I would like to keep you up to date with the progress I have made in pushing for a fairer admissions policy for Nascot schools. At the moment, children are too often allocated places irrationally at schools a long distance from their homes – even when they live within a few hundred yards from their first choice.
In December, I organized a petition to ask the County Education Authority to re-examine the school admission criteria for Nascot. The current “radial straight-line” method does not take into account obvious barriers, such as the railway line.
By altering the policy it should be possible to allocate a higher proportion of school places closer to children’s homes, which would cut journey times and reduce traffic on roads.
We had a very good response to our petition, and Herts County Council have formally responded by offering to work with me and representatives from local schools to identify alternative admission policies and how they might be applied.
I will report back soon with more information about the options being considered.