Catchment areas extended for pupils
DECISION COULD MEAN MORE OPTIONS FOR ALMONDBURY STUDENTS
SCHOOL catchment areas affecting Almondbury have been extended.
Parents applying for a September 2020 secondary school for their child have until the end of this month to put in their preferences.
A decision by the national Office of the Schools Adjudicator has resulted in the catchment areas of King James’s School, Newsome High School and Netherhall Learning Campus, in Rawthorpe, all being extended.
That means pupils currently attending Almondbury Community School (ACS), where the secondary phase has been axed, may be able to go to their closest neighbouring school.
Last month some parents expressed concern that options being offered to children - Newsome High and Huddersfield North Trust at Fartown - were unrealistic as they were too far away and involved two separate bus journeys lasting almost an hour.
And they criticised Kirklees Council after it was revealed that some preferred schools - King James’s, Netherhall and Shelley College - were all full.
In a letter to parents and carers, Jo-Anne Sanders, the council’s service director for learning and early help, said the Schools Adjudicator’s decision “enables us to bring more certainty to parents with pupils in Year 6” at ACS.
Her letter goes on: “When making this application parents/carers are very strongly advised to name a second and third preference school in case a place is not available at the first preference. All your preferences are assessed equally to decide if your child qualifies for a place.
“If your child qualifies at more than one school you will be offered a place at the highest preference school your child qualifies for. Parents/carers are also strongly recommended to name their catchment school as one of their three preference schools.”
Clr Bernard McGuin (Con Almondbury) said: “The council appears to have kept most of the old boundaries for ACS. Moldgreen and Dalton have been moved out to Netherhall. Lowerhouses has been moved to Newsome.
“The catchment areas for All Hallows and the primary school at ACS are going to be in the catchment area for King James’s. It looks like they are more or less saying that children in ACS will be offered a place.”
Clr Carole Pattison, who took on the portfolio for Learning, Aspiration and Communities in May, said the authority was working with the Government and the Schools Adjudicator in order to change catchment areas. She said the council was working to change admission limits in negotiations not just with Newsome and North Huddersfield Trust but with King James’s and Netherhall.