Education Act 1996

433 Time for admission of pupils.E+W

(1)Section 14 (which requires a [F1local authority] to secure that sufficient schools for providing primary and secondary education are available for their area) shall not be construed as imposing any obligation on the proprietor of a school to admit children as pupils otherwise than at the beginning of a school term.

(2)Where, however, a child was prevented from entering a school at the beginning of a term—

(a)by his being ill or by other circumstances beyond his parent’s control, or

(b)by his parent’s having been then resident at a place from which the school was not accessible with reasonable facility,

the school’s proprietor is not entitled by virtue of subsection (1) to refuse to admit him as a pupil during the currency of the term.

(3)In cases where subsection (2) does not apply, the governing body of a school maintained by a [F1local authority] shall comply with any general directions given by the authority as to the time of admission of children as pupils.

F2(4). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(5)Despite section 7 (duty of parent of child of compulsory school age to cause him to receive full-time education), a parent is not under a duty to cause a child to receive full-time education during any period during which, having regard to subsections (1) and (2), it is not practicable for the parent to arrange for him to be admitted as a pupil at a school.