I have recently been contacted by several constituents regarding Earls Barton becoming a designated village for Wollaston Secondary School. Please be assured that I take this matter very seriously and have contacted the Local Authorities (LA) on several occasions. I think it is important to point out that this is a matter entirely for the local authority and I cannot compel them to act in a certain way. However that being said, I completely understand the strength of feeling out there on this matter and will always support my constituents. Lesley Hagger, Director for Children, Families and Education, response at NCC has responded to the concerns raised, this response can be found below. I hope it helps to clarify the matter:
"Wollaston School has a Published Admission Number of 240 students per year group and admits up to this number to Year 7, each academic year, in accordance with the following admission criteria;
After the allocation of places to students in receipt of an EHC plan, places will be allocated as follows;
- Children in public care (LAC) or previously in public care;
- Pupils who live in the designated villages, e.g. Bozeat, Brafield-on-the-Green, Castle Ashby, Chadstone, Cogenhoe, Denton, Easton Maudit, Great Houghton, Grendon, Irchester, Little Houghton, Strixton, Wollaston, Yardley Hastings, Whiston.
- Pupils who have an older brother or sister continuing at the school at the time of admission of the younger child;
- Pupils attending Wollaston School’s designated contributory Primary Schools, e.g. Bozeat, Cogenhoe, Denton, Grendon, Irchester, Little Houghton, Wollaston, Yardley Hastings and continuing in attendance until the formal offer of places is made.
- Pupils who live in Wellingborough and the designated surrounding villages and contributory parishes for Wellingborough: Earls Barton, Ecton, Finedon Sidings (Furnace Lane), Great Doddington, Great Harrowden, Hardwick, Little Harrowden, Little Irchester, Mears Ashby, Orlingbury, Wilby.
- Other pupils
Distance Tiebreaker: If the admission number is exceeded within criterion 2, priority will be given to those who live furthest from the nearest alternative school, if the admission number is broken in any other criterion, priority will be given to those closest to the school.’
As you will see, Earls Barton already has some priority over other pupils through the village’s inclusion in criterion 5.
I can confirm that at the time of writing, Northamptonshire County Council has no plans to link the village of Earls Barton to Wollaston School for the purpose of school admissions. There are no plans to grant Earls Barton Primary School designated feeder school status for school admission purposes at the current time either.
This decision has been made for a number of reasons;
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To include Earls Barton as either a linked village or as a designated feeder primary school, would have a serious impact on the number of pupils residing in the school’s linked area, the school would be unable to admit all pupils residing within the linked area to the school. To amend or remove an existing village of contributory primary school from the school’s admission criteria would be considered to be unfair and to the disadvantage of pupils residing in/attending the village/school in question;
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The village of Earls Barton is already linked to any other Wellingborough Secondary, to give pupils from Earls Barton a higher priority in terms of admission to Wollaston School would seriously impact upon the yearly intake at other local Secondary Schools, affecting the funding they receive and ultimately impacting upon curriculum delivery;
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NCC is already in the process of consulting on admission arrangements for LA maintained schools for admissions beginning in September 2019 (following the relevant annual statutory process). Wollaston School are currently progressing plans to become an Academy from September 2018, upon conversion, the admission criteria will become the remit of the Academy Trust operating the school. It was not felt appropriate to attempt to change the admissions criteria at a school for which NCC will no longer have responsibility for maintaining past the end of the current academic year.
Whilst other villages or designated primary schools may be located a further distance than Earls Barton to Wollaston School, their linkage to the school has been based on a number of factors such as transport routes and the capacity of other local secondary schools to accommodate pupils residing in a given village.
I hope this clarifies the situation from the perspective of NCC in this matter."