Agenda item

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet makes the following recommendations to Council on 6 February 2024.

Cabinet recommends that Council approves:

1.    The admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools, including the Published Admission Numbers (PANs), for September 2025 as set out in Annex 1 and its appendices.

Reasons for Decisions:

·         The local authority has a duty to determine the admission arrangements for all community and voluntary controlled schools by 28 February 2024

·         The admission arrangements are working well

·         The arrangements enable the majority of pupils to attend a local school and in doing so reduce travel and support Surrey’s sustainability policies

·         The changes highlighted in bold red text in Sections 10, 11, 14 and 19 of Annex 1 have been made to add clarity to the arrangements and reflect existing practice

·         The arrangements remain as they were determined for 2024, which enables parents to have some historical benchmark by which to make informed decisions about their school preferences for 2025 admission

·         The arrangements are compliant with the School Admissions Code

The Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning introduced the report explaining that this was an annual report regarding the admission arrangements that will apply for Surrey’s community and voluntary controlled infant, junior, primary and secondary schools for admission in September 2025. Surrey County Council was responsible for setting the admission arrangements for 78 community and voluntary controlled schools for 2025. The remaining schools were academies, foundation, free, trust and voluntary aided schools that were responsible for setting their own admission arrangements. The admission arrangements for all community and voluntary controlled schools for 2025 would remain as determined for 2024 therefore no consultation would be required.

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet makes the following recommendations to Council on 6 February 2024.

Cabinet recommends that Council approves:

1.    The admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools, including the Published Admission Numbers (PANs), for September 2025 as set out in Annex 1 and its appendices.

Reasons for Decisions:

·         The local authority has a duty to determine the admission arrangements for all community and voluntary controlled schools by 28 February 2024

·         The admission arrangements are working well

·         The arrangements enable the majority of pupils to attend a local school and in doing so reduce travel and support Surrey’s sustainability policies

·         The changes highlighted in bold red text in Sections 10, 11, 14 and 19 of Annex 1 have been made to add clarity to the arrangements and reflect existing practice

·         The arrangements remain as they were determined for 2024, which enables parents to have some historical benchmark by which to make informed decisions about their school preferences for 2025 admission

·         The arrangements are compliant with the School Admissions Code