A HEAD teacher in the New Forest has accused Hampshire LEA of wasting valuable education money on pointless paperwork, after her school was rapped on the knuckles by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.

Schools adjudicators have decided that Burgate School and Sixth Form Centre in Fordingbridge must amend the wording on its admission policy to give top priority to children in public care.

It follows a formal objection made by county LEA bosses who claimed that looked-after children were not being given enough consideration when applying for a place, and that the school insisted on knowing if youngsters already had a local school place when approaching Burgate.

The independent adjudicators upheld both parts of the LEA objection.

A spokesperson said: "Adjudicator Dr Philip Hunter determined that the over-subscription criteria should contain a new criteria which reads 'children in public care'.

"He also determined that the words 'taking into account of the child's current educational provision' be removed from the section on casual admissions."

Cllr David Kirk, Hampshire's executive member for education, said: "We are pleased with the decision of the schools adjudicator which will give top priority to children in public care in gaining admission to the school, and ensure that the law on parental preference is more strictly observed."

Celia Nicholls, head at Burgate, welcomed the change of wording but was bemused because the adjudicator seemed to be going against the Secretary of State for Education who says it's right and proper to consider a child's current educational provision.

"Admissions is an issue here as we are always oversubscribed," she said. "However, none of the objections raised by Hampshire LEA have very much effect on who actually gets places.

"It's a great pity that the money going into education seems to be wasted on pointless paperwork when it could be used to improve literacy."

First published: October 19