CATCHMENT areas for schools across Monmouthshire could soon be changing.

Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) is undertaking a review to amend the approved intake areas for a number of schools in the county.

Should the proposals be agreed, the changes would come into force from

September 2016.

As part of this process, MCC is consulting with parents and carers on the proposed changes. The four county's secondary schools serve in the region of 4,749 children in years seven to 13. These include: Monmouth Comprehensive School in the Northeast, Chepstow School in the East; Caldicot School in the Southeast and King Henry VIII Comprehensive School in the Northwest; with one out of catchment area, Caerleon Comprehensive School in the Southwest.

These catchment areas have not been reviewed since 1996 and it is thought that they have been in place for many years prior to this.

The council is considering the move in an attempt to ease transition for pupils between primary and secondary schools. A primary school is only formally linked to the secondary school that receives the majority of its year six leavers. The proposed changes are:

• The catchment area for the villages of Caerwent and Crick will change from Chepstow School to Caldicot School.

• The catchment area for the villages of Usk, Llangybi, Tredunnock and Llanhennock will change from Caerleon Comprehensive to Monmouth Comprehensive.

• The catchment area for the village of Tintern will change from Chepstow School to Monmouth Comprehensive School.

• The catchment area for the village of Trellech Grange will change from Chepstow School to Monmouth Comprehensive School.

• The catchment area for the village of Portskewett will change from Caldicot School to Chepstow School.

In addition to the above, MCC propose to establish catchment areas for its Welsh Medium primary schools to assist with the increased demand for Welsh education. It hopes to establish a catchment boundary for Ysgol Gymraeg Y Fenni and a catchment boundary for Ysgol Gymraeg Y Ffin.

Although MCC is unable to guarantee school places at a catchment school, they are currently used to prioritising school places in the event of oversubscription. This can only be applied when a school becomes over-subscribed. Therefore, when a school has more places than admissions requests, a child will be admitted even if they live outside of the catchment area.

MCCs current School Admission Policy has been approved and will be applied to all applicants that are applying for school places during the academic year 2015/16.

The council also proposes to introduce a new School Admission Policy to accommodate a change to the criteria, to be applied in the event of oversubscription. The significant change to the criteria proposes to offer priority to children residing within the catchment area for the preferred school, over those that may have a sibling in attendance at the preferred school, but reside outside of the catchment area for the preferred school. This proposed change, if approved, will be applied for all applicants applying for school places as part of the 2016/ 17 academic year and onwards.

A summary of the proposed criteria is available on MCC's website, http://www.monmouthshire.gov.uk/schoolconsultation">www.monmouthshire.gov.uk/schoolconsultation. Here parents can also view the on-line questionnaire, detailed catchment maps (current and proposed arrangements) and the admission arrangements for 2015/16 and 2016/17.