this is serious!) and yet a voluntary-aided school was allowed to increase it's intake just two years ago (ie it is taking pupils away from non-voluntary aided schools who face closure. The VA schools are excluded from the closure consultation).

Any advice would be very gratefully received for obvious reasons.

I think it depends to some extent on what form of entry your school is designated at i.e. one form entry, two form entry etc. A one form entry school has one class in each year group; a two form erntry has two classes per year group etc. There are class size limits for health and safety reasons.The head should know what these are.

The falling rolls argument really translates to the costs of running the school. If you have a large deficit then you have a problem. The same applies if you have poor results or are in "Special Measures". Having an aging headteacher doesn't help either.

Councils tend to rationalise schools on a ward by ward basis. In a ward where there are excess school places, it's likely that all schools in the ward will be closed but only some will be re-opened, probably as fresh start schools. Parents with children at closing schools will then have to find places for their children in the remaining schools.

Schools in this position need to do everything they can to attract new pupils and reduce deficits. Chances are that the councils and councillors will have decided already which schools will close so don't expect any help from them. In fact they will do all they can to ensure their plan goes through plus they also control the headteacher.

If you haven't got a parents committee, PTA or Friends of the School type of organisation, you need to get one quickly and draw up a campaign plan. You stand a better chance if you have strong parental and community support. You also need to need to market the school via media events which show how good the school is and get the events reported in the press regularly each week. Involve other community groups in your cause particularly those with members of the voting public.

Might also be useful to contact your local education office and see what information the staff there can give.

Hope this helps. Good luck!!

[atlantis]

Agree with NTLuser above, found this link/info for you to enquire at for more up to date info on Bury:

Bury (LEA code 351)
Education Services, Bury Metropolitan Borough Council, Athenaeum House, Market Street, Bury, Lancashire, BL9 0BN.
Tel: 0161 253 5000 Fax: 0161 253 5653
www.bury.gov.uk (http://www.bury.gov.uk/)

[andyl]

I think it depends to some extent on what form of entry your school is designated at i.e. one form entry, two form entry etc. A one form entry school has one class in each year group; a two form erntry has two classes per year group etc. There are class size limits for health and safety reasons.The head should know what these are. Cheers for the input. What I'm really interested in though is who approves an increase in a school's overall intake. This is particularly important with respect to the voluntary aided schools given that one has been allowed to increase its intake whilst eight non-voluntrary aided schools in the borough are being reviewed with a view to mergers/closures because of a predicted fall in rolls.

The falling rolls argument really translates to the costs of running the school. If you have a large deficit then you have a problem. The same applies if you have poor results or are in "Special Measures". Having an aging headteacher doesn't help either. As far as I can see the key issue is that if they close schools they can flog the land. A very short term approach. Clearly they can see operational cost benefits too - but fewer, bigger schools doesn't sound like a good recipe to me.

Councils tend to rationalise schools on a ward by ward basis. In a ward where there are excess school places, it's likely that all schools in the ward will be closed but only some will be re-opened, probably as fresh start schools. Parents with children at closing schools will then have to find places for their children in the remaining schools. Yep, the 8 schools under reviw have been paired. The consultation process ask basicall for peoole to vote on whether to close the school your kid attends, the school it's paired with, or both and reopen on a new site. A brilliant range of suggestions akin to tirkeys voting for Christmas.

Schools in this position need to do everything they can to attract new pupils and reduce deficits. Chances are that the councils and councillors will have decided already which schools will close so don't expect any help from them. In fact they will do all they can to ensure their plan goes through plus they also control the headteacher. Everyone knows that the council has decided what to do and that the consultation process is a sham. But the issue affects all of the schools - they shouldn't be competing with each other for pupils., they should all remain open. The stats on birth rates look highly suspicious and besides, when demand increases again, the council will not have suitable sites to open new schools because they will have flogged the land.

If you haven't got a parents committee, PTA or Friends of the School type of organisation, you need to get one quickly and draw up a campaign plan. You stand a better chance if you have strong parental and community support. You also need to need to market the school via media events which show how good the school is and get the events reported in the press regularly each week. Involve other community groups in your cause particularly those with members of the voting public. Cheers, we're already getting organised. The public gallery at the council meeting was full yesterday - with people turned away - and opposition was made execeptionally clear. We're heartened by the fact that the councillor who is chair of the Childrens' Services committee appeared totally out of her depth. She didn't even know who funded schools, having to get the leader to respond. It is she I believe who may have mislead the council and public viewing proceedings over the issue of voluntary aided school intake approval procedurews, which is why I'm keen to discover the facts.

Might also be useful to contact your local education office and see what information the staff there can give. I've already been harasing them ;)

Hope this helps. Good luck!! Cheers very, very much :tu: