Introduction
This policy applies to all schools where Dorset Council (DC) is the admissions authority (community and voluntary controlled schools) – it will also be promoted for adoption with Dorset schools which are their own admissions authorities (academies, foundation, voluntary aided and free schools).
Dorset Council is a signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant which is a binding commitment between the Government, the Nation and the Armed Forces to ensure that people in the Armed Forces Community aren’t disadvantaged because of their Service, and that the people who have given the most receive special consideration for the sacrifices they have made for the country.
DC is committed to look out for any problems these families might face because of their part in the Armed Forces Community, and then to assist in finding solutions to those problems.
A family may be disadvantaged when applying for a school place (during service or upon leaving service). When an application is made from the Armed Forces Community and a place cannot ordinarily be offered, an assessment will be made of the circumstance.
In order to establish (by admissions department or appeal committee) whether a place should be offered, it needs to be identified as to whether being a member of the armed forces has disadvantaged the family in applying for a specific school place and consider the impact of placing the child over number (see Consideration of Prejudice).
The School Admissions Code has been revised to enable schools to admit service children as exceed the 30-pupil limit for infant classes in order to accommodate Service children.
Infant class size – Infant classes (those where the majority of children will reach the age of 5, 6 or 7 during the school year) must not contain more than 30 pupils with a single school teacher44.
Additional children may be admitted under limited exceptional circumstances. These children will remain an ‘excepted pupil’ for the time they are in an infant class or until the class numbers fall back to the current infant class size limit.
The excepted children are children of UK service personnel admitted outside the normal admissions round.
Admissions Authorities when considering admissions placement from Forces Families should take account of the expectation that families will move as a new posting comes through or when discharged at the end of service: the family have little or no choice in the location or the timing of this move and so, in many cases, will be forced to apply to schools outside of the normal admissions round.
In order to ascertain if they should be considered for a place at a school that is full in the year group applied for (especially where this would contravene infant class size legislation) it should be considered whether or not it would have been reasonable for a family living at the stated address and applying ‘on time’ at the normal year of transfer to obtain a place.