In the early 1990s,the government of New Zealand allowed its most popular and over subscribed state schools to set their own admissions criteria, provided that they didn’t contravene basic human rights or become overtly racist. By the end of the decade it was clear that market forces now led them to choose the easiest to educate, in other words - the brightest and the least trouble. What happened to the rest? Lots couldn’t get in to their local schools and went where they could.
Trusts, partially funded by business organisations, faith groups, charities, and parent groups are now being invited to take over the governance and control of state schools. There is widespread anxiety and anger in the Labour Party and beyond at this latest Downing Street inspired proposal. Our Government’s latest White Paper does acknowledge the fact that Admissions Policy is crucial in establishing the success of a school, but is removing the influence of LEAs in overseeing admissions.
The New Zealand evidence plus our own messy experience over many years surely indicates that public-funded schools should not be free to define their own markets. Although there is an Admissions Code of Practice which theoretically prevents the most articulate and socially confident from exercising unfair advantage at interview, it has been successfully challenged in Court - and by the London Oratory School where the Blairs sent their children, no less! The Secretary of State, has yet to challenge the Court decision. What will happen to children with Learning and Behavioural Difficulties? Letters to the government from anxious parents about entry to Trust Schools have received the reply that they have no statutory rights of admission to any particular school. Some Academies, however, have said they will accept children with Special Needs if they are paid. Banding has been suggested, limiting schools to accepting a certain percentage of children of a given ability.
So were a new styled Academy, governed by a Trust, to be set up in Cleator Moor, we might well see the bus from Whitehaven with those attracted by the new bright lights, passing the buses of less successful students from Egremont and Cleator Moor, en route to their second or third choice school in Whitehaven. Even if an Admissions Policy is made mandatory, what about the malign influence of League Tables? Why won’t any government recognise that what most parents want is simply a well-run school near them, resourced according to need, and not have to strive for entry into an extravagantly funded palace or take their chance?