Guru Nanak Sikh Secondary School, Hayes (05A00044 + 1 other)

School admissions                      Maladministration causing injustice

18 October 2005

Two families say that there was fault by the School in the way it administered its process for entry to the School in September 2005. The families complained that they had provided the evidence required to satisfy the admissions criteria and so their children should have been offered places at the School. They also complain that when they appealed against the School’s decision to reject their applications the Admissions Appeal Panel did not properly consider the information they put forward.

The Ombudsman finds that the evidence required by the School in support of the admissions criteria was not objective or fair and that the School did not deal with the applications objectively and fairly. The Ombudsman also finds that the appeal procedure was seriously flawed. The appeal form was misleading about the grounds on which parents could appeal. The Appeal Panel also failed to test whether the admission of the complainants’ children would cause prejudice to the efficient and effective education of children already in the school. And there were a number of breaches of the statutory Codes of Practice. So there was maladministration by the School and the Appeal Panel.

The Ombudsman recommends that the School, and Appeal Panel as appropriate, should:

• review the admissions criteria and the evidence required in support of these to ensure that they are objective and fair; and review its admissions procedures to ensure that decisions on admissions are based on objective tests of whether or not each applicant meets the criteria, rather than making comparisons between different applicants about how well they meet the criteria;
• review the documentation provided to parents in advance of the appeals;
• review its procedures to ensure compliance with the Code of Practice on School Admissions;
• ensure its Appeal Panel complies with the Code of Practice on School Admission Appeals;
• ensure that in future proper training is provided to members of the Appeal Panel and the Clerk to the Panel; and
• as a matter of urgency, and within two months, arrange fresh appeals for ‘Manjit Sidhu’ and ‘Ravinder Matharu’ (not their real names for legal reasons) with a different Appeal Panel and different Clerk.

The Ombudsman also recommends that the Appeal Panel should in future consider carefully in each case whether the School has provided a proper case on prejudice. It should also record properly the information presented to it, and the reasons for its decisions.

Date Updated: 25/03/09