Fair admissions in action
Eden Park High School is a Free School in Beckenham which is part of the Education for the 21st Century Trust. Since their opening in 2017 they have included a Pupil Premium priority in their oversubscription criteria above distance and siblings. We spoke with the Head of School Maria Papachristodoulou and Business Manager Carina Cowper to hear more about their admissions processes and the impact it has on their school culture.
“We have included Pupil Premium Priority for up to 20% of the cohort since our opening in 2017. It is an opening and welcoming policy that supports parents so we have never looked to change our approach and probably wouldn’t in the future.
“We work very closely with the Local Authority to ensure that our admissions process best serves our local community. Families wishing to utilise the Pupil Premium priority have to complete a supplementary form by a certain deadline. We make sure we advertise this throughout our recruitment processes and have forms available at our Open Mornings and Open Evening so that families can complete them then and there, with support if needed. When families have faced difficulties in completing the forms we have worked with the Local Authority to support them.
“Last year our Pupil Premium criteria wasn’t fully utilised and we are keen to improve this each year. We are looking to work with primary schools to ensure that all pupils who are eligible for FSM complete the necessary paperwork in year 6 so they can claim their place at our school.
“Our school is situated between two boroughs, with varying levels of disadvantage. Our Pupil Premium criteria has allowed us to ensure that the intake represents the wider community that we serve. It has ensured that our intake doesn’t come from a small catchment area. We are a very diverse school and I don’t think we would necessarily have this if we didn’t have the Pupil Premium criteria. We are proud to be able to offer pupils a diverse and inclusive environment.”