Video: Notts TV’s Sharon Walia dissects the decision
Controversial changes to school admission policies in Nottinghamshire have been reversed after a campaign by parents.
In September 2015, Nottinghamshire County Council decided it would no longer give priority places to children with an older sibling at a school that is out of its catchment area.
It means a number of families have been unable to get their child into the same school as their older brother or sister.
The Children and Young People’s Committee met today at Nottinghamshire County Council to discuss whether to overturn the rule or not after the Office of Schools Adjudicator branded the decision ‘unfair’.
Members voted to overturn the policy.
It comes after an objection against the decision was made to the adjudicator by a group of parents connected with High Oakham Primary School, Mansfield, in May 2016.
Their objection included the argument that the removal of the priority for out of catchment siblings was unfair.
The adjudicator agreed in a ruling published last month because more people became disadvantaged by the decision than if no change had taken place.
However the adjudicator also said that any changes ‘would be unfair to implement’ by this September.
Therefore the rule would only start to apply by September 2018, meaning children starting school later this year will still be affected.
The changes do not have to apply retrospectively either, meaning the decision may not apply to siblings currently split between schools.
Clare Barnett is a parent affected by the council’s change but is hoping that something can be done to improve her family’s situation.
She said: “I have to take my oldest child into school early, drop him off and then drive across town to another school to then drop him off.
“It’s the home times that are worst for me as there’s only a ten minute difference in pick up times and there’s no way you can get from one side of town to the other in that time at that time of day.
“I can’t leave an eight-year-old in the playground on his own and I can’t leave a four-year-old in the playground on his own so I heavily rely on other family members and friends of kids in school.
“It would be nice to get to the stage where I can pick my two children up from the same school at the same time and to not endure the stress put on us as a family.”
Matt Green, one of the parents involved in the campaign group Fairness4Siblings and was also affected by the change, described the decision as ‘bittersweet.’
He said: “I have three daughters, I live out near Newark and we applied for an out-of-catchment school in 2014 and at the time, we had a long conversation with the headteacher and were told there had never been an occasion where siblings had been split up.
“We came to apply with our second daughter and the council had changed the admissions criteria removing out-of-catchment priority for those with siblings and the first we knew of it was when our application had already been submitted.
“Having the goalposts changed while we were in the middle of this I feel was incredibly unfair.
“The council have realised and have been shown to have acted unfairly however the issue that we have is with families who were affected in 2016/17 and those soon to be affected in 2017/18.”
Chairman of the Children and Young People’s Committee Councillor John Peck said: “The Schools Adjudicator decision is binding and we have implemented it in full.
“In fact we have gone a bit further than required and offered a second appeal to those affected families in the current academic year but I must remind parents there is no guarantee that a second appeal will be successful.
“I can assure parents that the decision was taken with the best of intentions to benefit local communities by getting local children into local schools.
“I am proud of Nottinghamshire’s record over the last few years that has seen on average nine out of 10 parents securing their first preference school.
“Unfortunately, popular schools will always be over-subscribed and whatever the admissions criteria are for those schools, the likelihood is there will be some disappointed families.”
Facebook campaign group Fairness4Siblings has ‘welcomed’ the adjudicator’s ruling ahead of the meeting.
