Education Act 1996

Prospective

[F1 413A Admission arrangements may provide for home-school partnership documents. E+W

(1) The admission arrangements for a county or voluntary school may include provisions—

(a) setting out the terms of a partnership document for the school and the parental declaration to be used in connection with the document;

(b) making it a condition of the admission of every child to the school that his parent gives the admission authority a signed parental declaration either—

(i) at the time of applying for a place at the school for the child, or

(ii) if the child is allocated a conditional place, within such period as is specified in the arrangements; and

(c) authorising the admission authority to dispense with that condition to any extent in the case of a particular child where they are satisfied that there are special reasons for doing so.

(2) For the purposes of this section and section 413B a “partnership document” is a statement specifying—

(a) the school’s aims and values;

(b) the responsibilities which the school intends to discharge in connection with the education of children admitted to the school; and

(c) the parental responsibilities, that is the responsibilities which the parents of such children are expected to discharge in connection with the education of their children while they are registered pupils at the school;

and “parental declaration” means a declaration to be signed by a parent seeking the admission of his child to the school by which he acknowledges and accepts the parental responsibilities specified in the partnership document.

(3) In determining the provisions to be included in the admission arrangements for a school in pursuance of subsection (1), the admission authority shall have regard to any guidance given from time to time by the Secretary of State.

(4) The Secretary of State may by order provide that any form of words specified in the order, or having such effect as is so specified, is not to be used in a partnership document or (as the case may be) in a parental declaration.

(5) An order under subsection (4) may apply to any school or description of school specified in the order.

(6) Where a local education authority consult the governing body of a county or voluntary school under section 412(2)(a) or (b), the authority shall have particular regard to any representations by the governing body—

(a) that the admission arrangements for the school should include the provisions authorised by subsection (1), or

(b) as to the terms of the partnership document or parental declaration to be included in the arrangements, or

(c) as to any variation of those terms as for the time being so included,

as the case may be.

(7) In this section and section 413B—

• “admission arrangements”, in relation to a school, means the arrangements for the admission of pupils to the school; and

• “conditional place”, in relation to a child, means a place which is conditional on the child’s parent giving the admission authority a signed parental declaration.]

Textual Amendments

F1 S. 413A inserted (prosp.) by 1997 c. 44, ss.13, 58(3) (with s. 57(3)).