What is Keep Horsley in the Howard about?

In March 2007 there were changes in the rules for secondary school admissions.  For the first time in living memory children in East and West Horsley were denied places at their only local secondary school; the Howard of Effingham, unless they already had a sibling at the Howard.  Instead they were offered places at schools which were typically three times as far away.  In some cases there were ten nearer schools than that offered.  ALL affected Horsley children were eventually offered places at The Howard of Effingham School following the provision of an extra class on a one-off basis. 

 By that stage the 2008 admissions criteria had already been set and were the same as 2007.  Accordingly, Keep Horsley in the Howard lobbied the local education authority (SCC) to change the criteria and took its case to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.  The Adjudicator ruled that the 2008 criteria should be changed to give priority to those attending certain “partner schools” with further priority being given to those for whom the nearest alternative school is furthest away.  Keep Horsley in the Howard had sought the nearest alternative school tie-breaker but had opposed the partner school principle on several grounds, particularly as our local partner school is oversubscribed in some years.

 In 2008 all Horsley, Bookham and Effingham children attending partner schools obtained places at the Howard.  However, there were several children across the traditional “catchment” area for the Howard, including from Horsley, Effingham and Bookham, who did not obtain places because they did not attend a partner school.  Conversely, some children from outside the traditional catchment area, but who had attended partner schools, did obtain places. 

For 2009 admissions SCC developed the 2008 criteria further by improving the 2008 policy by prioritising applications from children who both attend one of five partner schools AND live in the traditional catchment area (which is predominantly made up of Bookham, Effingham and Horsley).  In addition, a new admissions category was introduced in 2009, at the next level of priority, for those children in the catchment area but not at a partner school. 

For 2009 admissions this meant that all children in the catchment area attending partner schools obtained places and a further 12 children from across the catchment area but not at partner schools were also offered places.  In 2010 the policy was kept the same, other than the addition of Royal Kent as an additional partner school.  Again all children in the catchment area attending partner schools obtained places and a further 19 children in the catchment area but not at partner schools obtained places.  This represents a huge improvement from 2007 and a fantastic community effort. We would like to thank you for your interest and support in helping us get this far. 

In February 2010 the Howard governors approved the 2011 policy, which left the 2011 Howard admissions policy unchanged from 2010. 

 Our remaining objective for the “Keep Horsley in the Howard” Action Group is to ensure that any changes to the policy do not reduce the chances of Horsley children continuing to attend their only local secondary school – The Howard of Effingham.  

  

How can you help?

SCC will consult on school admissions policy every year in November.  We are therefore keen to ensure that Horsley continues to respond to these consultations in the future to ensure Horsley children continue to have their right to attend their only local school protected.  We will provide links to this consultation on this site each year once SCC’s on line consultation system is open.