Chellaston School Admission Policy

Chellaston School is an 11-18 comprehensive school within Derby City Council but situated close to the border with the County. It has a catchment area that includes part of the City and a number of villages in the County. The school has expanded considerably in recent years. It has been able to accommodate all the children from the catchment area so far, but more house building locally has placed it under increasing pressure. It occupies a restricted site and, with a further growth in numbers projected for the area, believes that it may not, in future, be able to offer places to all catchment area children. It had proposed some changes to its admission arrangements for 2007 with the intention of giving priority to families with closest links to the school and the community.

However, the City Council were unhappy with the criteria upon which the school would base their decisions if the intake should be oversubscribed. This resulted in the Schools' Adjudicator being brought in. His decision, which is final and binding, gives priority to those within the catchment area who live farthest from an alternative school. Read the full adjudicator's report here (pdf. file)

Chairman of the Residents' Association, John Bowden, had major concerns regarding this decision by the adjudicator. He wrote to the Derby Evening Telegraph, explaining his reasons. Read his comments here. (pdf. file). In addition, John wrote to the Adjudicator, putting forward the Association's position. His letter and the reply can be read by clicking here. (pdf. file)

A public meeting was held to discuss this issue at 8.00pm Monday 11th September 2006 in the Community Centre. The minutes of the meeting can be viewed here

The City Council has revealed that all of those who applied for legitimate places before the cut-off date will be accommodated in the 2007 intake. 268 places have been allocated, eight more than the declared limit. However, the governors still have to find a solution to the possible oversubscription in future years. The governors are now looking at a lottery system if this situation should arise.

The governors have now said that, in the event of over subscription, they will be proposing a lottery system (the school prefers it to be called 'random allocation') to decide on new entrants from the 2008 intake. The school believes that this is the fairest way to deal with what is a difficult problem. We consider that it is not fair on any parent, be they in Chellaston or in South Derbyshire, not to know whether their child has a place at the school until names have been 'drawn from a hat'. This lottery will apply to the whole intake, not just the extra few and it could be during the actual year of admission before parents will know whether or not they will have to start looking at alternative schools. There will also need to be transport arrangements put in place for those who are in the catchment area but do not get in. This could mean extra school buses or parental cars on the road, not to mention the expense if the LEA declines to fund this cost. We think this will prove, at the very least, to be an unsatisfactory situation and, if it goes ahead, we can only hope that numbers applying are going to fall in line with forecasts so that all applicants from the catchment area can be taken. We are going to hold another forum on this issue at our AGM on Monday March 26, at Chellaston Community Centre, 7.45 pm. As before we expect to have representatives from the school and the LEA present and we would urge all Chellaston parents, wherever they live in the catchment area and who would like to send their child to the school, to attend and voice their opinions.

The school has advised that they plan to implement the random allocation system in the event of oversubscription. This forms part of the admissions policy, which can be objected to, within six weeks from 15th April. The Head Teacher, at our AGM, stated that he believed an objection would come from some authority and that the Adjudicator would again be brought in. Indeed, following a meeting held in Melbourne, it was reported that Derbyshire County Council would object to the random allocation process. However, it should also be noted that Mr Ruszczynski is fairly confident that the oversubscription criteria will not need to be implemented,
The Derby Evening Telegraph quoted John Bowden as saying that the CRA would make no objection. He has clarified the CRA's position in a letter to the Telegraph, which is reproduced below:

Sir,
Your item on Chellaston School's decision to adopt a lottery system in the event of over-subscription (30 April) gave a misleading impression of where the Chellaston Residents' Association stands on the issue. As a representative body, we have always maintained that the school should serve the needs of Chellaston residents, if necessary over and above those of South Derbyshire. When the school is over-subscribed, it is of course difficult for the school to please everyone and they have decided on the lottery system as a way to try and please most. In fact, it still means that no-one will really know until the lottery is held, which will lead to much parental anguish in the entire catchment area.
At this time, we have not made any decision not to object to the school's plan, although we can predict what the outcome might be if we did. It would be far better if the school could avoid being over-subscribed in the first place and so not have to invoke any selection criterion. The only way to be sure of this is for funds to be made available for the school to be expanded to accommodate the extra children who are likely to come from the new estates in its catchment area.

The Schools' Adjudicator has supported the school's intention to implement the random allocation procedure in the case of oversubscription. Both the Headteacher, Ray Ruszczynski, and the LEA have said that the chance of it being used is 'remote' for the foreseeable future. The criteria will be in place for the 2008 intake. Read the full determination here.

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