Beauchamp College is proposing to change how it allocates places for year 12 the start of “A” levels/ “Sixth Form”) for students who have not taken GCSEs at the college. The change would be effective from admissions in the 2020-21 academic year.

David Carter is one of the Oadby Liberal Democrat Councillors who have responded to the consultation. We encourage all residents to have their say and respond to Beauchamp’s consultation by the 18th January 2019 deadline.

All year 11 students at Beauchamp who meet the minimum requirements for the Sixth Form are guaranteed a place. This leaves around 200 places for students who took their GCSEs at other schools.

Beauchamp is a highly successful college and these Sixth Form places for external students are usually heavily over-subscribed. At the moment, external applications are decided by marking how students perform in a meeting (to all intents, an interview). Beauchamp are changing this because it is does not comply with the Department for Education’s School Admission Code.

The new policy would use a lottery to choose most external admissions. Your Oadby Liberal Democrat Councillors are concerned that no account will be taken of whether students live in Oadby. This means that pupils resident anywhere in Leicestershire will have exactly the same chance attending Beauchamp Sixth Form as pupils who have gone to other Oadby schools, such as Manor and Gartree.

As elected representatives of residents, Cllr. David Carter and Liberal Democrat Councillors for other wards in Oadby believe that all students who reside in Oadby should have equal opportunity of attending Beauchamp College Sixth Form on the same terms as those who take their GSCES at Beauchamp in year 11 and are automatically admitted to the sixth form if they qualify.

We agree with Beauchamp that high quality education should improve social mobility and suggest that remaining places should be allocated to children from outside Oadby that qualify for Pupil Premium funding.