Key Decision 2009 – Appendix C
PAN-LONDON CO-ORDINATED ADMISSION SYSTEM
THE MERTON SCHEME FOR CO-ORDINATED SECONDARY
SCHOOLS ADMISSIONS IN SEPTEMBER 2010
Note
Note: The LA has adopted a number of items which have been highly
recommended by the Pan-London Co-ordinated Admissions System
Executive Board. These items, are indicated with an asterisk *. Consistency
on these items will simplify the application procedure and processing, and
help to achieve some equity of treatment for applicants to secondary schools
across the London region.
Definitions
“the Application Year”
the academic year in which the parent makes
an application i.e. in relation to the academic
year of entry, the year preceding it
“the Board”
the Pan-London Admissions Executive Board,
which is responsible for the Scheme
“the Common Application Form”this is the form that each authority must have
under the Regulations for parents to use to
make their applications, set out in rank order
“the Equal Preference System” the model whereby all preferences listed by
parents on the Common Application Form are
considered under the over-subscription
criteria for each school without reference to
parental rankings. Where a pupil is offered a
place at more than one school within an LA,
the rankings are used to determine the single
offer by selecting the one ranked highest of
the places offered
“the Home LA”
the LA in which the applicant/parent is
resident
“the Local Admission System
(LAS)”
the IT module for administering admissions in
each LA and for determining the highest offer
both within and between participating LAs
“the Maintaining LA”
the LA which maintains a school to which an
applicant has applied
“the Mandatory Elements”
those elements of the Template LA Scheme
to which authorities must subscribe in order to
be considered as ‘Participating Authorities’
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and to benefit from the Pan-London Register
and related funding
“the Notification Letter”
the agreed form of letter sent to applicants on
the Prescribed Day which communicates any
determination granting or refusing admission
to a secondary school, which is attached as
Schedule 2
“the Prescribed Day”
1st March in the year following the relevant
determination year except that , in any year in
which that day is not a working day, the
prescribed day shall be the next working day.
“the Pan-London Register (PLR)” the database which will transmit application
and offer data between each LA’s LAS
“the Pan-London Timetable”
the framework for processing of application
data which is attached as Schedule 3
“the Participating LA”
any LA that has indicated in the Memorandum
of Agreement that they are willing to
incorporate, at a minimum, the mandatory
elements of the Template LA Scheme
presented here.
“the Qualifying Scheme”
the scheme which each LA is required to
formulate pursuant to section 89B(1)(a) of the
School Standards and Framework Act 1998
and the Regulations for co-ordinating
arrangements for the admission of pupils to
secondary schools
THE SCHEME
Applications
1.
*Merton LA will advise home LAs of their resident pupils on the roll of
this LA’s maintained primary schools and whose parents are eligible to
make application in the forthcoming application year.
2.
Applications from residents of this LA will be made on this authority’s
Common Application Form (CAF), which will be available and able to be
submitted on-line. This will include all the fields and information
specified in Schedule 1 to this Template LA Scheme. These will be
supplemented by any additional fields and information where deemed
necessary by this LA to enable the admission authorities in the LA area
to apply the published oversubscription criteria.
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Key Decision 2009 – Appendix C
3.
*Merton LA will take all reasonable steps to ensure that every parent
who is resident in Merton and has a child in their last year of primary
education within a maintained school, either in this LA or any other
maintaining LA, receives a copy of this LA's admissions booklet and
CAF, including details of how to apply online. The admissions booklet
will also be available to parents who do not live in Merton, and will
include information on how they can access their home LA's CAF.
4.
*The admission authorities within Merton will not use supplementary
forms except where the information available through the CAF is
insufficient for consideration of the application against the published
oversubscription criteria. Where supplementary forms are used by the
admissions authorities within Merton, the LA will seek to ensure that
these only collect information which is required by the published
oversubscription criteria, in accordance with para 1.73 of the School
Admissions Code (Feb 2007). Supplementary Forms, where they apply,
are available from and must be returned directly to the relevant schools
by the date specified by the school.
5.
The LA will share the details of each application for a Merton child with
the Merton school to which they have applied. Schools that require a
supplementary form will check that each child has completed one. If one
has not been received, and the closing date for receipt of supplementary
forms has not passed, the school will contact the parent and ask them to
complete one. The school will also check that each parent that has
completed a supplementary form has also completed a CAF. If any
parent has not completed a CAF, the school will share this information
with the LA.
6.
*Where a school in Merton receives a supplementary form, Merton LA
will not consider it to be a valid application unless the parent has also
listed the school on their home LA's CAF, in accordance with para 1.16
of the School Admissions Code (Feb 2007). Additionally where a school
requiring a supplementary form only receives a Common Application
from the parent the application will be valid, but will be considered after
those where a CAF and supplementary form are present.
7.
*Applicants will be able to express a preference for six maintained
secondary schools or Academies within and/or outside the Home LA
(and any City Technology College that has agreed to participate in their
LA’s Qualifying Scheme).
8.
* The order of preference given on the CAF will not be revealed to a
school within the area of this LA in accordance with para 2.13 of the
School Admissions Code (Feb 2007). However, where a parent resident
in this LA expresses a preference for schools in the area of another LA,
the order of preference for that LA’s schools will be revealed to that LA
in order that it can determine the highest ranked preference in cases
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Key Decision 2009 – Appendix C
where a child is eligible for a place at more than one school in that LA’s
area.
9.
Merton LA undertakes to carry out the address verification process set
out in its entry in the Pan London address verification register. This will
in all cases include validation of resident applicants against Merton LA’s
primary school data and the further investigation of any discrepancy.
Where Merton LA is not satisfied as to the validity of an address of an
applicant whose preference has been sent to a maintaining LA, Merton
will advise the maintaining LA no later than 11 December in the
Application Year 2009.
10. Merton LA will check the status of any resident applicant who is a ‘Child
Looked After’ and provide evidence to the maintaining LA in respect of a
preference for a school not in Merton LA’s area by 16 November in the
Application Year 2009.
11. Merton LA will advise a maintaining LA of the reason for any preference
expressed for a school not in Merton LA’s area, in respect of a resident
child born outside of the correct age cohort and will forward any
supporting documentation to the maintaining LA by 16 November in the
Application Year 2009.
Processing
12. *Applicants resident within Merton must return the CAF, which will be
available and able to be submitted on-line, to this LA by 23 October in
the Application Year 2009. Supplementary Forms, where they apply,
must be returned directly to the relevant schools by the date specified by
the school
13. Application data relating to applications to schools in other Participating
LAs will be up-loaded to the PLR by 16 November in the Application
Year 2009. Supplementary information provided with the CAF will be
sent to maintaining LAs by the same date.
14. Merton LA will collaborate with local Admissions Authorities with regard
to the processing of application data and the application of admissions
criteria, within the framework of the Pan-London Timetable, in line with
local milestones shown in italics within schedule 3 of this document.
15. *All preferences for schools within Merton will be considered by the
relevant admission authorities without reference to rank order in
accordance with para 2.13 of the School Admissions Code (Feb 2007).
When the admission authorities within this LA have provided a list of
applicants in criteria order to this LA, this LA shall, for each applicant to
its schools for whom more than one potential offer is available, use the
highest ranked preference to decide which single potential offer to make.
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Key Decision 2009 – Appendix C
16. *Merton LA will accept late applications only if they are late for a good
reason. Examples of what will be considered as good reason include:
when a single parent has been ill for some time, or has been dealing
with the death of a close relative; a family has just moved into the area
or is returning from abroad (proof of ownership or tenancy of a property
within Merton LA will be required in these cases). Other circumstances
will be considered and each case decided on its own merits.
17. Where such applications contain preferences for schools in other LAs,
Merton LA will forward the details to maintaining LAs via the PLR as they
are received. This LA will accept late applications which are considered
to be on time within the terms of the home LA’s scheme.
18. The latest date for the upload of late applications which are considered
to be on-time within the terms of the home LA’s scheme to the PLR is 11
December in the Application Year 2009. Late applications without good
reason and all those received after 11 December will be received but will
not be processed until all on-time applications have been dealt with as
set out below.
19. *Where a parent moves from one participating home LA to another after
submitting an on-time application under the terms of the former home
LA's scheme, the new home LA will accept the application as on-time up
to 11 December 2009, on the basis that an on-time application already
exists within the Pan-London system.
20. *Merton LA will participate in the application data checking exercise to
be scheduled between 14 December 2009 and 5 January 2010 in the
Pan-London timetable.
21. Merton LA will carry out all reasonable checks to ensure that pupil
rankings are correctly held in its LAS before uploading data to the PLR.
22. Merton LA will upload the highest potential offer available to an applicant
for a maintained school within Merton to the PLR by 3 February 2010.
The PLR will transmit the highest potential offer made by the Maintaining
LA to the Home LA.
23. The LAS of Merton LA will eliminate, as a Home LA, all but the highest
ranked offer where an applicant has more than one potential offer across
Maintaining LAs submitting information within deadline to the PLR. This
will involve exchanges of information between the LAS and the PLR (in
accordance with an iterative timetable published in the Business User
Guide) which will continue until a steady state is achieved (which the
PLR will indicate), or until 16 February 2010 if this is sooner. Merton LA
will transmit to the PLR information about which final offers have and
have not been made no less than 5 working days before 1 March 2010.
The PLR will in turn transmit this information to the LAS of the relevant
Maintaining Authorities for their information.
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Key Decision 2009 – Appendix C
24. * Merton LA will participate in the offer data checking exercise to be
scheduled between 17 and 26 February 2010 in the Pan-London
timetable.
25. Merton LA will send a file to the E-Admissions portal with outcomes for
all residents who have applied online no later than 24 February 2010.
Offers
26. Merton children without an offer of a place at any school will be allocated
a place at the nearest appropriate Merton maintained school to their
home with a vacancy, according to that schools admission criteria.
These will be allocated before late applications are considered.
27. Where it is not possible to allocate a place immediately, a record will be
kept of Merton children with no offer, so that when a place becomes
available, it can be offered.
28. *Merton LA has agreed, for the purposes of Paragraphs 2(e), 4(d) and
4(e) of the Schedule to the Regulations, that the Home LAs shall inform
all applicants within their areas of their highest offer of a school place
and, where relevant, the reasons why higher preferences were not
offered, whether they were for schools in the Home LA or in other
Participating LAs.
29. *Merton LA shall use the form of Notification Letter set out in Schedule
2.
30. *On 1 March 2010, Merton LA will send by first class post notification of
the outcome to resident applicants. Online applicants will also be able to
view the result of their application from 2 March 2010.
31. *Merton LA will provide primary schools with destination data of its
resident applicants by the end of the Summer term 2010.
Post Offer
32. *Merton LA will request that resident parents accept or decline the offer
of a place by 15 March 2010. Where the applicant does not respond
within a reasonable time the offer may be withdrawn.
33. *Where a parent resident in Merton LA accepts or declines a place in a
school maintained by another LA by 15 March 2010, Merton LA will
forward the information to the maintaining LA by 22 March 2010. Where
such information is received from parents between 15 March and 31
August 2010, Merton LA will pass it to the maintaining LA as it is
received.
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Key Decision 2009 – Appendix C
34. * In the period 1 March to 31 August 2010, Merton LA will seek to ensure
that a place is not offered at a school in its area, which is ranked on the
CAF as a lower preference than any school already offered to a parent.
35. * In the period 1 March to 31 August 2010, Merton LA will inform the
home LA, where different, of any change to an applicant's offer status as
soon as it occurs.
36. In the period 1 March to 31 August 2010, Merton LA will accept new
applications (including additional preferences) for its schools from home
LAs.
37. The Merton admission authorities will draw up waiting lists when a
school is over-subscribed according to their published oversubscription
criteria.
38. Where a child does not receive an offer of their first preference, their
name will automatically be placed on the waiting list for each Merton
school for which they are eligible, that is a higher preference school than
the one they have been offered. Parents will be advised that if they want
to go on the waiting list for an out-borough school they should contact
that school’s maintaining LA.
39. Waiting lists for Merton Community Schools will be kept open until the
start of the October 2010 half term. Parents wishing to remain on the
waiting list after this date must write to the LA stating their wish and
providing the child’s name, date of birth and the name of their current
school.
40. Waiting lists will be maintained and places allocated, as they become
available, in accordance with each admission authority’s published
criteria. The offer letter will be issued by Merton LA for Merton residents;
where the child is not a Merton resident, Merton will agree with the home
authority which party will issue the letter.
41. Applications received after 1 March 2010 will be added to the waiting
lists for the schools listed on the CAF, according to the schools
admission criteria.
In-Year Admissions
42. Applications for places received after 31 August 2010, and those for
places in year groups other than the normal year of entry to secondary
school will be treated as in-year admissions. Parents should approach
voluntary aided schools and academies direct.
43. For places in community schools parents should contact the LA who will
decide if the application should be treated as a casual admission or
transfer. Any applications received by the LA for voluntary aided schools
or academies will be passed to the school in question.
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Key Decision 2009 – Appendix C
44. Once an application form is received, Merton LA will make an initial
judgement of whether the applicant should be treated as ‘hard to place’.
If this is the case, the application will be treated under Merton’s Fair
Access Protocol.
45. If the applicant is not considered as hard to place, the application will be
forwarded to the highest preference school with a vacancy.
46. Parents who are not successful in their application for a school will be
offered a right of appeal.
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Key Decision 2009 – Appendix C
SCHEDULE 1
This LA’s Common Application Form will contain the following fields as a
minimum. A revised template CAF will be provided to participating LAs.
Child’s details:
Surname
Forename
Date of Birth
Gender
Name of primary school
Address of primary school (if outside home LA)
Parent’s details:
Title
Surname
Initials or Forename
Address
Telephone Number (Home, Daytime, Mobile)
Email address
Relationship to child
Preference details (x 6 recommended):
Name of secondary school
Address of secondary school
Preference ranking
Local Authority in which the school is based
Additional information:
Reasons for Preferences (including any medical or social reasons)
Does the applicant have a statement of SEN? Y/N*
Is the applicant a child looked after? Y/N
If yes, name of responsible authority
Surname of sibling
Forename of sibling
DOB of sibling
Gender of sibling
Name of school sibling attends
Other:
Signature of parent or guardian
Date of signature
* Where an LA decides not to request this information on the CAF, it must
guarantee that no statemented pupil details will be sent via the PLR.
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Key Decision 2009 – Appendix C
SCHEDULE 2
DRAFT NOTIFICATION LETTER
(the contents of this letter may change without notice to give additional
information to applicants about their application and next steps)
From: Merton LA
Date: 1 March 2010
Dear Parent,
Application for a Secondary School
I am writing to let you know the outcome of your application for a primary
school. Your child has been offered a place at XXXXX School. The school will
write to you with further details.
I am sorry that it was not possible for your child to be offered a place at any of the
schools that you listed as a higher preference on your application form. For each of
these schools there were more applications than places, and other applicants had a
higher priority than your child under the schools published admissions criteria.
Offers which could have been made for any schools which you placed lower in
your preference list were automatically withdrawn under the co-ordinated
admissions arrangements, as a higher preference has been offered.
If you would like more information about the reason that your child was not offered a
place at any school, you should contact the admission authority that is responsible
for admissions to the school within the next few days. Details of the different
admission authorities for schools in the London Borough of Merton are attached to
this letter. If the school is outside the London Borough of Merton, the admission
authority will either be the borough in which the school is situated, or the school itself.
You have a right of appeal under the School Standards & Framework Act 1998
against the refusal of a place at any of the schools for which you have applied.
If you wish to appeal, you must contact the admission authority for the school
within the next few days to obtain the procedure and the date by which an
appeal must be received by them.
Please could you confirm that you accept the place at XXXXX School by
completing the reply slip below. If you do not wish to accept the place, you will
need to let me know what alternative arrangements you are making for your
child’s education.
Your child’s name will be placed on the waiting list for higher preference schools in
the London Borough of Merton. If you do not wish to be on any of these waiting lists,
please contact the relevant admissions authority. If you wish your child’s name to be
placed on the waiting list for a school outside of the London Borough of Merton, you
should contact the school or the borough concerned.
You must return the reply slip to me by 15 March 2010 in order to retain the
offer of your child’s school place. If you have any questions about this letter,
please contact this office on XXXXX.
Yours sincerely
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Key Decision 2009 – Appendix C
SCHEDULE 3
TIMETABLE
Dates of critical Pan-London events/actions are shown in bold and
additional local (Merton) milestones in italics.
23 October 2009
Closing date for receipt of the CAF or any
changes to preferences
16 November 2009
Deadline for the transfer of application
information by the Home LA to the PLR
16 November 2009
Application data for out-borough pupils received
from PLR
16-27 November 2009
Checking of data for out-borough pupils by LA
27 November 2009
Date by which Merton LA will notify Merton
admission authorities of every application for their
schools
27 November 2009
- 15 January 2009
Admissions authorities to consider applications
according to admissions criteria.
11 December 2009
Deadline for the upload of late applications,
that are late for good reason, to PLR
14 December 2009
- 5 January 2010
Pan-London data checking exercise of pupil
application data shared through PLR
15 January 2010
Date by which local schools must provide Merton
LA with electronic list of all applicants in rank order
3 February 2010
Deadline for the transfer of potential offer
information from the Maintaining LAs to the
PLR
16 February 2010
Final ALT file to the PLR
17 – 26 February 2010
Pan-London data checking exercise of pupil offer
and decline data shared through PLR
24 February 2010
Deadline for On-line ALT file to portal
1 March 2010
Notifications sent to Parents
15 March 2010
Date by which parents accept or reject offers
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Key Decision 2009 – Appendix C
22 March 2010
Date by which Merton LA notifies other LAs of
acceptances or rejections for schools in their
area
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