Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what procedures are in place to ensure that headteachers follow the School Admissions Code.

An individual school’s admission authority is responsible for setting and applying its admission arrangements. The local authority is the admission authority for community and voluntary controlled schools; the school’s governing body is the admission authority for voluntary aided and foundation schools; and for academies, the admission authority is the academy trust.

Anyone who believes a school’s admission arrangements are unfair or unlawful can object to the Schools Adjudicator. If the Adjudicator finds the admission arrangements do not comply with the Code, the admission authority must amend their arrangements accordingly.

Any parent who believes the admission authority has not properly applied the school’s admission arrangements in the case of their child’s application and the child has, as a result, been refused a place at the school, has the right of appeal to an independent appeal panel. If the appeal panel upholds the appeal, the school must admit the child.

The School Admissions Code can be found on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2