Admissions lotteries and banding on the rise in secondaries, report reveals

The number of secondary schools using “lotteries” and banding to decide which students to admit is on the rise, a new report reveals.

Research published today by the Sutton Trust shows that a “small but growing number” of schools – predominantly sponsored academies – are using the practices of ability banding and random allocation in their admissions criteria.

Ahead of the results of secondary school applications being announced on Monday, the report by London School of Economics (LSE) academics Anne West, Philip Noden and Audrey Hind shows that the majority of schools still rely on the distance between a student’s home and the school, as well as whether they have already admitted any siblings, to decide who to offer places to.

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Conor Ryan, the Sutton Trust’s director of research and communications, said it was “encouraging that more schools and academies are using banding and ballots as a way to get a more balanced intake”.

However he added that it was important that they were “sensitive to local circumstances” to ensure that places “should not be limited to those who can afford to pay a premium on their mortgages or rents”.

The report called on more schools to use ballots and banding to “ensure wider access to the most academically successful comprehensives”

Read the full article here.

ITV Daybreak (1.50) also covered the story, interviewing Lee Elliot Major – Director of Development and Policy at the Sutton Trust.