REDP: Schools admissions ''fail poorest children''

Regional Equality & Diversity Partnership

Schools admissions ''fail poorest children''

Date: 1/9/2010
Summary: Already lagging behind their better-off peers in terms of educational achievement, children from poor backgrounds are held back still further by an unfair and outdated socially selective school admissions system, according to the children's charity Barnardo's.

One solution to the problem would be to introduce a system of 'banding', the charity said, which would involve enforcing schools to take on equal proportions of pupils in different ability bands. The Education Secretary Michael Gove welcomed the use of banding, saying it could help to "spread the load academically". However, he said that admissions was "just one part" of the schools issue and he "wouldn't want to overstate the importance of it".

Children born into disadvantage are more likely to leave at 16 and become 'NEET' (not in education, employment or training) and less likely to go on to higher education, according to Barnardo's and while able and articulate parents will go to extraordinary lengths to increase the odds of their child getting in to their chosen secondary school, many poorer parents find it impossible to navigate the daunting school admissions system and sometimes they are not even in a position to appreciate their children are in a race which might be vital to their futures. Frequent house moves, a lack of spoken or written English, disability or learning difficulty, and domestic violence, are just some of the circumstances which lead to many parents failing to submit an application for their child at all.

Barnardo's chief executive Martin Narey said: "The school admissions system has become a complex game, one that many parents in poorer households are not aware is going on around them. Even when conscious of a race for the best schools, some less confident and able parents are often overcome by a fatalism and are resigned to the fact that their son or daughter will be left with whatever school other parents don't want.

"If we are to wipe out the entrenched poverty that erodes the life chances of one in four children in the UK, if we are to re-ignite social mobility, then we must stop educational disadvantage being passed down from one generation to the next."

As well as introducing banding, the charity said schools should report annually on the profile of their pupil intake in reports to parents and governors and face more scrutiny of their admissions practice by the school adjudicator and/or OFSTED. The responsibility for setting school admissions policies should also be separated from administering them, because while policies often meet the letter of the law, practice can fall short.

Gove said that banding by ability had "a role to play" in schools in England, telling the BBC that action needed to be taken to improve "one of the most unequal education systems in the developed world".

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