St Clement Danes School, Chorleywood (06A00825)

School admissions                      Maladministration causing injustice

29 June 2006

‘Mrs Grant’ (not her real name for legal reasons) sought a place for her son at the School in Year 10. Because this was outside the normal secondary transfer process, the School handled this under its casual admission procedure. The Governors of the School refused to accept an application because their casual admissions policy prevented parents applying for a place more than once. Unsuccessful applicants who were still interested in a place were kept on a continuing interest list and not allowed to reapply. The operation of the Governors’ policy resulted in Mrs Grant being denied her legal rights both to apply for a place and to have an independent appeal if the application was unsuccessful.

Further, it appeared from the Governors’ secondary transfer and casual admissions policies that the School was meeting with children for whom a place was being sought as part of the admissions process. Such meetings, if they took place, would be in direct conflict with the statutory Code of Practice on admissions which precludes the use of interviews. The Governors have given assurances that, despite the wording of their policies, such meetings were only held once places had been offered and accepted by parents. The relevant documents have now been amended to reflect this.

The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice. In accordance with his recommendations, to remedy the injustice the Governors accepted an application from Mrs Grant and have provided a right of appeal because the application was unsuccessful. They have also amended the admissions policies and documentation to reflect the Governors’ responsibilities and their actual practices properly. This provides a satisfactory conclusion to the complaint.

Date Published: 29/01/09