‘Lottery’ fear over school admission policies

Education think-tank the Sutton Trust’s latest data, to be published on Thursday, is expected to show the extent to which schools are using random allocation or banding where they are oversubscribed. The report will urge schools to use common banding tests, where they use this approach, to make it easier for parents and pupils.

However, the trust will repeat its view that such admissions policies – perhaps combined with inner and outer catchment areas – are a good way to enable parents of all backgrounds to access places for their children in popular schools.

Conor Ryan, Sutton Trust director of research, said: “Access to the most popular comprehensives should not be limited to those who can afford to pay a premium on their mortgages or rents.

“Banding or random allocation can allow pupils to access these schools from a wider area, and this can mean fairer admissions in heavily oversubscribed inner city schools.”

Some politicians have recommended lotteries as one option for opening up top schools to less affluent families who cannot afford premiums on house prices and rents.

The trust has argued that schools could use an inner and outer catchment area to ensure that pupils who live very close to a school get in, but half the places could be open to those living within a certain radius, provided there are good public transport links.

In December, the Sutton Trust found nearly one in three (32 per cent) professional parents with school-age children moved to an area which they thought had good educational facilities, while 18 per cent moved to live in the catchment area of a specific school.

The research also found two per cent of parents admitted to buying a second home and using that address so that their children could gain access to a specific school, while six per cent said they attended church services when they didn’t previously so their child could go to a church school.