# The Lawrence Sheriff School (Pupil Premium Admissions Priority) Order 2013, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Order)
Lawrence Sheriff School (“the School”) is a voluntary aided school, the admission authority for which is the School’s Governing Body which, as such, must determine the arrangements for the admission of pupils to the School. In discharging this function the Governing Body is required to act in accordance with the provisions in Part 3 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (“the 1998 Act”) and the statutory School Admissions Code 2012 (“the Code”), issued by the Secretary of State under section 84 of the 1998 Act. This Order relaxes and modifies provisions in the 1998 Act to enable the Governing Body of the School to give priority in their admission arrangements to those pupils in respect of whom the School would receive Pupil Premium, which is additional funding given to schools to support disadvantaged pupils. In this context disadvantaged pupils are those children who qualify for free school meals.
Article 4 relaxes the application of section 84(3) of the 1998 Act which requires the Governing Body to act in accordance with any relevant provisions of the Code and so enables the Governing Body to ask for information that would establish whether the child would be entitled to Pupil Premium. By Article 4(a), the Governing Body are not required to act in accordance with paragraphs 1.9(f) and 2.4(a) of the Code. Paragraph 1.9(f) says that while it is for admission authorities to formulate their admission arrangements they must not give priority to children according to, among other things, the occupational or financial status of parents applying. Paragraph 2.4(a) prohibits admission authorities from asking for personal details about parents and families, such as financial status.
Once admission arrangements have been determined for the academic year then, by paragraph 3.6 of the Code, the admission authority cannot revise them unless such revision is necessary to give effect to a mandatory requirement of the Code, admissions law, a determination of the Schools Adjudicator or any misprint in the admission arrangements. Admission authorities may propose other variations but only where they consider such changes necessary in view of a major change in circumstances and such proposals must be referred to the Schools Adjudicator. Article 4(b) relaxes the application of paragraph 3.6 of the Code so that the Governing Body can propose a variation after the admission arrangements have been determined even where the variation is not necessary because of a major change of circumstances. This will allow the Governing Body to propose the variation allowed by the Order in time for admissions in September 2014.
Section 88E of the 1998 Act provides a procedure for admission arrangements to be varied after they have been determined but where there has been a major change in circumstances since determination. Article 5 modifies section 88E(1)(b) with the effect that the procedure applies where the arrangements have been determined and the admission authority thinks that the arrangements should be changed for any reason and not in view of a major change in circumstances since the arrangements were determined.
By article 3 the relaxation of the specified requirements under the Code and the modification of section 88E of the Act apply to the Governing Body only so that they can give priority to children in receipt of Pupil Premium.
The Order is made on the application of the Governing Body and will cease to have effect on 17th July 2016.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/1553/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/lawrence-sheriff-school-pupil-premium-admissions-priority-order-2013/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.