Parents offered help with school admissions
Parents of children entering reception classes in primary schools and parents of pupils transferring to secondary schools across the county will learn which school their child will go to in September this month.
The deadline for secondary school admissions was 2nd November and parents have received letters this week offering their child a place at a high school.
The deadline for primary school applications was the 18th January, seven days after the council announced draft proposals for the review of education across the county. These proposals are no longer going ahead.
When the proposals were published, the local authority received a number of calls from parents seeking advice on applying for school places in the light of the proposals. Council officers advised parents to stick with their original preferences as the proposals were for discussion only at this stage.
Now that the proposals have been withdrawn, the council is aware that some parents who changed their mind in January would like to revert back to their original preference and is urging them to contact the schools admission team urgently if this is the case.
Sharon Menghini, director of children's services, said: "We are aware that the announced draft proposals and their subsequent withdrawal may have caused confusion for some parents when they were applying for primary school places.
"There is already a well established appeals procedure in place for parents who are unhappy with the school their child has been allocated. Now, the local authority has agreed to provide a further opportunity for parents whose choices were affected by the review proposals to contact the schools admissions team to revert back to their original preferences. Provided there are spaces at the school of their choice, we will change their allocation."
Parents applying for places in primary reception classes will be sent a letter on 25th March offering their child a school place and providing advice on how to proceed if they wish to change their choice of school as a result of the review.
