In a drive to be more accessible and make it easier for parents, Monmouthshire County Council is to launch online school admissions so that parents can apply for their child’s school place from the comfort of their own home.
As one of the first authorities in Wales to offer the innovative service from Capita, Monmouthshire expects a huge take-up.
Cath Sheen, Manager of the School and Student Access Unit, explains:
“The former process was good but it was also time and resource intensive. Parents had to fill in paper forms, send them to us, wait for them to be processed and then wait again for a response. The new system means that parents can apply for a school place online, they get automatic acknowledgement that we have received their request, and can track the status of their application at any time. It’s incredibly streamlined.
“The process is also much more secure. Data is protected at all times and parents are issued with a user name and password that can only access information relating to their child.
“As well as that, parents are prompted if they have incorrectly completed their form. This should greatly reduce the time it takes to process the forms freeing-up officer time to complete other work.”
Monmouthshire receives approximately 1000 applications to the county’s secondary schools every year, and the same for its primary schools.
Cllr Liz Hacket Pain, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People is thrilled with the development:
“We know that parents in Monmouthshire live busy and demanding lives and we hope that this service will make the process of applying for school places a little easier.”
Online school admissions will be available on www.monmouthshire.gov.uk from:
- 7th October 2011 for those applying for secondary school placements for the academic year 2012/13
- 18th November 2011 for those applying for primary school placements for 2012/13
