Explanation of Banding
Banding is a way in which schools can achieve an intake that accurately reflects the range of abilities of the children who have applied to that school or group of schools. It is an oversubscription criterion and, as such, only operates when the number of applications exceeds the number of places.
A band is a grouping of students for admission prior to the use of other oversubscription criteria. For example, a partially selective school might prioritise some applications on the basis of tested ability and other applications on other criteria.
The Band Details window is opened by clicking either the Add or View links against the PAN of the required NCY on the Bases | All Bases | PAN &Vacancies tab. This window enables you to add or edit the details associated with Admissions and Transfers offer bands. These bands must be defined if a school or Local Authority uses one or more forms of banding to deal with its processes for making school place offers. Banding can take several forms - discrete, ability, aptitude and fair. Combinations of banding can also be used by schools. For example, ability and discrete, aptitude and discrete and aptitude and fair are all common band combinations.
If the selected base is associated with a sub group as a receiver base and any of the Offer Scheme processes have been run then this information is view-only.
The Academic Year, Age, NCY and PAN for which the band details apply are displayed at the top of the window. These fields cannot be edited.
Select the Use Banding check box if banding is to be used for the selected base, academic year and NCY. If you wish to use the oversubscription criteria that have been defined for the sub group then select the Use Sub Group Oversubscription Criteria check box.
Any bands already defined for the selected academic year and NCY are listed in priority order by default. If child bands have been defined within a parent band then the top level band is listed first followed by the associated sub-bands in descending priority (ascending numerical) order.
The Band Levels are also displayed. A school must have at least two bands at level 1, into which the children will be ranked. If you further divide these bands then the level 1 bands are referred to as parent bands. The subdivisions are called child bands and are automatically given a level number of 2 when you select a level 1 parent band. Level 2 bands can also be used as parent bands to level 3 child bands.
Click a Band Name to view the details for that band.
If you have suitable permissions you can Add, Edit or Delete a band.
- Discrete
A band with mutually exclusive criteria. For example, a Roman Catholic school might wish to admit a proportion of students on the basis of their practicing faith being Roman Catholic. As students can only be either Roman Catholic or not, this is an example of discrete banding. - Ability
Enables schools to offer a number of places purely for students who are tested for a selective stream. Some students might wish to apply for this stream but also be considered as part of the greater list of applications for a place should they not be offered a place within the ability stream. Other students may simply apply for the mainstream part of the school.
If the student applies for both bands then they are considered for both bands, and may get an offer in neither or one band depending upon their ranking and the band PAN. - Aptitude
A school that has been awarded specialist status in up to 2 subject areas may offer up to 10% of its places to students who have an aptitude for their specialist subject(s). Some students might apply for this criterion but also wish to be considered as part of the greater list of applications for a place should they not be offered a place within the specialist criterion. Some students may simply apply for the mainstream part of the school. - Fair
Fair banding is used by some comprehensive schools to try to ensure that their intake really is comprehensive and that their intake includes a proportionate spread of students of all abilities. The intake can be set up to represent the full range of abilities of applicants for the school (or group of schools), the range of abilities of children in the local area or the national range of abilities.
Fair Bands can either be equal in size (e.g. a total PAN of 100 places split into 4 bands of 25 places) or of different sizes, proportionate according to the range of abilities available.
Schools can use fair banding in one of two ways:- Norm Referenced Banding
Enables schools to achieve an intake representative of the ability range of applicants. The proportion of applicants offered places from each criterion must mirror the proportion of applicants placed in each criterion.
The applicants are ranked according to their score in a common test and the criteria bands are determined by the relative performance of applicants in the test (i.e. not by absolute scores). Places are then allocated such that the proportion of applicants offered places within each band mirrors the size of the band.
As such, if a school places 25% of applicants in Band 1, 50% in Band 2 and 25% in Band 3, it must offer 25% of the places to applicants from Band 1, 50% to applicants from Band 2 and 25% to applicants from Band 3. Bands can either be equal (for example 25% for each of four bands) or proportionate, as in the example given. If proportionately sized bands are used, these should be symmetrical either side of the median to ensure that the intake is not skewed in either direction. - Criterion Referenced Banding
Achieves an intake representative of the Local Authority or national ability profile.
The scores that form the boundaries of each band are determined by either the national or local ability profile (e.g. using QCA tests). Each applicant to a school, or group of schools, is placed in to the appropriate band according to their score in the relevant test. The proportion of children offered places from each band is, as far as possible, proportionate to the size of the local or national band (whichever is being used), and places must be allocated according to the school's published oversubscription criteria. If there are vacancies in a band, the remaining places should be filled by children falling into the next nearest bands.
- Norm Referenced Banding
Example of Criterion Referenced BandingExample of Criterion Referenced Banding
A school receives 200 applications and has a published admission number of 120. Results of all children who sat an ability test in a local authority show that in the local area as a whole:
- 25% of children score between 85%-100% (Band 1).
- 25% of children score between 63%-84% (Band 2).
- 25% of children score between 45%-62% (Band 3).
- 25% of children score between 0%-44% (Band 4).
All the applicants to the school are placed in to the appropriate band based on their score and 25% of children are then selected from within each band using the published oversubscription criteria. This has the effect of achieving an intake that reflects the abilities of children in the local area, as detailed in the following table.
Band |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Number of applicants to the school qualifying in each band |
28 |
42 |
80 |
50 |
Percentage of children locally allocated to each band |
25% |
25% |
25% |
25% |
Number of places allocated using oversubscription criteria |
30 |
30 |
30 |
30 |
What happens |
Admit all 28 plus two from band 2 |
Admit 30 |
Admit 30 |
Admit 30 |