Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions her Department has had with Surrey County Council on providing clear guidance for feeder school arrangements for secondary schools in the Surrey Heath constituency.

Admission arrangements are set and applied locally. Provided they are lawful and comply with the school admissions code, it is for the school’s admission authority to decide what admissions criteria to set, and how they are applied. The admission authority for a community or voluntary controlled school is the local authority. For a foundation or voluntary aided school, it is the governing body, and for academy schools including free schools, it is the academy trust.

The code enables admission authorities to give priority to children attending named feeder schools, but are prohibited from naming fee-paying independent schools as feeder schools. The selection of a feeder school or schools as an oversubscription criterion must be transparent and made on reasonable grounds.

Once a school’s admission arrangements have been determined, anyone who believes they are unfair or unlawful may submit an objection to the Schools Adjudicator. Where the Adjudicator finds that a school’s admission arrangements are unlawful, they must revise their admission arrangements to give effect to the Adjudicator’s decision, which is binding and enforceable by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education.