Dear Headteacher and Chair of Governors
Between 27 October and 8 December 2017 Haringey is consulting on the proposed admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled (VC) primary and secondary schools for the academic year 2019/20.
Haringey is consulting on a proposal to introduce an additional oversubscription criterion for children of staff to follow after the sibling criterion. This means that children of staff who meet the following requirements will have priority over any children who apply for a place under the distance criterion:
"Children whose parent is a member of staff who has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time of application or has been recruited to fill a vacancy for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage."
This change seeks to assist schools in recruiting and retaining staff by prioritising the admission of child(ren) of staff to the school. Some local academies and a voluntary aided school as well as schools in neighbouring boroughs currently give priority to children of staff and extending this to Haringey community and VC schools may help schools to compete for the best staff in the current competitive recruitment climate. It will also provide schools with the ability to retain and recruit staff to areas where there is a demonstrable skills shortage such as maths and science.
You can find out more about the consultation on all of our proposed admission arrangements by visiting our consultation page (external link).
In February 2018 the Council’s Cabinet will make a final decision on the 2019/20 admission arrangements including whether the additional oversubscription criterion for children of staff should be introduced.
Please do help us to ensure that as many parents and carers as possible are made aware of the consultation by signposting it in your school newsletter. If any of your parent/carers would like to comment on the proposed arrangements, they can do so by completing the online questionnaire on our consultation webpage.
Academies, Free Schools and Voluntary Aided Schools
Admission arrangements for academies, free schools and voluntary aided schools are determined by those schools and are not affected by Haringey’s proposed arrangements.
If your governors of your school would like to follow the admission arrangements proposed by the local authority for community and voluntary controlled schools (VC) then please do let me know as soon as possible so I can include your decision in our determination.
In cases where the admission authority delegates its power to determine, the responsibility to comply with the Code remains with the admission authority. You must still therefore ensure that you minute this decision at your governing body meeting and publish your admission arrangements on your website.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions on this consultation or you would like any further information.
Yours faithfully
Carlo Kodsi, Team Leader School Admissions, (E: Carlo.Kodsi@haringey.gov.uk/ T: 020 8489 1823)