Beginning a Scheme

Providing for the commencement of a scheme in a secondary or intermediate school is a relatively straightforward process.   Unless a student is a new arrival in the area, enrolment will occur only at the beginning of the year and this will be preceded by a pre-enrolment process in the latter part of the previous year, which will prepare the ground for an orderly start to the year.  All that a secondary or intermediate school with a new enrolment scheme has to ensure, therefore, is that the board abides by the common dates which have been agreed by all other schools of their type operating enrolment schemes in the area.  (See Secretary’s Instruction 6.)  If a school has been given early commencement, so that the scheme comes into effect before the beginning of the year, the only students who will be able to be enrolled before the new year are students who live in-zone.  If a scheme is approved too late in the year for the school to comply with the common dates agreed by other schools, then the board will need to organise a “one-off” pre-enrolment process under Secretary’s Instruction 31.

In primary schools, however, if the scheme is to come into effect at any time other than the beginning of a school year, the board will not be able to simply follow the common pattern agreed to by all the other primary schools operating enrolment schemes in the area.  It will have to decide how it will manage enrolments for the rest of the year.  Basically, the board has two options.

Option A

The board decides that for the rest of the year it will enrol only in-zone students.  This decision should only be taken in a situation where the capacity of the school is at full stretch.  Parents who live out-of-zone and have been accustomed to think of the school as the natural school for their children will quite possibly be upset that with the adoption of the enrolment scheme they will no longer have a right to enrol their children at the school when they turn 5.  They are likely to be more upset if they do not even have the opportunity to enter their child’s name in a ballot for out of zone places.  Parents who already have children at the school will almost certainly be the ones who are most aggrieved.

Option B

Prior to the scheme coming into effect, the board takes action under Secretary’s Instruction 31.  This will involve notifying parents of the likely number of out-of-zone places for the remainder of the year, setting a deadline for receipt of applications and planning for a ballot in the event that the number of applications exceeds the number of available places.  Depending on the time of year, the board may wish to divide the remainder of the year into more than one enrolment period.  For example, at a school where the new enrolment scheme comes into effect at the beginning of term 3, the board could plan to run one enrolment period for new entrants turning 5 in term 3 and another for those turning 5 in term 4.