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School must pay families for admissions failure

1 min read Education
Local government ombudsman Tony Redmond has said Coopers and Coburn School in Upminster should pay three families 100 each, after it failed to follow the statutory admissions code.

In a report published today the ombudsman said he could see no justfication for the school's belief that it was able to offer places to children because they had a special aptitude in music or sport. Specialist schools are able to offer 10 per cent of places based on aptitude but only if this is stated in the school's admissions arrangements. Coopers and Coburn, a heavily oversubscribed mixed-sex comprehensive, is a specialist sports college but did not include the aptitude requirement in its published arrangements. It interpreted part of the statutory admissions code that allows schools to admit children with a special need as applying to children with an aptitude for sport or music.

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