Appendix 6
BRIEFING PAPER FOR HEADS AND CHAIRS OF GOVERNORS
CATCHMENT OPTIONS STUDY FOR POOLE PRIMARY, FIRST, INFANT MIDDLE
AND JUNIOR SCHOOLS 2014
Work has been undertaken by the Pupil Place Planning Team with additional support
from the Corporate Strategy and Communications Team to consider the validity of
current school catchments and to model alternative options.
The purpose of this meeting is to provide all schools involved with:



The progress of recent work.
A model showing what revised catchments could look like across the Borough
of Poole and for each school to show on a map the work that has been done
so far.
Seek your views on progress to date.
BACKGROUND
On 12 November 2013 Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny (CS O&S) agreed
to a Catchment Options Study for all Primary, Junior/Infant and Middle/First phased
schools in the Borough of Poole.
This was to address a number of issues that have arisen with admissions due to the
now historic catchment areas.
Members requested that three scenarios be explored;
1. No change
2. New catchment areas to be drawn
3. No catchment areas
It was agreed that work should be undertaken on these three scenarios and that a
report would be taken back to CS O&S in March 2014 for Members to decide on a
way forward for community and voluntary controlled schools.
The earliest possible date for implementation of any changes to school catchments
will be September 2016.
SCENARIO 1 – NO CHANGE
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In the report presented to Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny
Committee in November it was noted that:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
The boundaries of current catchment areas were originally based on the
historic attendance pattern at each school, in the days before parental
preference, when children attended their “local” school.
Since the current catchment areas were defined a considerable amount of
residential development has taken place and as a result the numbers of pupils
within catchment areas do not now necessarily reflect the accommodation
available in each school. As a consequence some schools have become
oversubscribed by pupils living within their catchment area while other schools
have a low number of in catchment pupils.
There is to be a new Junior School built in Poole that will not have a
catchment of its own and will be sited within an existing school’s catchment.
Some schools are sited outside their catchment area.
There are a small number of schools with shared catchment areas
Some geographical areas are not near to any school eg the Sandbanks
peninsular and where the school is oversubscribed from within the catchment
families have to travel a considerable distance to get to an alternative school.
With no change to the current catchments the above issues would continue.
SCENARIO 2 - REVISING CATCHMENT AREAS – PRINCIPLES AND
METHODOLOGY
This section provides a summary of how scenario 2, review of catchments, was
undertaken.
Principles
Before beginning work on scenario 2 a set of principles was agreed as follows:
 The Published Admission Number (PAN) for each school was set at that
already agreed for 2015.
 The number of children in new catchments should match the capacity of the
school (as defined by the 2015 PAN) as closely as possible.
 Due to their oversubscription criteria St Joseph’s and St Mary’s Catholic
Primary Schools would not be included in this study. The Diocese of
Plymouth has indicated that they do not wish to change their admission
arrangements.
 Schools should be located within their own catchment area.
 There should be no shared catchment areas (there is a shared catchment
area between a Poole and Dorset school that would require a joint project
with Dorset County Council to consider changes).
 Split catchments should not be created.
 Where a three tier education system currently exists, children in this area
should not be assigned to schools in an area with a two tier structure and
vice versa.
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 Wherever possible an address should be allocated to a school within 2
miles (using safe walking routes).
 To initially maintain catchment boundaries adjacent to Bournemouth
Borough and Dorset County Councils and consider whether changes
should be explored further with these Local Authorities.
Data used
The data used relates to current one year olds, which represents children eligible to
start reception in 2015 (i.e. those born between 01/09/2011 and 31/08/2012). This
created a cohort of 1788 children. It was not advisable to use the current zero year
old data, children who are eligible to start in 2016 (the earliest date for
implementation of any changes), as this has proved less reliable in the past.
Methodology (for reference)
To undertake the study the Borough of Poole was divided into just over 3000
fragments. These fragments were formed by taking a centre point of each postcode
and then creating thiessen polygons from each of these points. The number of one
year old children currently resident within each fragment was known. Fragments
were then used as the basic unit in the process.
The rate of take up of places in Poole Schools was established by taking a weighted
average of the last five years. In addition this figure was further adjusted to take into
account the pupils at St Joseph’s and St Mary’s Catholic Primary Schools who were
not part of this study. This provided an overall take up rate of 86.64% and it was this
figure that was applied across the Borough for Options A, B and D (see below for
these options) ie if there were 100 children resident within a catchment area it was
assumed that potentially 87 of these children could be requesting a place at their
catchment school.
To establish new catchment areas, fragments were allocated in a staged way using
the adjusted take up rate as defined above in the following order:
Stage 1:
Stage 2:
Stage 3:
Allocate all fragments to the closest school but only where the
PAN of that school has sufficient capacity to accommodate all
children.
If a fragment was unallocated at stage 1 but was within a 10
minute walking distance it was allocated to the nearest school.
For fragments unallocated at stages 1 and 2, distances between
their closest and second closest school were analysed. Each
unallocated fragment was ranked before being assigned to a
catchment area.
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Stage 4:
Stage 5:
At the end of stage 3 some fragments still remained unallocated.
To avoid children having to walk past a school to get to their
catchment school it was necessary to review a small number of
addresses allocated under stages 1-3 to create the capacity
needed.
There was a review of the allocations made under stages 1-4 for
those properties on the catchment boundaries to ensure that
natural boundaries were taken into account and roads were split
at more logical places (ie at road junctions). This was done in
conjunction with routing analysis to try and limit any increase in
walking time for areas reallocated.
At the start of the work it was not clear whether or not the admissions policy for the
new junior school would have a catchment area as part of its oversubscription
criteria. Therefore 2 Options were modelled for both the Primary/Infant/First school
catchments (Options A and B) and the Primary/Junior/Middle school catchments
(Options C and D) to model no catchment and a nominal catchment for the new
junior school.
Outcomes and work completed so far – catchment designs which include:
Primary, Infant and First School catchments
Option A: Catchment design which includes Primary, Infant and First School
catchments with no catchment for the new Junior school
Option B: Catchment design which includes Primary, Infant and First School
catchments with a nominal catchment for the new Junior school
One of the basic principles set out at the start of the study was not to have any
shared catchment areas (see section on ‘Principles’ on page 2). Therefore no junior
school catchment could overlap with a primary school catchment as this would mean
that KS2 children would be in catchment for two schools at the same time. As the
site of the new junior school is located within a current primary school catchment in
Option A this required the model described to be adjusted in order to create a
nominal catchment area for the new school. This resulted in moving catchment
boundaries so that the site of the new junior school is located within an infant school
catchment.
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Outcomes and work completed so far – catchment designs which include:
Primary, Junior and Middle catchments
Additional principles were added to the designs for Primary/Junior/Middle school
catchments as follows:


All Primary catchments should remain fixed.
The following infant/first catchments should be fixed with junior/middle
catchments:
Broadstone, Merley and Springdale First Schools with Broadstone Middle
Ad Astra Infant with Haymoor Junior
Canford Heath Infant with Canford Heath Junior
Sylvan Infant with Branksome Heath Junior
Twin Sails Infant with Hamworthy Park Junior.
Option C: Catchment design which includes Primary, Junior and Middle School
catchments with no catchment for the new Junior school
This option shares the catchment areas for Courthill, Lilliput, Old Town and Stanley
Green Infant Schools between Baden Powell and Oakdale Junior Schools. This
model can be linked to the Option 1 proposal for Primary, Infant and First Schools.
In this model it is presumed the new Junior school will fill with students from the
Oakdale Junior School catchment and Baden Powell School catchment. Therefore
the overall count of students expected to attend these schools has been modified to
reflect this.
Option D: Catchment design which includes Primary, Junior and Middle School
catchments with a nominal catchment area for the new Junior school
Here a nominal catchment area is created for the new junior school. This option
shares catchment areas for Courthill, Lilliput, Old Town and Stanley Green Infant
Schools between Baden Powell, Oakdale and the new Junior School. This model
can be linked to the Option B proposal for Primary, Infant and First Schools.
In this model the take up rate reverts to the 86.64% used in Options A and B for the
Primary, Infant and First School catchment areas.
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SCENARIO 3 - NO CATCHMENT AREAS
Catchment areas have historically been used as part of the oversubscription criteria
for schools but there is no legal requirement for a school’s admission arrangements
to have a catchment area.
As part of a school’s admission arrangements, there must be oversubscription
criteria which can be applied if there are more applications than places available.
The School Admissions Code 2012 states that ‘Oversubscription criteria must be
reasonable, clear, objective, procedurally fair, and comply with all legislation’ (para
1.8). If there is no catchment area, places can be allocated according to distance
from the school and this is an acceptable oversubscription criterion.
Including the Borough of Poole, there are 163 local authorities within England. 57
local authorities operate their admission arrangements with no catchment areas. 12
local authorities operate with a mixture of no catchment and catchment areas. The
remaining 94 local authorities operate using catchment areas. Due to the large, and
increasing number of own admitting authorities (schools that are Foundation,
Voluntary Aided, Free School or Academy), a study of own admission arrangements
has not been undertaken. However within Bournemouth and Poole there are already
own admission authorities that operate with no catchment areas.
The vast majority of local authorities that operate without catchment areas (either in
part or in full) use oversubscription criteria that prioritises (after children with
Statements, Looked After and Previously Looked After Children and children with
exceptional medical circumstances) siblings by distance, then all other applicants by
distance. Many local authorities use straight line distance measurements but there
are local authorities that use safe walking routes to prioritise applications.
In addition to prioritising applications using siblings by distance and then all other
applicants by distance, there are some Local Authorities that have included
oversubscription criteria to encourage families to apply for their closest school. There
are also examples which include ranking of applicants based on the distance to their
preferred school compared with the distance to their nearest school – therefore
giving priority to those living furthest from an alternative school.
NEXT STAGES
The table below is a copy of the timeline set for the Catchment Options Study from
this stage onwards.
Input from schools is important and you have a feedback form to be returned to
Laura Cook, Communications Officer, Children Young People and Learning. An
electronic copy will also be emailed to you and please either return a paper copy or
an emailed copy by Wednesday 12 February at the latest. The responses will be
included as part of the report to Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny
Committee meeting on 11 March.
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The timeline needs to be followed in order to comply with the School Admissions
Code statutory dates for setting the Admission Arrangements for September 2016.
11/03/14
April 2014
Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider the
Catchment Options Study report and Members to decide whether to
recommend to full Council changes for community and voluntary
controlled schools.
Feedback to schools regarding outcome of Council decision.
Paper to Council for consideration and approval for changes and
consultation.
Feedback to schools regarding outcome of Council decision.
If Council agree to consider changes to be implemented in September 2016, the
proposed timeframe would be:
End April to
early July
June – July
2014
If changes are to be considered 4-6 week consultation period
(including public meetings) during this period.
Analysis of consultation findings
Update own admitting authority schools and dioceses via Admissions
Forum.
Sept 2014
Report consultation findings to CYP&L Overview & Scrutiny. If
changes are to be made, seek permission to consult on changes to
Admission Arrangements for 2016/17 for Community and Voluntary
Controlled Schools.
Request own admitting authority schools consider any changes to
their Admission Arrangements and prepare to consult.
Jan-Mar
8 week statutory consultation on Admission Arrangements for all
2015
admitting authorities (coordinated by Admissions Team).
Mar 2015
Following consultation, Admission Arrangements for Community and
Voluntary Controlled Schools to CYP&L Overview and Scrutiny,
Cabinet and Council for determination and Governors of Academies,
Foundation and Voluntary Aided Schools consider their own
arrangements.
15 Apr 2015 Deadline for setting all Admission Arrangements for 2016/17.
Sept 2015
Start of Admissions round for Sept 2016.
Sept 2016
Implementation of changes.
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