Selection and admissions policies

Question 1

Many schools prefer to select

Answer 1

the brightest, best-behaved and most motivated pupils, ideally with well-off and well-educated parents who can support the school, helping it to get high positions in school Performance Tables and a good reputation

Question 2

3 main types of selection of pupils

Answer 2

1. Selection by ability - eg through the 11+ exam to attend a grammar school, a test to get into an independent school, another form of it could be setting/streaming
2. Selection by aptitude - pupils selected on their potential to perform well in certain subjects eg Specialist Schools are now allowed to select up to 10% of students based on their aptitude in some specialist subjects
3. Selection by faith - faith schools may select a proportion of their pupils based on religious beliefs and commitment of their parents

Question 3

Arguments in favour of selection by ability

Answer 3

• it benefits ‘high flyers’ by allowing them to learn at a faster pace and be ‘stretched’

Question 4

Arguments against selection by ability

Answer 4

• late developers can be better catered for in non-selective systems, as moving between sets and streams allows for more progress
• fewer social divisions and more social cohesion in non-selective schools so students from different backgrounds are more likely to mix
• reduced risk of labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy in non-selective schools, as children are less likely to be labelled as low ability
• non-selective schools benefit pupils of all abilities - Smyth et al (2006) showed that mixed-ability teaching benefits the ‘high flyers’ and improves the performance of the less able
• non-selective schools don’t have negative impacts on social mobility - Boliver and Swift (2011) - selective schools prevent social mobility for children from lower socio-economic backgrounds (except the minority who do get into selective schools)

Question 5

The School Admissions Code, which all state-funded schools have to comply with, forbids

Answer 5

selection of students by ability (with the exception of grammar schools) or polices discriminating against students because of their social or economic background

Question 6

Open enrolment and parental choice

Answer 6

• ‘open enrolment’ means that a parent can apply for a place for their child at any state-funded school in any area, and if the school is not full then they must accept the child
• means that the most popular schools fill up quickly and are often oversubscribed
• not all parents get their first choice of school for their child so they don’t get a real free choice
• in 2022, there were over 40,000 appeals by parents who didn’t get their first choice school, and about 20% of them were successful

Question 7

Admissions policy in over-subscribed schools

Answer 7

• if a school is over-subscribed, pupils are admitted according to over-subscription criteria, which have to comply with the School Admissions Code
• this gives priority to children in care, those with siblings at the school, those within the catchment area or who live closest to the school
• the most over-subscribed and top performing schools are usually in middle-class areas (because middle-class students tend to perform better) so working-class parents often lose out on getting places at the most popular and over-subscribed schools, which perpetuates social class inequalities

Question 8

Covert selection

Answer 8

• Tough and Brooks (2007) identified a from of selection in school admissions they called covert (hidden) selection, where schools pick pupils who they find to be more likely to achieve and with higher socio-economic backgrounds
• Green, Allen and Jenkins (2014) found free schools were socially selective and cherry-picked the brightest and wealthiest students
• Covert selection often involves discouraging working-class families from applying (eg having expensive uniforms, not promoting the school in poorer neighbourhoods etc)
• a report by the Academics Commission (2013) found that some academies were holding ‘social’ events for prospective parents or having extensively long admissions forms and suggested that “such practices can enable schools to select pupils from more privileged families where parents have the requisite cultural capital to complete the forms in ways which will increase their child’s chances”
• faith schools can sometimes do covert selection by gathering information about families’ backgrounds

Question 9

in 2014, one of the country’s leading catholic schools, the London Oratory School

Answer 9

was forced to change its admissions policy after being heavily criticised by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator for using complex admissions criteria, in breach of the School Admissions Code, which amounted to social selection which discriminated against children from working-class, minority or lone parent backgrounds