Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policy on school admissions of the finding of the report, An Unholy Mess, published by the Fair Admissions Campaign in October 2015, relating to information made available on requirements for religious observance as part of the admissions process for certain religiously selective schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code (the code) and other admissions law.
Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements comply within two months of a determination. This includes requiring schools to amend their supplementary information forms when they do not comply with the code.
We support the right of schools with a religious designation to prioritise children of their faith designation but the code requires that any measure of religious activity used for admission purposes must be as laid out by their faith body.
The Government will shortly consult on a package of changes to the School Admissions code which will both respond to concerns from parents and to the findings in the Chief Adjudicator’s Annual Report. That package will include measures to improve fairness and transparency.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policy on school admissions of the finding of the report, An Unholy Mess, published by the Fair Admissions Campaign in October 2015, on the use of supplementary information forms which assume that parents are of the opposite sex; and if she will take steps to ensure that such forms are not used by schools in future.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code (the code) and other admissions law.
Where an objection is made to the Schools Adjudicator, if the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements comply within two months of a determination. This includes requiring schools to amend their supplementary information forms when they do not comply with the code.
We support the right of schools with a religious designation to prioritise children of their faith designation but the code requires that any measure of religious activity used for admission purposes must be as laid out by their faith body.
The Government will shortly consult on a package of changes to the School Admissions code which will both respond to concerns from parents and to the findings in the Chief Adjudicator’s Annual Report. That package will include measures to improve fairness and transparency.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many vexatious complaints there have been against faith schools from secularist campaign groups in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is held by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA). The OSA Annual Report contains data about the objections referred to the OSA and the outcome of those objections: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/parents-to-get-greater-say-in-the-school-admissions-process
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of implications for her policies of the finding in the Fair Admissions Campaign's report, An unholy mess, published in October 2015, that schools which are their own admission authorities are consistently failing to comply with the School Admissions Code.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Many of the findings of the report echo those reported by the Chief Schools Adjudicator in her Annual Report for the 2013/14 school year. The Government will shortly consult on a package of changes to the School Admissions Code which will both respond to concerns from parents and to the findings in the Chief Adjudicator’s Annual Report. That package will include measures to improve fairness and transparency.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's press release, Parents to get greater say in the school admissions process of 25 January 2016, when her Department plans to launch its consultation on proposed revisions to the School Admissions Code.
Answered by Nick Gibb
We are currently considering what possible changes it would be appropriate to make to the School Admissions Code to support parents and schools, in addition to those that we have already announced. We will conduct a full public consultation in due course.
Asked by: Jeff Smith (Labour - Manchester Withington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of whether schools and students are adequately prepared for forthcoming changes to A-levels.
Answered by Nick Gibb
A survey of 500 schools and colleges conducted by UCAS in December 2014 indicated that 76% had decided on the programme of A levels and AS levels that they will offer in 2015. The Department has worked with the Association of Colleges to publish information to help schools and colleges to implement the reforms to A Level qualifications.