Explanation of Make Offers for Ability Banded Receivers

The Make Offers routine for banded receivers is identical to the routine for phased, non-banded receivers up to the point where applications with no parental preferences are added to the No Application base (step 5 of the process as detailed in Explanation of the Make Offers Process (Phased)).

However, One uses a different process to allocate students to banded receivers, as opposed to non-banded receivers. Furthermore, the allocation process for banded schools differs depending on whether the school in question is an Edit Rank school or not. The process below details the routines One uses to allocate students to bases where Ability banding is in use.

The highest priority band in an Ability banded receiver must be marked as Assessed in the Band Details screen. This band depends on ability (i.e. the school is offering a number of places for students who are tested). The mainstream part of the school is represented by a lower priority band that is not marked as Assessed. All bases that use Ability banding always have only one assessed band and one non-assessed band.

Non-Edit Rank Receivers

  1. One checks whether test results exist for each child who has applied for the assessed band at the base, and then ranks the children by test result.
  2. One ranks the children who have applied for the assessed band by the remaining oversubscription criteria (i.e. the students are sorted on the second oversubscription criterion within sets of each test result, then sorted on the third criterion in sets of the second criterion, and so on).
    If no oversubscription criteria have been defined, the children are ranked based on test results alone.
  3.  One makes offers for the assessed band up to that band's PAN. Students ranked within the band PAN are given a status of O (Offer), while students ranked outside the PAN are given a status of N (No Current Offer).
  4. One creates a band record in the non-assessed band for those students who were not offered a place in the assessed band but have indicated that the also wish to be considered for the mainstream school (i.e. the student does not have the Do Not Consider For Mainstream School preferences reason selected).
  5. One sorts the children in the non-assessed band by oversubscription criteria.
  6. One makes offers for the non-assessed band, up to the PAN of that band.
  7. One resolves offers for students who applied to both bands.
    • If the student's offer status is O (Offer) in the higher priority band then One updates the lower priority band offer status for the same preference to Q (No Longer Required).
    • If the student's offer status is N (No Current Offer) in the higher priority band, but O (Offer) in the lower priority band, then the N status in the higher band is retained.
    • If the student is offered a place in either of the bands then the main preference offer status is updated to O (Offer). If the student receives N (No Current Offer) in both bands, then the main preference offer status is updated to N (No Current Offer).

Edit Rank Receivers

  1. One checks whether test results exist for each child who has applied for the assessed band at the base. Student without test results are not considered for the assessed band.
  2. One sorts any ranked preferences for a home LA school which uses ability banding in an Edit Rank subgroup. These preferences are sorted according to the existing band rank.
  3. One updates student offer statuses for the assessed band:
    • Students ranked within the band PAN are given a status of O (Offer).
    • Students ranked below the band PAN are given a status of N (No Current Offer).
    • Unranked preferences for a Home LA school that uses Ability banding in an Edit Rank sub group are updated to R (Refused by LA).
  4. One processes the students who applied for the non-assessed band.

    Students for whom Do Not Consider For Mainstream is not selected and who are not offered a place in the assessed band at an Edit Rank school are not automatically added to the lower band. It is up to the school to rank these students.

  5. One resolves offers for students who applied to both bands:
    • If the student's offer status is O (Offer) in the higher priority band, then One updates the lower priority band offer status for the same preference to Q (No Longer Required).
    • If the student's offer status is N (No Current Offer) in the higher priority band, but O (Offer) in the lower priority band, then the N status in the higher band is retained.
    • If the student is offered a place in either of the bands then the main preference offer status is updated to O (Offer). If the student gets N (No Current Offer) in both bands, then the main preference offer status is updated to N (No Current Offer).

      All changes to the main offer status are reflected in the Preference History.