Choosing a school place? Have your say!

Annabel Williams • Published 3 Feb 2009 11:30 0 Comments

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ADMISSION arrangements in the Reading borough for the 2010/11 academic year are changing and the council wants feedback.

Reading Borough Council plans to change the admissions process and the Tory opposition is urging parents to take part and show up "inconsistencies" in the system.

The changes come as a result of the council's own review, or because of new legislation, with the public consultation due to end on February 28.

Changes include:

*Altering the closing date for applications to January 15 next year.

*Changing the offer date to April 16 to avoid Easter holidays.

*Increasing the number of preferences from three to four.

*Co-ordinating all applications to make offers within 10 school days.

*Putting medical and social admissions reasons above sibling living within catchment.

*Introducing a shared catchment for The Hill and Emmer Green primaries.

*Introducing shared catchment areas along Oxford Road to help parents living in new homes on the former Battle Hospital.

*Shifting part of Wilson Primary catchment area into the Ranikhet Primary catchment.

For secondary schools:

*Increasing the number of preferences from three to six.

*Offering places applied for after the school year has started within 10 days.

Parents can also comment on proposed admission arrangements for a number of individual schools that organise their own admissions, including CofE schools All Saints Infants, New Christ Church Primary, St John's Primary and St Mary's and All Saints Primary, and Catholic primaries Christ the King, English Martyrs, St Anne's and St Martin's.

Secondary schools include Blessed Hugh Faringdon, Highdown, Kendrick, Reading Girls', Prospect, Reading School and the John Madejski Academy.

Borough education leader, Cllr Jon Hartley, said: 'We believe the new admission arrangements we are proposing will benefit children in Reading but if we are to make the right decisions, we need as much feedback as possible, especially from parents.

"We would therefore strongly urge everyone who has an interest to use this opportunity to tell us what they think about them."

Tory education spokesman, Cllr Mark Ralph, urged parents to have their say and highlighted a number of inconsistencies in the current system, including how, under current oversubscription rules, parents end up with two children at two different primary schools which start at the same time.

Cllr Ralph also says that under the proposals, siblings living outside catchment areas are not given priority, and he said: "This has led to extremely stressful situations for parents in the past and we actively support a siblings-first policy."

*See www.reading.gov.uk/schooladmissions2010consultation, and views can be submitted to The Admissions Team Manager, Reading Borough Council, Civic Centre, Reading RG1 7AE.

This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 05 Feb 09

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