Proposed changes to School Admissions 2024-25

Have your say on admission arrangements for primary and secondary schools for the academic year September 2024 to August 2025

By law, admission authorities, like Bolton Council, are required to consult on their school admission arrangements, either once every 7 years (if no changes are made) or whenever they are proposing a change to their admission arrangements.

Bolton Council are now asking parents, guardians and stakeholders to feedback on the admission arrangements of children going into reception and secondary schools, or for those children moving school during the school year 2024-25. 

There are two areas we are wanting feedback on:

1) Changes to the admission criteria for children with brothers and sisters at a community, voluntary controlled primary or secondary school. 

Bolton Council are proposing to change the wording of the admissions criteria to make it more inclusive of children moving schools during the academic year, including for children moving into the borough.  Currently, the wording of the sibling criterion only gives priority for children with an older sibling at the preferred school.

Current wording: “Children who will have older siblings in years Reception to Year 6 of the preferred school at the time of application and at the date of admission. Sibling includes full, step, half, foster and adopted brothers and sisters living at the same address”.

Proposed wording: “Children who will have a brother or sister in reception to year 6 (primary applications),or year 7 to 11 (secondary schools), of the preferred school at the date of admission.  This includes full, step, half, foster and adopted brothers and sisters living at the same address as the pupil seeking admission.”

In addition, the wording is also being updated in the policy to refer to brothers and sisters.  It is a requirement that when referring to siblings, or brothers and sisters, that consistent wording is used.  Considering that English is spoken as a second language by many families in Bolton, the words ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ may be easier to understand than ‘sibling’.

To view the Admissions Policy document please click here.

2) The local authority is consulting on the co-ordinated scheme for admissions. 

The scheme remains largely unchanged, with just some minor clarifications around how late applications are processed.  Dates within the scheme have also been updated.

To view the Co-ordinated Scheme for School Admissions please click here.

This consultation has now closed.

Outcome