Today (Wednesday 1 March 2017) is National Offer Day when parents
will be notified of the outcome of their application for a
secondary school place for their child in Year 7 in September
2017.
Malcolm Trobe, Interim General Secretary of the Association of
School and College Leaders, said: “Parents should be
aware that government policy is helping to create a lottery in
the supply of school places between different areas of the
country. In some areas there is pressure on places, while in
others there is spare capacity. One reason for this situation is
that new free schools are not always opened in the areas of
greatest demographic need, especially at secondary level.
“Where this is the case, a new free school may create spare
capacity in the area, and this can affect pupil numbers, and
therefore funding, at neighbouring schools, and in the new free
school itself. The government believes this creates competition
and drives up standards but there is no evidence that this is the
case and it may damage existing good schools in the area. All of
this was highlighted in a report by the National Audit Office
published last week 1.
“Education funding is severely squeezed and therefore must be
used as effectively as possible. New free schools should be
opened only in areas where there is a demographic need for them.
This is particularly important now and over the next few years
because the pupil population will increase significantly and many
more places will be needed.”
1 National Audit Office. Capital funding for
schools. (p27-28). 22 February 2017.
