Nottingham Roman Catholic
Diocesan Education Service
Admissions to Schools and Academies in the Diocese of Nottingham: 2018-19
Admissions Arrangements Consultation Guidance
Headline
Consultation on 2018-19 admissions arrangements will take place 31st October – 12th December 2016.
Action is required by all schools.
Background
In July we advised you of the changes that would be made to our primary and secondary school admission arrangements for 2018-19. These follow the review by the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales (CES) of arrangements for admission into Catholic schools and academies.
The changes required by the CES have been approved by Bishop Patrick and have been incorporated into our Nottingham Diocese policies; theywill apply from the 2018-19 admissions round.
We are first required by the School Admissions Code to consult on the new arrangements and this note gives guidance on how the consultation will be managed and the actions you will need to take to ensure that the consultation meets the requirements of the Code.
Management of Consultation
I am now able to provide you with your revised policy and the associated Supplementary Information Form (SIF).
As a number of Local Authorities are not running a coordinated consultation round this year and to provide certainty and consistency NRCDES will coordinate the consultation process for all our schools.
We propose to run our consultation during the period 31st October – 12th December 2016.
We will liaise with your local authority admissions teams and provide them with a copy of your policy and SIF.
We will inform neighbouring Local Authorities of the consultation and provide them with a copy of your policy and SIF.
Where the local authority is conducting their own coordinated consultation round for maintained schools we will ensure that our policies are also included in those arrangements and so benefit from being publicised to other local schools and members of the public in those localities.
NRCDES will take comments received during the consultation, consider them and make any amendments to the policies as necessary. We will then issue schools with a final version of their policy and guidance on the process needed to be followed by schools to formally adopt the policy.
The following steps MUST be taken by ALLPRIMARY AND SECONDARYSCHOOLS
In advance of consultation
Governing Bodies should be informed of the changes and it should be minuted at a meeting before 30th Octoberof the admissions committee or full governing body that the policy should go forward for consultation.
Prepare website for 31st October 2016 consultation launch
Prepare information for parents and other local schools and nurseries
Admission Leads in all schools should contact the NRCDES Admissions Team if they require clarity on any issue.
On 31st October2016
2018-19 Policy and SIF must be displayed prominently on your school website
We advise that this should be on the website front page or clearly signposted from the front page and the website should include a statement that the policy is being consulted on and provide a mailbox address where comments can be sent on the proposed changes.
All parents should be advised of the consultation and directed to the school website.
Parents should be informed via whatever regular communication is used in the school.
Secondary schools should inform their partner and other local primary schools and ask them to inform their parents.
Primary schools should inform local nurseries and ask them to inform their parents.
End of school Monday 12th December 2016
The consultation page should be removed from the school website and any comments received during the consultation should be forwarded to NRCDES.
NRCDES AdmissionsContact details:
Neil Weightman 01332 293833 ext 211
Julie Sweeney 01332 293833 ext 202
Consultation Guidance for schools – 2018-19 Admissions ArrangementsSept 2016