Islamia Primary School, Brondesbury Park (04A15454 + 1 other)
School admissions Maladministration causing injustice
08 February 2006
Since Autumn 2005, The Ombudsman has criticised Catholic, Sikh and non-denominational Christian schools over their admission arrangements. He makes similar criticisms about the conduct of admissions for this voluntary aided Muslim primary school, and recommends the School to complete its review of admission criteria and arrangements and pay compensation to two parents.
The Ombudsman has found that some faith schools have admission criteria that are not objective or fair, and sometimes places are offered in a kind of competition based on who can give the most evidence of religious commitment. Information may be lacking on how the published criteria are interpreted or measured, and so parents have no way of knowing how decisions are made, or why their applications were unsuccessful even though their applications apparently met the schools’ published criteria. The Ombudsman said: “I am concerned that unless admissions criteria are clear, objective and transparent, parents cannot make informed choices about which schools to apply to for their children.”
During 2003 the Ombudsman received three complaints about the administration of admissions and subsequent appeals by the Governing Body of Islamia Primary School, with regard to entry into the School in September 2003. He found maladministration and injustice and issued a report in December 2004 and a further report in November 2005, as he was not satisfied that the Governors had taken sufficient action on the recommendations he had made.
During 2004/05 the Ombudsman received three similar complaints from different families. These were that the Appeal Panel established by the Governing Body of the School had not properly considered their appeals against the Governors’ decision to refuse their children admission into the reception class in September 2004. In particular, the complainants alleged that the Governing Body had failed to ensure the published admission arrangements were implemented correctly and that the Appeal Panel had rejected their appeal even though, in the view of the complainants, the decision not to admit their child was one which no reasonable Admission Authority would have reached. This report sets out the findings of the Ombudsman’s second detailed investigation into the School’s admission arrangements.
The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice to two complainants. Although the Governing Body has since taken some steps to improve the admissions process, the Ombudsman remains concerned about the number of faults found. The most serious are:
- the admissions criteria, the contents of the application form, and the way the applications are scored, are still not clear, fair and objective, and to date the Ombudsman has not seen details of the revised admissions policy and criteria; and
- the unreasonable delay in making the decision to refuse a place at the School, and then in arranging both the original appeals and the fresh appeals agreed by the School.
The fresh appeals which the Ombudsman recommended have now been heard by a new Appeal Panel, one of which was upheld. The Governors should complete their review of the admission criteria and admission arrangements in the light of the findings of his reports and pay compensation to both parents.
Date Published: 25/03/09