Cyril Taylor: Why a lottery is good for school admissions

Published: 08 March 2007

The new admissions code for 2008 will encourage groups of schools to arrange a joint admissions procedure using banding, inner and outer catchment areas, random allocation of places or a lottery, and aptitude tests for up to 10 per cent of pupils.

This should result in a much fairer allocation of places for oversubscribed schools than is the case now. Only schools that are their own admissions authority - foundation schools, academies and voluntary aided schools - can determine their own admissions policies. Often, distance is used when schools are oversubscribed. This means that catchment areas shrink, so that successful applicants have to live very close to the school. This has led to criticism that admissions to high-performing schools depend on the size of the parents' mortgage, and that house prices rocket.

The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust is updating its admissions guidance to its 2,700 specialist schools - about 90 per cent of all secondary schools. We will recommend the admissions procedures outlined below to schools that are their own admissions authority. We will also be recommending that schools apply for the new Trust status that comes with the right to decide their own admissions, so that they can adopt a joint admission procedure with other local schools.

The Trust believes strongly that admission arrangements should be decided locally, and that parents should be able to secure admission to the nearest school that is their first choice. Long term, the situation where parents don't get their child into their first choice school will be resolved when we have no more failing schools.

Currently, there are more than 400 low-attaining, unpopular secondary schools, with few first-choice applicants, that admit 70,000 11-year-olds each year. Parents will usually opt for their nearest school providing that it is good. There are now 1,000 high-performing specialist schools out of a total of 3,100 secondary schools in England, so we are making good progress.

We recommend that groups of schools should be able to decide if they want to use a fair banding system. All applicants will be required to take a non-verbal reasoning test. Schools usually place applicants into three, four or more bands of ability. For example, schools using three bands would place the top 25 per cent in the highest, the next 50 per cent in the middle, and the bottom 25 per cent in the lowest band. The proportion of applicants placed in each band must be mirrored by the proportion offered places from each band.

Two catchment areas could be used. One, the inner catchment, would be for children living closest to the school and would offer perhaps 70 per cent of places. It is to be hoped that applications for these inner places would be in line with the number of places, so that most first-choice parents would secure a place. The outer catchment would allow parents who live further away but still within a reasonable travelling time - perhaps half an hour or so - to apply to a school of their choice.

Pupils applying to schools specialising in subjects such as modern languages, performing arts, visual arts, sport and design and technology would be able to take aptitude tests in these subjects. Up to 10 per cent of places could be allocated in this way.

For the outer catchment area of schools that are oversubscribed, places could be awarded for each band by random allocation or lottery if, as is likely, there are more applications than places. The two Haberdashers' academies in Lewisham - The Hatcham former City Technology College and the new Knights' Academy - are successfully using this approach, and a variation has been proposed in Brighton.

The system has advantages. For heavily oversubscribed schools such as the former Hatcham CTC, which has 10 times as many applications as places, it is fairer and results in fewer time-consuming appeals. Crucially, it will produce a more balanced intake of ability for each school.

The Trust believes that diverse intakes and high standards are not mutually exclusive. Sixty per cent of pupils in specialist schools achieved five or more A*-C grades in 2006, compared to 48 per cent in non-specialist schools.

Our 1,000 high-performing schools are frequently oversubscribed. We believe they will be able to maintain their high standards and operate a fairer admissions system this way.

The writer chairs the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and has served as adviser on specialist schools to 10 education secretaries

education@ independent.co.uk