2010 Howard Admissions results and SCC 2011 Policy Decision - Thank you for your support

Notifications of Howard places awarded for September 2010 were made by SCC in early March.  All children who applied for a Howard place within the deadline, living in the Howard catchment area (predominantly Bookham, Effingham and Horsley) and attending  1 of the 6 partner schools were offered places.  In addition 19 children from within the catchment area who were not at partner schools were offered places.  SCC has put on its website information on offers made to all of its schools, with the results for the Howard and Therfield being as follows:

The cut off point at which the last child was admitted to the Howard was disclosed by SCC as being 2.868 km (1.8 miles) from the Nearest Alternative School, which in this case will have been the distance from Therfield.  There was no cut off point for children not admitted to Therfield, meaning that all children applying were offered places.

The admissions results in both 2010 and 2009 are almost identical to those achieved prior to 2007, when SCC used the old Admission Priority Area (APA) approach.  Under both the current policy and the old APA policy the cut off point for admissions was at the Eastern end of the catchment area, in recognition of the fact that children on this boundary have a good prospect of obtaining places at Therfield, their next nearest school.  In addition under both policies SCC over offered, recognising that a number of places are declined each year at the Howard.  This ensures that as many children as possible from within the catchment area obtain places.  This over offering policy is used by SCC at most Surrey schools.

The figures released by SCC for other schools to the West and South of Horsley show a very different picture, with George Abbot, St Peters and Ashcombe all being  full and there being no prospect of Horsley children obtaining places at them.  As in previous years Horsley children were not near enough to qualify for places.  Hence the need to continue to ensure that the Howard admissions policy enables Horsley children to be admitted to Howard as the three next nearest schools cannot accommodate Horsley children and allocation of places even further afield would result in excessive journey times and significant costs to SCC. 

All of those involved in the school admissions debate recognise that local house building, the potential effects of the recession on private education, high birth years and other factors, are likely to continue to put pressure on spaces at the Howard in some years.  Given this, and the lack of spaces for Horsley children at other local schools, KHiTH considers that the retention of the Nearest Alternative School tie breaker is essential for the Howard.  Otherwise, in high birth rate years, Horsley children would again fail to obtain a place at the Howard or any of our next nearest schools.

 2011 Policy Decision

SCC’s initial proposal for 2011 admissions was to leave the Howard admissions policy unchanged from 2010, as this was considered by their admissions team as the most appropriate policy and would also allow for a period of stability.  We supported this proposal because it represented a hard-won compromise and because no other workable solution which balances the concerns of all the communities around the Howard has been identified. 

This policy decision became the responsibility of the Howard governors this year, following the Howard’s conversion to Trust status in January.  The proposal to maintain the 2010 admissions policy for 2011 was unanimously approved by the governors of the Howard in February, following consideration of consultation responses received by SCC on their behalf.  Details of this decision are published on the Howard website.