Overview
Executive summary
- Lincolnshire County Council consulted on a change to the published admissions number at
- Legbourne East Wold Church of England Primary School which would alter the minimum number of places from the minimum number of places from 17 to 15
- North Cockerington Church of England Primary School which would alter the minimum number of places from the minimum number of places from 12 to 10
- the change to the published admissions number would allow the school greater flexibility in complying with regulations that state that infant classes can contain no more than 30 students
- in addition, the text of the policy had been simplified so it was easier to understand. There were no other changes proposed to the policy
- the consultation was open for six weeks
- it was very widely promoted to news outlets, parents, social media and the public
- there were 17 responses to the survey made up of:
- three (3, 18%) were a parent of a child aged between 2 and 18 years
- fourteen (14, 82%) selected ‘other’
Of these:
- With regards to the proposed change for Legbourne East Wold Church of England Primary School:
- eleven (11, 65%) agree or strongly agree with the proposed reduction
- three (3, 17.5%) were not sure
- three (3, 17.5%) disagree or strongly disagree with the proposed reduction
- With regards to the proposed change for North Cockerington Church of England Primary School:
- eleven (11, 65%) agree or strongly agree with the proposed reduction
- two (2, 12%) were not sure
- four (4, 23%) disagree or strongly disagree with the proposed reduction
Introduction
Lincolnshire County Council, as the admissions authority for maintained schools, is responsible for ensuring that an admissions policy is in place detailing how applications are processed for these schools. This admissions policy must include each school’s published admissions number (PAN), which is the minimum number of places available in the intake year. Schools may propose changes to PAN which triggers the consultation process.
The admissions team have reviewed the policy and worked with the digital team to simplify the wording to meet accessibility regulations. No changes have been made to the policy itself or the admissions process.
This is a statutory six-week consultation taking place usually between October and January time.
- 28 February 2025 - arrangements must be formally determined
- 15 March 2025 - arrangements must be published
- 15 May 2025 - deadline for objections to the schools adjudicator
Schools wishing to change PAN numbers and proposing changes to school admissions policy 2026 to 2027 are as follows:
- Legbourne East Wold Church of England Primary School - reducing PAN from 17 to 15
- North Cockerington Church of England Primary School - reducing PAN from 12 to 10
Stakeholders
There is a statutory list of stakeholders.
Methodology
A survey was open to the public on the homepage of Let’s talk Lincolnshire for six weeks from 7 October to 17 November 2024.
Promotion was carried out via various methods:
- an email was sent to all statutory stakeholders promoting the consultation
- five social media posts were posted over the six-week project
- a newsletter was sent to all registered participants on Let’s talk Lincolnshire
- a news release was sent out to local media outlets
- an article was placed in the October edition of the Town and Parish Council newsletter
Findings
- The project page had 209-page visitors. Of that number, 49 people clicked for further information and 17 of them completed the survey. This is an 8% visitor to respondent conversion rate which is quite low, but it was a very targeted survey. The number of respondents using the different access methods varied. The highest number (12) came from the Let’s talk newsletter sent out, 2 came direct, 2 from the council website and one came from social media
- of the 17 respondents, 3 (18%) were a parent of a child aged between 2 and 18, and 14 (82%) selected other
- when asked, 16 (88%) said they didn’t live or work within five miles of Legbourne East Wold Church of England Primary School and one (1, 12%) said they live or work within five miles of Legbourne East Wold Church of England Primary School
- respondents were asked if they agreed or disagreed with the proposal to change the PAN at Legbourne East Wold Church of England Primary School. The following were the results:
- strongly agree - 5 (29.4%)
- agree - 6 (35.3%)
- not sure - 3 (17.6%)
- disagree - 1 (5.9%)
- strongly disagree - 2 (1.8%)
- of the 17 respondents, 11 (65%) agreed or strongly agreed, 3 (17.5%) weren’t sure and 3 (17.5%) disagreed or strongly disagreed with the reduction in number
There were comments from 8 respondents, the majority of whom (5) agreed with the proposal, citing small class sizes being beneficial.
- when asked, 2 people (18%) said they lived or worked within five miles of North Cockerington Church of England Primary School, and 15 (88%) said they didn’t
- respondents were asked if they agreed or disagreed with the proposal to change the PAN at North Cockerington Church of England Primary School. The following were the results:
- strongly agree - 5 (29.4%)
- agree - 6 (35.3%)
- not sure - 2 (11.8%)
- disagree - 2 (11.8%)
- strongly disagree - 2 (11.8%)
- of the 17 responses, 11 (62.5%) agreed or strongly agreed with the proposed reduction, 2 (12%) were not sure and 4 (23%) disagreed
There were comments from 8 respondents, 4 agreed with the proposal, 2 disagreed and 2 were neutral.
There were 9 text responses to any other comments about admission arrangements for Community and Voluntary Controlled Primary, Infant and Junior schools 2026 to 27. The comments included the following:
- meeting child’s needs
- schools’ sustainability
- sibling’s priority
- local impact
- making sure relevant stakeholders are consulted on
Conclusions and next steps
The report will go to children’s services DLT and then the decision will be made by the executive member for children’s services.
The updated school admissions policy will be published on the council website by 15 March 2025.