Transition to Secondary School Service - stickers to go out with secondary admissions forms

This relates to the secondary school admissions application forms.

The Transition to Secondary School Officer (a.k.a. Choice Adviser) role was created by the DCSF to encourage parents/carers, who face barriers to accessing the secondary admissions process, to fill in and return their secondary admissions application forms on time, thus giving themselves the same chance as any other Norfolk parent/carer to get a preferred school.

To this end, various pilot projects have been set up around the county and we decided to trial a sticker system in Kings Lynn. Recently I worked with some local Year 5 and Year 6 children in Norwich to identify various designs, that would appeal to other children their age, to put on a sticker that is given out to the children as the secondary admissions application forms are given out. Could you please ensure that every child has a sticker of their choice and that it is displayed prominently on their clothing at home time, thus allowing the parent/carer to see the sticker and read the admission pack.

NB the secondary admissions form can be filled in from 25th September and should be returned by 14th November 2007.

Also, I am looking for professionals to comment confidentially on the secondary school admissions process as a whole, so that I can feed this back to the Head of Admissions, to make the whole process more accessible. If you have any queries/comments regarding any of the above, please contact me, Wendy Bradnam, Transition to Secondary School Officer at Norfolk Parent Partnership, Woodside Road, Norwich NR7 9QL, (01603)704070 or (07747) 757540.