I wish to clarify my FOI request sent on the afternoon 22nd May relating to deferred reception starts for summer born children.
All questions below relate specifically to parent/legal guardian requests for summer born children to be admitted to reception, rather than year one, at the age of 5.
Questions 1-3 relate to local authority maintained schools. I refer to summer born children as those born between April 1st and August 31st.
1. How many summer born children had a request made by their parents/guardians to defer their reception start to a delayed start date of:
September 2017 (request made during academic year 2015-16. Original expected start would have been September 2016) – 81
September 2018 (request made Jan 2017 or academic year 2016-17. Original expected start would have been September 2017) – 84
September 2019 (request made Jan 2018 or academic year 2017-18. Original expected start would have been September 2018) – 45 (to date)
Please provide this information broken down by year of requested delayed start; September 2017, September 2018, September 2019. Please also only count each individual child once and please do not count multiple requests to different schools relating to the same child. If it is not possible to do this, please state clearly that multiple requests relating to the same child have been included.
2. In relation to question 1 above, how many of these requests were granted? Please break this down by year of requested delayed start; September 2017, September 2018 or September 2019
For 2017 – 80
For 2018 – 83
For 2019 – 38 (to date)
3. In relation to question 1 above, how many of these requests were turned down? Please break this down by year of requested delayed start; September 2017, September 2018 or September 2019
In each of the years requested, the number of requests turned down were fewer than 5; to identify the precise number for each year would risk identifying the applicants concerned. This would be unfair to the applicants and contrary to s.35 of the Data Protection Act 2018. The information is therefore exempt from disclosure pursuant to s.40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
4. If possible, please could you provide the same information in questions 1, 2 and 3 for any schools that are state funded, but not local authority maintained in your area; for example free schools, academies and voluntary aided schools, including a breakdown of those granted and requested by year of requested delayed start; September 2017, September 2018 or September 2019.
1) For 2017 – 40, For 2018 – 35, For 2019 – 34 (including 4 pending)
2) For 2017 – 40, For 2018 – 31, For 2019 – 29
3) In each of the years requested, the number of requests turned down were fewer than 5; to identify the precise number for each year would risk identifying the applicants concerned. This would be unfair to the applicants and contrary to s.35 of the Data Protection Act 2018. The information is therefore exempt from disclosure pursuant to s.40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
5. In each of the following years, how many children started or are expected to start reception in a local authority maintained school: September 2017, September 2018 or September 2019
2017 – 4345
2018 – 4331
2019 – 4340 Approximately
6. In each of the following years, how many children started or are expected to start reception in a state funded but not local authority maintained school (criteria as per question 4): September 2017, September 2018 or September 2019
2017 – 3004
2018 – 3359
2019 – 3330 Approximately