Education Act 1996

433 Time for admission of pupils

(1) Section 14 (which requires a local education authority to secure that sufficient schools for providing primary and secondary education are available for their area) shall not be construed as imposing any obligation on the proprietor of a school to admit children as pupils otherwise than at the beginning of a school term.

(2) Where, however, a child was prevented from entering a school at the beginning of a term—

(a) by his being ill or by other circumstances beyond his parent’s control, or

(b) by his parent’s having been then resident at a place from which the school was not accessible with reasonable facility,

the school’s proprietor is not entitled by virtue of subsection (1) to refuse to admit him as a pupil during the currency of the term.

(3) In cases where subsection (2) does not apply, the governing body of a school maintained by a local education authority shall comply with any general directions given by the authority as to the time of admission of children as pupils.

(4) General directions given by a local education authority as respects the time of admission of children as pupils shall not prevent the admission to a school of children in respect of whose education grants may be made under arrangements which have been made under section 1 of the [1996 c. 50.] Nursery Education and Grant-Maintained Schools Act 1996.

(5) Despite section 7 (duty of parent of child of compulsory school age to cause him to receive full-time education), a parent is not under a duty to cause a child to receive full-time education during any period during which, having regard to subsections (1) and (2), it is not practicable for the parent to arrange for him to be admitted as a pupil at a school.