Call for all Newcastle schools to have same admissions rules after Gosforth lottery row

A city education boss has rejected a call to push all of the city’s schools to operate the same admissions rules, after a major row surrounding an academy trust that handed out places on a lottery basis.

The Gosforth Group Multi Academy Trust sparked a major backlash from families after using a controversial random ‘tie break’ system to allocate places at the oversubscribed Gosforth Academy. The row left some children separated from their siblings and placed at the Great Park Academy instead, which is not yet built and will be located two-and-a-half miles away.

The Office of the Schools Adjudicator has now ruled the trust must revise its admission arrangements for the start of the 2025/26 school year by October 4, finding that the policy was not “clear and transparent”. However, adjudicator Jennifer Gamble deemed that the criteria was not unfair and did not uphold all of parents’ objections.

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At a Newcastle City Council meeting on Thursday, Lib Dem councillor Wendy Taylor questioned the “crazy” situation whereby schools are able to operate different policies and called for Tyneside education chiefs to press for a uniform criteria prioritising keeping siblings together and children living closest to the school.

The Dene and South Gosforth representative said: “Could we try to press the school to all have the same criteria? And to have siblings and distance from the school at the top of that criteria? It seems crazy that every school has a different policy. Will they not at least consider that?”

But, speaking at the council’s overview and scrutiny committee, civic centre education boss Mark Patton rejected that suggestion. Every school in Newcastle bar one is now its own admissions authority – meaning that they, rather than the city council, are responsible for their own policies and oversubscription criteria.

Mr Patton, the council’s assistant director of education, told Coun Taylor: “I would not be comfortable suggesting that authorities, who have very different reasons for using the criteria they have, should all be the same across the city. That is not our role. Our role is to guide and support where we can and we do that. Trying to guide people towards a uniform policy across the city… I’m not sure that is the right direction of travel.”

Lib Dem opposition leader Colin Ferguson also raised concerns that Gosforth parents currently making decisions about school preferences for their children ahead of next September will be doing so “without all the information”. Mr Patton said the council would “advise and support” the Gosforth Group in responding to the adjudicator’s report, but said it was “not our responsibility” to enforce changes to admissions policy.