Counting the Costs of Drayton's Landmark Court Case

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Leading Ealing High School wins the battle but who's the real loser?

Drayton Manor High School may have won its battle to clear its name on unfair admission criteria charges, but the head is still questioning why he had to fight it at all.

Drayton Manor High School had been ordered by the Schools Adjudicator to change its admissions code because it indirectly discriminated against children from nearby council estates. The school has 1,500 children applying for just 240 places this year.

But last week a High Court judge ruled in favour of the school, saying that the adjudicator had failed to give adequate reasons for his decision, and quashed the objection.

This landmark case is the first successful challenge to the adjudicator since the Schools Admissions Code was made law in 2007 to prevent 'back-door selection'.

Speaking after the court case to EalingToday, headmaster, Sir Pritpal Singh, headmaster, wasn't in celebratory mood. “I am very angry that we have had to go to the High Court for a decision," he said.

"The amount of money and time that has been wasted is an absolute disgrace. It's incalculable ”

Publicity costs running to thousands of pounds are thought to have been spent on communicating the delay to parents in the borough, including adverts in the press. And the judge awarded the school costs for the legal battle. "It runs to thousands," said Sir Pritpal.

Sir Pritpal also branded accusations that Drayton Manor High School had been involved in segregation 'an outrage, and a slur on our reputation.'

"My concern is for the families and the children applying to secondary school in Ealing. They have had to wait because the adjudicator has done a really shoddy job."

Ealing council delayed its deadline for secondary school applications because of the case. However, since the application date is pan London, neighbouring boroughs did not benefit from the extension. Eighty students from Hounslow borough applied for the school this year.

The headmaster, who was knighted in 2005 for his services to education, accused feels the council of not did not follow the proper procedure in their complaint against the school.

A council official said that they first raised concerns late last year. “We did not take this case to the January admission panel as we are obliged to try to resolve differences informally before making an official referral,” he said.

But Sir Pritpal disputes this: " Apart from an informal telephone call last November, we didn’t know about the complaint until March, and all attempts by me to resolve the matter informally were rejected or ignored. There needs to be an inquiry about this”

Andrew Baxter, the adjudicator, had said that the school must change its admissions policy which, it said, discriminated against children living to the north of the site.

It upheld a complaint by Ealing council that the school was giving unfair priority to children who lived closest. This meant that it turned away children who lived less than a mile away as they were closer to Brentside High School. The council said that this policy could “disadvantage children from a particular social or racial group”.

But Judge Stewart, QC, said he had “looked in vain” in the written decision for evidence that the school’s submissions had been taken into account - “a fundamental error”.

Mr Baxter had ignored the “central plank of the school’s case” - an area to the south east with the same degree of deprivation as the north that would be disadvantaged if his decision stood.

In the wake of the court case, Sir Pritpal says he's still picking up the pieces with staff and students. "My office staff are gutted that their integrity has been called into question. A Copley Close parent came and grabbed my arm the other day and said,'Drayton Manor is my home - thank you for defending us.' I really want to repair the damage."

What EalingToday subscribers are saying on the forum

"Does anybody have the slightest inkling about what is going on here? The confirmation that the school was behaving correctly doesn't seem to me at all surprising as their position was self-evidently correct. What is peculiar is why the Council chose to take them to court. Parents are always going to want to get their children into better schools and whatever system you choose to allocate places there will be winners and losers. Geographic proximity is a less bad way of allocating places as most.
"In challenging Drayton Manor's policy the Council have questioned the integrity of a first class head master, wasted significant amount of tax payers money, completely screwed up this year's admissions process and lost the case anyway."

"Yes this is a complicated case.  It was alleged that the school had contravened the Government's guidelines in its admissions policy, operating a "selective" process. The Evening Standard correctly states  that "Ministers last year introduced a new statutory admissions code, under which councils are encouraged to report schools they believe are failing to promote fair admissions"   A complaint was made to the Council which it had to report to the government quango dealing with such issues. That quango upheld the complaint and ordered Drayton Manor to change its admissions policy.   Drayton Manor took the case to the high court and won. 

"My personal opinion is that this is the right judgement and the Government will now have to either abandon its Statutory Admissions Code or revise it  to take this judgement into account.  We shall see."

"I have yet to see a coherent argument as to why this was necessary.

It sounds to me like the Council did not have to report Brentside High School's complaint to the quango. I'm sure the Council gets lots of complaints about 'unfair' schools' admission policies and decisions. Does the Council really report all these complaints to The Schools Adjudicator?

"If indeed you (and perhaps other Councillors) feel that this is the right judgement why didn't you or your colleagues intervene in this unfortunate episode. This would have saved alot of time, money and Drayton Manor's reputation for probity."

Have your say on the forum

 

November 7, 2008