News

UPDATE : 25^th May 2023

Judgement announced on Judicial Review

It was confirmed on Thursday 25^th May 2023 that the application for Judicial Review had been dismissed. This means that the admissions arrangements for Langley Park School for Girls and Langley Park School for Boys for both 23/24 and 24/25, which are published on the schools’ websites, remain the same.

As stated in our last admissions consultation in 2021, we will be consulting, later in 2023, on removing the time-limited feeder school priority, alongside reducing the Published Admissions Numbers at both schools back down to their usual numbers. This future consultation will concern admissions arrangements for 2025/26.

UPDATE : 11th January 2023

Judicial Review

Further to the information posted below about the legal action being brought against the Office for the Schools Adjudicator, we are now able to give a further update. The Judicial Review is being brought by a local parent with the aim of challenging the School Adjudicator's decision (made following an objection by other local parents) that the admission arrangements for Langley Park School for Boys and Langley Park School for Girls for the September 2023 intake were unfair. The adjudicator’s decision led to the admissions arrangements being changed to those currently published on the schools' websites, as set out above in September.

In addition to the Claimant and the Defendant being Parties in this case, our Trust and London Borough of Bromley were also named as Interested Parties.  Furthermore, the Secretary of State for Education has applied to act as an Intervener in the case.

Permission to apply for judicial review has now been  granted and a full hearing has now been listed at the Administrative Court, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2LL, on Wednesday, 15 February 2023.  This is a public hearing and our understanding is that anybody can attend as an observer.

Our understanding is that copies of the Permission Judgment, along with the Claim Form, Skeleton Arguments and Witness Statements of the Parties, can be obtained from the General Enquiries office at the Administrative Court. Our understanding is that the Court can also provide guidance on potential participation on request. Information about how to contact the Administrative Court is published here: https://www.find-court-tribunal.service.gov.uk/courts/administrative-court. The Case Number CO/3420/2022 and Neutral Citation Number: [2022] EWHC 3240 (Admin) for the Permission Judgment should be cited in any communications with the Administrative Court.

The Trust is unable to enter into further correspondence about the judicial review proceedings until the outcome is confirmed.  We therefore respectfully ask parents and others to refrain from communicating with us in respect of the proceedings or the admissions at the present time.  In due course, the Trust will provide an update and a link to the final judgment, once publicly available, on the News section of our website. We will also provide a further update to our parents via school newsletters.  

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UPDATE : 26th September 2022 

The varied admissions policies for Langley Park School for Girls and Langley Park School for Boys for 2023 have now been published and can be found on each school’s website here and here.

The Trust is aware of the judicial review proceedings being brought against the Schools Adjudicator. The case is against the Schools Adjudicator and is not against our Trust or our schools. We will not be commenting on either the Adjudicator’s ruling, or the subsequent claim against the Adjudicator.

We will await the outcome of the legal challenge against the adjudicator and any implications for our admissions arrangements. In the meantime, we have always complied with any requirements that are placed on us in relation to admissions and this will continue to be the case. As such the Trust has now implemented the outcome of the Schools Adjudicator's determination by the 30th September, as this legal requirement continues to apply.

Normal admissions advice continues to apply for all parents and carers who are applying for places at secondary school. Parents are encouraged to read closely their local authority's publications relating to secondary school admissions, which contain detailed advice on the application process. For example the Bromley booklet can be found here - SecondaryAdmissions_2023-24 (bromley.gov.uk).  Parents should also read the admissions policies closely and should submit a Supplementary Information Form if applying under a Priority that requires this.

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POSTED : 18th August 2022

The Schools Adjudicator has upheld objections brought by a group of parents who have children in the upper two year groups at Langley Park Primary School (LPPS) against the determined admissions arrangements for September 2023 for LPGS and LPSB. The previously determined admissions arrangements can be found here – Key Information - Langley Park Learning Trust (lplt.org.uk) and on each school’s website.

The adjudicator’s decision can be found here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/langley-park-school-for-boys-and-langley-park-school-for-girls-15-august-2022.

As a result of this decision the Trust will now give priority in admissions arrangements to LPGS and LPSB for children who attend the top two year groups at LPPS and who joined the school during the time that assurances were given to parents by previous employees of the Trust, relating to priority in admissions to the two Langley secondary schools. These are the children entering Year 5 and Year 6 in September 2022 and entering Year 7 in September 2023 and September 2024, and who joined LPPS in the first two years of the school opening.

This means that the Trust will now change the September 2023 admissions policies to revert to the versions consulted on between October and November 2021. These can be found here - Key Information - Langley Park Learning Trust (lplt.org.uk) and give a new priority in admissions to children who attend LPPS and who joined the school by 31^st August 2018.

The Trust will also temporarily increase the PAN at both LPGS and LPSB by a class size. This means that there will be more additional places available at LPGS and LPSB for children in these year groups than the number of children at LPPS who we would expect to newly gain priority, as set out in the consultation last year.

We will make these changes the 30^th September 2022, as set out in the adjudicator’s decision.

The Trust intends to retain these arrangements for Year 7 entry to LPGS and LPSB in September 2024 and then intends to revert to the current PAN from September 2025. The priority in admissions will automatically time-out but the Trust is required to formally consult to reduce PAN back down to normal sizes and so will include the removal of this priority at the same time.