Schools get right to prioritise poorer pupils

The changes mean that hundreds of free schools and academies will be able to discriminate in favour of children who come from low-income family backgrounds for the first time. They will be able to prioritise children on free school meals – whose parents earn less than £16,000.

Education Secretary Michael Gove hopes the reforms will close the gap between rich and poor getting into the best state schools, and stop richer families moving close to the most-sought after secondary schools, in the process edging out more disadvantaged families.

Schools will have a further incentive to admit poorer pupils – the £430 a year “pupil premium” for every deprived child, announced last year.

But some fear that opening up access in this way could lead to children from richer backgrounds being squeezed out.

Nationwide problem
The stressful wait to find out if your child has got into your preferred school affects parents right across the country, writes Channel 4 News North of England producer Robert Windscheffel. 

Moving home to be within the catchment area has traditionally been one way of getting round the system. In certain areas of South Manchester this has led to spikes in house prices as families compete for the best for their sons and daughters. In Yorkshire last year one high school received over 800 applications for just 280 places. There's also confusion and alarm when it comes to application process. This confusion recently led to one family in Stockport being denied a place for their child at a school just 500 yards away from where they live. Instead they now have to travel over a mile. 

So the question is, will these new measures help, or just add another level of admin for parents to try and get round in order to get their child into the school they want? 

Schools expansion plan

As well as the changes to free schools and academies, which are particular types of schools, all state schools will see changes in how they are allowed to allocate places as part of the Government’s reform of the school admissions code.

Introducing the changes, Mr Gove said: “The school system has rationed good schools. Some families can go private or move house. Many families cannot afford to do either. The system must change.”

The school admissions code, introduced by Labour, governs how some 22,000 state schools across England allocate places. As well as trying to make the allocation of places fairer, the Coalition also wants to make the code less unwieldy – and plan to reduce it from 130 pages to just 50 pages.

Separately, the Government also hopes that all state schools will eventually become academies, so the rules for free schools and academies could be relevant to every school in the long-term. Currently, 629 academies have opened, and there have been 323 applications to open free schools.

Fairer system hopes

The Government hopes the changes will mean more children will get a place at their preferred school. Studies have shown almost one in six children will have to accept a place at their second, third or fourth choice secondary school this summer.

The new code is expected to say that good schools, which are over-subscribed, should not be stopped from offering more places. But there are some concerns this would place struggling and unpopular schools under financial pressure, because they receive less money if they have fewer pupils.

The changes will also ban local councils from imposing area-wide “lotteries” to distribute places to over-subscribed schools, although the schools themselves will still be allowed to do this. Regulatory powers will also be strengthened, and the children of people serving in the armed forces could also get priority under the reforms.

Are free school meals the right filter?

Channel 4 News spoke with Gareth Dawkins, Executive Principal at the highly successful Bradford Academy, where some places are three times over subscribed.

Although he welcomed the consultation as a serious piece of work that education bodies should consider, he was cautious of the use of free school meals as the deciding factor on whether a child should get a place or not. He said:

“We use free school meals nationally as an indicator of being disadvantaged. But it’s not a catch all. “

“There are lots of disadvantaged children and families who don’t at different times in their school career have the entitlement to free school meals.

“The risk of course is that by prioritising a child with free school meals and giving that child a place that a child who is equally disadvantaged might lose their place, or might not have got their place, and we don’t want that to happen.”

The problem he explains is that the free school meals system is so complex that many disadvantaged families and children may not realise they’re entitled for it and don’t apply – thereby putting them out of the running.

‘We use free school meals nationally as an indicator of being disadvantaged. But it’s not a catch all.’ – Gareth Dawkins

Instead, he favoured an option where basing a threshold around the levels of income might be more suitable.

“The complexity of whether children do or don’t access free school meals at certain times in their school career can be quite challenging. We work quite hard to make sure parents and young children understand their entitlement to free school meals.

“So I think an income threshold might be an interesting way of categorising young people whose economic circumstances may suggest that they are somewhat disadvantaged.

“I think a family with low income should have equally access to an opportunity to get to a good school, alongside a child who’s on free school meals.”