Report on SCC Executive meeting 26 February: revised proposal approved including nearest alternative school tiebreaker.

KHitH has been particularly concerned about some of the statements being made about admission to the Howard and would like to dispel some of the myths that are circulating that are unnecessarily upsetting many parents and children.  Don't believe everything you read in the press -  presents a factual overview of the situation explaining various aspects of the situation.

The judgement from Mr Justice Sullivan, the High Court judge who reviewed the Bookham and Fetcham action group application for a Judicial Review has been received by KHitH and is attached in full here.  In summary the judge agreed with the SCC view that there would be many more people adversely affected if he allowed the admissions process in Surrey to be delayed by a judicial review, and that this was particularly undesirable given that SCC are already consulting widely on proposed 2009 applications policy.  In his observations on the merits of the case the judge noted that there were arguments for and against the 2008 admissions policy determined by the Schools Adjudicator and that these, along with community impact, had clearly been taken into account in his determination.  He also referred to the fact that two County Councillors, representing Bookham and Fetcham, attended a meeting with the Adjudicator in September 2007 and actively participated in the ensuing debate.  The judge therefore considered that the claim that there had been inadequate consultation was weak.  Given this, he felt sufficiently strongly to take the highly unusual action of throwing out the application based on a review of the papers alone.  He also awarded costs against the Bookham and Fetcham action group.

Surrey County Council have proposed a new admissions policy which protects Horsley Children's access to the Howard - our only local school. But the council wants to know what the public thinks. Make sure you vote by clicking here . Scroll down to the section referencing Howard of Effingham School, vote "AGREE" to the question and complete the form, it only takes 2 minutes.

                         Vote to protect our children's future.

Uncertainty remains about the 2008 and 2009 admissions processes for the Howard of Effingham; our only local secondary school. The Keep Horsley in the Howard Action Group (KHitH) needs your support and involvement. Please see the November Update for further information.

SCC will publish its information booklet re 2008 admission also on 10 September.  The booklet will state that the criteria for the Howard are subject to an addendum which will be issued once the Adjudicator has reached his decision, expected at by end September.

At the meeting SCC will present their arguments.  As they have agreed that the criteria need to change, it is expected that they will focus on how i.e. the six partner school variation against which we also object.

 Once SCC has spoken, the affected parents will have an opportunity to respond

Over the summer, there is been a lot of ongoing activity and liaison between the Action Group, SCC and the Schools Adjudicator. 

 SCC has modelled suggested alternative admissions criteria which we believe to be fairer than those published or proposed by SCC.  They focus on the distance to the next nearest school as a tie-breaker.  Other education authorities use such a tie-breaker.  SCC has not yet accepted that this solution fits their needs and so the formal process of objection through the Adjudicator (and based on legal advice) continues.

 The Action Group is focusing on developing a long-lasting solution but there is still a distinct possibility that a one-off solution for 2008 will be developed.  SCC have said that they will be conducted a wide-ranging review ahead of developing 2009 admissions criteria.  The Action Group is therefore looking at ways of getting involved in the 2009 consultation process

 The Keep Horsley in the Howard Action Group needs your urgent support:

-         - Please write a letter

-         - year 4&5 parents attend meeting on 15 July

 Surrey County Council is proposing new criteria to allocate places at the Howard of Effingham in September 2008.  Unless we object to these 2008 proposals now and in sufficient numbers, we believe Horsley children will again be denied access to their only local secondary school.  The 2007 situation may be repeated but without the ability to solve the issue by putting on an additional class.

Surrey propose that, after places have been allocated to pupils with siblings already at the Howard, priority be given to pupils at partner schools, i.e. those in the Effingham Learning Partnership, over pupils at other schools.  The Raleigh and St Lawrence are partner schools. On the face of it, Surrey is giving priority to our children and we should be confident of a place.  DO NOT BE FOOLED.  There are six partner schools. The number of applicants from the partner schools is likely to far outnumber the available places at the Howard; a distance tie-breaker measured “as the crow flies” from home to the Howard applies.  Given the relative distance from our homes to the Howard compared to the homes of pupils at the other partner schools, our children will be at the back of the queue – again!  It is even possible that some applicants who have a nearer school than the Howard and most certainly have another school nearby, could have priority over our children! Some at partner schools who previously may not have considered that they had a reasonable chance of gaining admission to the Howard may be encouraged to apply so worsening our chances of gaining a place.

                    Surrey cannot implement these criteria without the approval of the Schools Adjudicator.  We know that the Adjudicator has already had letters supporting the proposal from parents and other stakeholders at the other partner schools, for whom the proposals represent an improvement in their chances of gaining a place at the Howard.  We therefore need to object to the Adjudicator.  The Adjudicator will take the strength and depth of local feeling into account.  We have agreed with the Adjudicator that the Keep Horsley in the Howard Action Group will collate all the Horsley letters and submit them together.  The Adjudicator will read each one.  They need to be individual i.e. not all to the same template

Please write and encourage others in our community to do so. More information, including suggestions for your letter or by speaking to Melanie McLaren (283173) ,Sally Williams (282446) or Elizabeth Bromley (282136).  Please deliver your letter to Westwold, Norrels Drive (first house on left) or email to hindsatwestwold@aol.com. We need your letters by 12 July.

The Action Group would like to discuss the issues and their impact with the parents of the most immediately affected pupils and to get their wider support.  We invite those parents to a meeting at West Horsley Village Hall at 7pm on 15 July.

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT

1. Submission of a formal objection to the Schools Adjudicator, signed by 56 Year 5 Horsley parents objecting to the inequitable treatment of Horsley children under the published and proposed 2008 admissions criteria. The Adjudicator (whose decision SCC must respect) has six weeks to investigate and decide whether our objection is upheld or not.
   
   
2. Meeting with SCC Schools Admission Forum, which has a formal role in developing admissions policy. Our issues are now on their agenda.
   
   
3. Reiteration of our case in a public forum at a recent meeting of the SCC Executive.
   

• there are several partner schools, being those in the Effingham Learning Partnership;
  
  
• priority will be given to children from those schools who live closer to the Howard;
  
  
• all but one of the partner schools are nearer to the Howard than the Raleigh so it follows that most pupils will live nearer to the Howard than Horsley children;
  
  
• simply put there are 330 Year 6 children at the partner schools and we estimate 30 would apply elsewhere, so 300 children will vie for 240 places with siblings and those living nearer to the school having priority. In other words we will be at the back of the queue;
  
  
• and, of course, if you fail to secure a place at the Raleigh or St Lawrences in the first place you are more significantly disadvantaged.
  

An internal Review by Surrey County Council into the problems with 2007 Admisisons has recommended important changes to the 2008 Admissions Policy to prevent a repeat of this year's problems. It recommends two options for The Howard of Effingham:

1. Make the Raleigh School a "partner school" and give children attending The Raleigh School a higher priority regardless of their distance from The Howard of Effingham.
   
   
2. Give priority to children living in the Horlseys Division over those living elsewhere.

The recommendations are due to be considered by Surrey County Council at the Executive Committee meeting on 5th June. If agreed, they would then need to be accepted by the Schools Adjudicator. The report recommends that this process is completed by 24th July.

As Horsley families celebrate the conclusion of the campaign for places at The Howard of Effingham for 2007, local people have been passing on their messages of congratulation.

One of these is Jeanette Morris, former Headteacher at the Raleigh School, who has asked us to send her congratulations to all the parents whose efforts made this tremendous success and congratulations to the children.

Surrey County Council has today issued more offers of places for the Howard in September 2007. Letters received by Horsley parents state:

"After lengthy negotiations we are now in a position to offer further places at The Howard of Effingham School."

All Horsley children on the Waiting List have been offered places.

Surrey CC has today advised that it is arranging with the Howard of Effingham for its Published Admissions Number (PAN) to be increased for September 2007. In an email to the Action Group, Nick Skellet, Head of Schools and Learning at Surrey CC, said:

"As you may be aware we have been working with colleagues at the Howard of Effingham to investigate the possibility of increasing the published admission number(PAN) for the academic year 2007/08.  Today I have asked Anne Macavoy to formally approach the school to alter their PAN. Over the next two weeks we will be working with the school to process this request."

At present it is unknown how many additional places will be made available.

A competition has been organised to design a CD Cover for the Campaign Song "We Won't Lay Down". The song has been extremely popular with over 1600 downloads from the website. Children from Horsley are now being asked to come up with a design for a CD version of the song, which will then be sold to help raise funds for the 'Keep Horsley in the Howard' Campaign. You can download an Entry Form for the competition by clicking here.

Horsley parents have so far been unable to obtain accurate information about their Waiting List positions due to a host of mistakes by Surrey CC's Contact Centre. Parents calling for their Waiting List positions have been given wildly contradictory information when speaking to different people at the Contact Centre, with individual Waiting List positions sometimes moving by as many as 19 places in the space of 1 hour.

Mistakes have been explained by Contact Centre staff as due to:

• reading positions from the alphabetical list instead of the priority list
• misreading the numbers (examples include reading 2 instead of 20 and reading 33 instead of 38)
• forgetting to press the TAB button
• not realising that the system had "frozen"
• fogetting to un-tick the "Catchment Area" box

The incompetence shown by the Contact Centre has caused enormous distress among Horsley children and parents who are already extremely upset and angry about the situation they are in.

As parents have been unable to obtain reliable information about their Waiting List positions individually, the Action Group has now escalated the issue with Andrew Crisp, Surrey CC's Executive Committee Member responsible for schools, and has requested an accurate statement of Waiting List positions on behalf of all Horsley parents.

Surrey County Council has published its Admissions Policy for 2008, ahead of the conclusion of a important Review looking into the problems that occured with 2007 Admissions. The 2008 Policy could still be changed as a result of objections to the Schools Adjudicator in the coming weeks, but as it currently stands it is unlikley to address the problems that occured in 2007, despite assurances made by Surrey CC at a recent Public Meeting that it would be doing what it could to prevent a repeat of this year's problems. If implemented in its current form, the 2008 Admissions Policy will leave many Horsley children with little hope of getting into any local secondary school. The apparent disregard for the devestating impact that the 2007 Admissions Policy has had on Horsley is being taken up by the Action Group with Surrey CC.

A copy of the 2008 Admissions Policy can be downloaded by clicking here.

We have today learned that Surrey CC has kicked off a review to look at the problems with the 2007 Admissions. In a communication to Headteachers Nick Wilson, Head of Schools and Learning at Surrey CC, said:

The introduction of the equal preference policy for admissions has caused confusion. I have received a number of letters and emails from head teachers and governors expressing their concerns about the policy and its application. To respond to these concerns a review has started, led by Carol Mack, a colleague from the council’s Policy and Performance Directorate. The review started last week. The review’s aim is to investigate the impact of the equal preference admissions policy on school place allocations in 2007. In scope is to:

• review the equal preference policy, its application and impact
• review the equal preference policy, its application and impact in Waverley and Tandridge
• investigate the administration of the policy
• investigate the processes and procedures to communicate and administer the policy
• evaluate the communications to parents, headteachers and key stakeholders.