Top-rated Wiltshire school sets admissions by lottery

The old saying goes that life is a lottery – and ten-year-olds in Chippenham are about to discover the lesson quicker than they might have expected.

For the town's most popular secondary school has unveiled plans to hold a lottery – or rather, a 'random allocation selection procedure', to decide who gets to go through its high-achieving gates.

The head teacher and governors at Sheldon School said they had decided reluctantly to bring in the pot-luck lottery after last year's controversy when more than 60 children who had put down the school as their first choice were turned away.

Chippenham, a town with a population of 30,000 and rising, has just three secondary schools, all of which have specialist Government status and are among the best in the county, but Sheldon is the most popular. Its last Ofsted report, in March, broke records with all 38 categories judged deemed 'outstanding'.

School bosses said the present way they chose pupils meant half the town would effectively end up being 'barred' from attending the school. After letting in children who already have older brothers or sisters there, the school currently picks children who live closest to the school gates.

And with Sheldon and another secondary school, Hardenhuish, on the same road, the anomaly means youngsters from the other side of town aren't getting a look in. County education chiefs also make Chippenham's schools take pupils from surrounding villages, further complicating the admissions situation.

Head Gerard MacMahon said admissions this year – which will be conducted under the current rules – could mean that more than 100 families will be left disappointed, including as many as 60 who actually live in the town.

So now the lottery idea is going out for consultation, with school governors keen to hear from neighbouring schools and parents. From next year, instead of judging children on where they live, all those within the right catchment area without older siblings at the school will be picked at random.

"At present, distance from the school becomes the tie-breaker for children who meet the same oversubscription criteria," explained chair of governors Jeremy Hilton. "In the past, this was academic because all Chippenham children were able to get places.

"However, as the school has become more popular, those living further away have not been able to get in. Last year, this affected Pewsham, and this year we will probably have to turn away children from Pewsham, Cepen Park South and Monkton Park. It is possible that only those within a mile of the school will get places. "We looked at what we could do to make access to the school fairer," he added.

Mr MacMahon said the Government was encouraging the 'admissions lottery' in new guidelines on the subject, after a school in Brighton sparked controversy two years ago when it became the first to hold such a draw.

"The proposed random allocation will give all families in the town an equal chance of getting in.

"We will not be having a public draw of names: all applicants will be allocated a random number in a process overseen by an independent observer. These numbers will be used instead of distance as a tie-breaker against each of our admissions criteria," Mr MacMahon added.