1. Secondary school admissions in England 2001-2008: Changing legislation, policy and practice
Professor Anne West
Education Research Group, Department of Social Policy
London School of Economics & Political Science
TUC Future for Schools Conference
27 November 2010

2. Issues to address Why are admissions important?
Legal and policy context
How have admissions criteria changed?
Continuing challenges

3. Legal and policy context
Legislation and guidance
School Standards and Framework Act 1998
Admissions Codes

4. Research methods
Admissions criteria coded for state funded secondary schools in England
Year 7 admissions 2001 and 2008
Focus on non-grammar schools

6. Criteria affecting school mix
Some criteria are explicitly designed to affect school mix
Selection of proportion of pupils by aptitude/ ability (5% in 2008)
Random selection/lottery (6%)
Banding (3%)

10. Impact on school composition?
Recent research on admissions and school composition (Allen, Coldron and West, 2010)
Changes have been observed
Role played by admissions criteria difficult to disentangle

11. Continuing challenges
Legislation, School Admissions Code and Schools Adjudicators’ determinations important
Difficulties remain
Complexity
School autonomy
Changes in Code
Academies and free schools