Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that teachers are given priority to enrol their children at schools they teach at.

All mainstream state funded schools must have clear admission arrangements, set by the school’s admission authority, which include the oversubscription criteria they will use to give priority for places where there are more applicants than places available. The School Admissions Code allows admission authorities to give priority in their oversubscription criteria for children of staff who have been employed at the school for two or more years at the time when their application for a school place is made. The priority may also be applied for children of staff who have been recruited to fill a vacant post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skills shortage.

It is for individual admission authorities to decide whether to include such a priority in their admissions criteria, provided the arrangements comply with the School Admissions Code.