No more school place lotteries, local authorities are told

New admissions code to outlaw town halls’ ‘luck of the draw’ entry and bring an end to 30-pupil limit on class sizes Town halls are to be banned from using lotteries to allocate school places, ministers have said. Lotteries – used in up to a third of councils in England – will be abolished under a new admissions code for the country’s 22,000 state schools. The code, which was published in draft form on Friday and is subject to consultation, also permits class sizes to rise above the 30-pupil limit in certain circumstances. Schools must give priority to children whose parents are in the armed forces and ensure twins and triplets are in the same class. The new code will also allow popular schools to expand – at the likely detriment of weaker schools. It will also give free schools and academies the right to reserve places for children entitled to free meals under the new code. Academies and free schools – but not other state schools – will have the right to opt to take children whose families’ annual income is £16,190 or below, rather than those from better-off families. Michael Gove, the education secretary, said the changes were designed to be fair to those families who cannot afford to move into a neighbourhood where there is a popular school. “The school system has rationed good schools,” he said. “Some families can go private or move house. Many families cannot afford to do either. Good schools should be able to grow and we need more of them.” Lotteries have been seen by some educationalists as a way of reducing deep-seated class divisions in the school system. The highest-performing schools tend to cluster in the wealthiest neighbourhoods; if places are allocated according to how near a family lives to a school – rather than by a lottery – children from the poorest areas miss out. But researchers have found lotteries alone fail to give poor children a higher chance of attending a top school, and marginally narrow the likelihood they will win a place at a high-performing school. Other critics say lotteries force children to travel long distances to class. Individual schools will still be permitted to select through a lottery. The current code, devised under Labour, forbids all state schools from choosing pupils based on their family income. Academies and free schools stand to gain financially over other schools. The coalition last year introduced the pupil premium, which entitles schools to £430 for each pupil on free school meals. But the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) warned that “tinkering with the admissions code was not the way to improve social mobility”. Brian Lightman, the general secretary of ASCL, said: “Allowing ‘popular’ schools to expand will do nothing to improve social mobility. “It will create sink schools in many areas of deprivation and hit hardest those children whose parents do not or cannot take an interest in their education. “Those schools left with the most challenging pupils, who need the most intensive support, will suffer a slow spiral of decline and their pupils will lose out on life chances. The effect will be another generation of haves and have-nots.” He said allowing free schools to prioritise pupils on free school meals was an “arbitrary measure” and unlikely to have an impact on the majority of low-income families. “Sadly these tend to be the parents who are least likely to engage with their child’s education,” he added. “In most cases, a pupil premium of £430 will hardly be enough of an incentive or a supplement for schools to provide the additional support that these pupils so often need.” Education policy School admissions Schools Free schools Academies Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk

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