Monday, March 20, 2023
  • Login
School Management Plus: School & education news worldwide
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
    • Heads & Governors
    • Admissions & Marketing
    • Bursars & Finance
    • Staff Recruitment
    • Development & Fundraising
    • Alumni Relations
    • Communications & PR
    • Estate Management
    • School Data Management
  • Educators
    • Safeguarding
    • College Counselling
    • Online Learning
    • Early Years
    • Exams & Qualifications
    • Assessment
    • Wellbeing
    • Inclusion
    • Sports and Outdoors
  • International
    • The View From Here
    • Wellbeing
    • Curriculum Design
    • Overseas Development
    • Staff Recruitment
    • EdTech
  • Your School
    • Are you a Kampus24 School?
    • Spotlight on a School
    • 30 minutes with…
    • Partnerships & Outreach
    • School News & Announcements
  • Jobs
    • Place a Vacancy
    • View Vacancies
    • Movers & Shakers
    • CPD
  • Video & Podcast
    • Inspiring Leadership
    • School Leaders
    • Membership Bodies
    • The ABC of Safeguarding
    • The Friday Club
  • Suppliers
    • Meet the Supplier
    • From Our Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Events Calendar
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • Associations & Distribution
    • Our Publications
      • International School Magazine
      • School Management Plus Magazine
      • Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine
      • WISEducation newsletter
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
    • Heads & Governors
    • Admissions & Marketing
    • Bursars & Finance
    • Staff Recruitment
    • Development & Fundraising
    • Alumni Relations
    • Communications & PR
    • Estate Management
    • School Data Management
  • Educators
    • Safeguarding
    • College Counselling
    • Online Learning
    • Early Years
    • Exams & Qualifications
    • Assessment
    • Wellbeing
    • Inclusion
    • Sports and Outdoors
  • International
    • The View From Here
    • Wellbeing
    • Curriculum Design
    • Overseas Development
    • Staff Recruitment
    • EdTech
  • Your School
    • Are you a Kampus24 School?
    • Spotlight on a School
    • 30 minutes with…
    • Partnerships & Outreach
    • School News & Announcements
  • Jobs
    • Place a Vacancy
    • View Vacancies
    • Movers & Shakers
    • CPD
  • Video & Podcast
    • Inspiring Leadership
    • School Leaders
    • Membership Bodies
    • The ABC of Safeguarding
    • The Friday Club
  • Suppliers
    • Meet the Supplier
    • From Our Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Events Calendar
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • Associations & Distribution
    • Our Publications
      • International School Magazine
      • School Management Plus Magazine
      • Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine
      • WISEducation newsletter
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
School Management Plus: School & education news worldwide
No Result
View All Result
Home College Counselling

Fair access: ‘We now have a metric based on individual pupil experience’

Independent school pupils eligible for free school meals can now have their status flagged up for college admissions purposes - but it's only the start, writes Helen Pike

Helen Pike by Helen Pike
September 30, 2022
in College Counselling, Exams & Qualifications, Heads & Governors, Latest News, School data management, STUDENTS
Reading Time: 3 mins read
25 1
A A
0
university admissions: FSM data isn't enough
Linked InShare on FacebookShare on TwitterPin This

John Blake, the director for fair access and participation at the Office for Students, was quoted in the Telegraph this week as saying that the higher education sector needed to have a “conversation” about the “enormous intersections between different types of disadvantage and the right measures and metrics for dealing with disadvantage for certain groups.”

I could not agree more.

The current measures of deprivation used by universities, ACORN and POLAR, are approximate at best and arguably not fit for purpose at worst. The key problem is that neither was designed to facilitate fair access:  ACORN is a marketing tool which segments the population into different types according to location, while POLAR looks at the progression rate at age 18 to Higher Education based on postcodes, and ranks it in quintiles– currently based on data from 2013-14 at the latest.

“The first set of externally-verified flagged FSM candidates are currently being processed by ISC and UCAS.”

As James Turner put it while he was CEO of the Sutton Trust, the holy grail is individualised externally-verifiable data. While POLAR and ACORN do not tell us about individual students and their families, they are nationally-recognised measures which are sometimes revealing and sometimes off the mark.

Could the Office for Students use a better metric? This was one of the many questions we pondered as part of a cross-sector working group on widening participation, one product of which was this booklet– we were by no means the first or only people to ask that question, and it is great to see that this is evidently on John Blake’s agenda.

Until just last year, the DFE did not receive Free School Meal eligibility information, either current or historic, so there was no mechanism for flagging this vital piece of information which can help to support an understanding of an applicant’s socio-economic circumstances.

“The tendency to Dickensianise the sector is as familiar as it is unfair.”

James Turner was part of HMC’s working group, and during the summer of 2021 the Sutton Trust secured the flagging of FSM data for state school pupils. This success created a more urgent challenge for the independent sector, and it is why HMC has worked with ISC, UCAS and Bursary Assessment Associates to create the Free School Meals Contextualised Data Service.  It does exactly what it says on the tin, and the first set of externally-verified flagged FSM candidates are currently being processed by ISC and UCAS so that they will be flagged to their universities of choice.

It is an important step to have a metric which is based on the individual pupil experience, and it is also testament to how seriously many in the sector are taking the fair access agenda. In common with many schools, Magdalen College School focuses its schools partnership work on transition points, helping primary school pupils prepare for secondary, and in preparing Sixth Formers for university. Year in, year out, MCS prepares more medics from our partner schools for the university entrance process than we do our own pupils.

“Those with eligibility for FSM become the only deserving category of independent school pupil, and the rest can be written off as privileged toffs.”

Yet underneath the success in flagging FSM data for all students, state and independent, there is another lurking danger: that those with eligibility for FSM become the only deserving category of independent school pupil, and the rest can therefore be written off as privileged toffs. (The same could be said for grammar schools, who have come under fire for an FSM constituency which is lower than some independent schools owing to the latter’s growing bursary provision.)

This tendency to Dickensianise the sector is as familiar as it is unfair. It risks penalising university applicants from the kinds of families whom John Blake also went on to discuss, those who have worked hard to pay fees and prioritised and supported their children’s education.

A narrative which pits pupils from different school types against each other is doubly tough to take in an environment which has seen rising numbers of international pupils.  Durham, St Andrews and Bath all saw increases in foreign students of 15 per cent or more last year, and it is therefore unsurprising to see that “home” “middle class” students were therefore losing out.  No-one is entitled to a university place, but when the debate is about fair access, surely all applicants are at least allowed to wonder about what might or might not be fair?

Tags: college admissionsfree school mealsuniversity entrance
Share6Share32Tweet20Pin7
Helen Pike

Helen Pike

Helen Pike is the master of Magdalen College School in Oxford. She is also a member of UCAS Council representing the ISC and a member of the Sutton Trust’s Education Advisory Group.

Video

  • All
  • Video
Bish Muir from West Buckland School
The Friday Club

The Friday Club: Bish Muir, West Buckland School

March 17, 2023
120
ABC of Safeguarding – Simon Milner, Jersey College for Girls
Heads & Governors

ABC of Safeguarding – Simon Milner, Jersey College for Girls

March 3, 2023
257
Myddelton College launches song for earthquake victims
School news and announcements

Myddelton College launches song for earthquake victims

February 24, 2023
142
The Firday Club, Andy Kemp, National Mathematics and Science College
The Friday Club

The Friday Club: Dr Andy Kemp, The National Mathematics and Science College

February 24, 2023
115

Latest News

not all private school teachers are proud of their schools
Latest News

Quarter of private sector staff ‘not proud’ to work at their school

March 16, 2023
151
workload unmanageable in international schools
International Schools

Third of international staff say workload ‘unmanageable’

March 16, 2023
138
Jo Duncan Wycombe Abbey
30 minutes with...

30 minutes with…Jo Duncan, headmistress, Wycombe Abbey School

March 15, 2023
341
Darren Coxon is keen on Literacy for AI
Features

‘It’s time to put Literacy for AI on the curriculum’

March 13, 2023
198
Beech Lodge School library
Choosing a school for your child

Spotlight on a School: Beech Lodge School, Maidenhead

March 13, 2023
622
overseas outposts record profits
Heads & Governors

Overseas satellites reap record profits for UK independent schools

March 13, 2023
188
School Management Plus: School & education news worldwide

© 2020 Independent School Management Plus.

Navigate Site

  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
  • Educators
  • International
  • Your School
  • Jobs
  • Video & Podcast
  • Suppliers
  • About

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Latest
  • Leaders
    • Heads & Governors
    • Admissions & Marketing
    • Bursars & Finance
    • Staff Recruitment
    • Development & Fundraising
    • Alumni Relations
    • Communications & PR
    • Estate Management
    • School Data Management
  • Educators
    • Safeguarding
    • College Counselling
    • Online Learning
    • Early Years
    • Exams & Qualifications
    • Assessment
    • Wellbeing
    • Inclusion
    • Sports and Outdoors
  • International
    • The View From Here
    • Wellbeing
    • Curriculum Design
    • Overseas Development
    • Staff Recruitment
    • EdTech
  • Your School
    • Are you a Kampus24 School?
    • Spotlight on a School
    • 30 minutes with…
    • Partnerships & Outreach
    • School News & Announcements
  • Jobs
    • Place a Vacancy
    • View Vacancies
    • Movers & Shakers
    • CPD
  • Video & Podcast
    • Inspiring Leadership
    • School Leaders
    • Membership Bodies
    • The ABC of Safeguarding
    • The Friday Club
  • Suppliers
    • Meet the Supplier
    • From Our Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Events Calendar
  • About
    • Editorial Board
    • Associations & Distribution
    • Our Publications
      • International School Magazine
      • School Management Plus Magazine
      • Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine
      • WISEducation newsletter
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us

© 2020 Independent School Management Plus.

Welcome Back!

Sign In with Facebook
Sign In with Linked In
OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.