This policy will apply to all admissions for the academic year 2020/21 including in year applications.
The published admission number is 60 for September 2020. If the school is oversubscribed, applications will be considered first according to the following priorities in the order set out below:
Where the LA is unable to meet a parental preference in relation to a catchment school, the LA will have to allocate a place at a lower preference school or even allocate the next nearest school with places available. Parents may prefer to then try and get a place for another sibling at the same school. In such instances, this school could then be treated as the catchment school for subsequent sibling applications. Parents would have to notify the LA on application that they consider this exception applies. If the application was for the actual catchment school this criterion would still be applied. This would be applicable to Portsmouth schools who have catchment criterion as part of their admissions policy
The Admissions code states “all children whose Education Health and Care (EHC) plan names the school must be admitted”. These children will have priority for admission over and above all other admission applications and will be included in the admissions allocation process.
Looked after children
A “looked after child” is a child who is in a) the care of a local authority, or b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school.
A child is regarded as being in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society. This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (Section 12 Adoption orders) and children adopted under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (Section 46 adoption orders).
Child arrangements orders are defined in Section 8 of the Children Act, as amended by Section 12 of the Children’s and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22/4/14 is deemed to be a child arrangements order. Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a “special guardianship order” as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian(s).
If a child or a family member has a significant medical, physical, psychological or social need that you would like taken into account when places are allocated, applicants should tick the relevant box on the application form and submit supporting evidence to support their request. The evidence must be in writing from a doctor or other appropriate professional involved with the child/family member’s health, wellbeing or specific family circumstances. In all cases evidence must show why it is appropriate that the child attends the preferred school and why other schools in the city are inappropriate.
Applicants applying under this criterion will need to complete a “Place of Worship ” form which needs to be signed by the relevant religious leader who needs to confirm attendance at place of worship monthly or 12 times a year.
A catchment area is a geographical area defined by the council. The idea of having a catchment area is to give some priority for the admission of children living in the local area of the school. Living in the catchment area does not guarantee a place at the school. Catchment areas are determined by home address (the child’s permanent residence). Further details of the individual school’s catchment area will be provided on the council’s website or by contacting the Admissions Service.
A sibling link is defined as a child’s brother or sister (living in the same household) already on roll and attending the school you have applied to or at an adjacent infant/junior school and who will still be attending the school the following academic year. This category includes step-brothers/step-sisters; adoptive and foster brothers/sisters living in the same household or children whose parents are married or cohabiting and live together within the same household. This does not include siblings who live in a different household. Twins, triplets and other children of multiple births will be admitted above the admission limit of a school if the limit has been reached by admitting one of the multiple birth children. A sibling link at the school does not guarantee admission to the school.
Service premium is paid to eligible children of armed services personnel under S14 of the Education Act 2002.
The service premium is designed to support children with parents serving in the regular British armed forces. Pupils attract the premium if they meet the following criteria:
Children of Staff employed at the school
a) where the member of staff has been employed at the school for 2 or more years at the time at which the application is made, and or
b) the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a skill shortage.
Where it is necessary to prioritise applications the criterion will be prioritised based on the shortest distance from the child’s home to school, measured in a straight line ‘as the crow flies’. Distances will be measured using the council’s Geographical Information System (GIS) department. The Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) unique property reference coordinates will be used to represent the school, whilst home co-ordinates will be primarily derived from the LLPG, with Ordnance Survey’s ADDRESS-POINT® product used as support. Only distances measured by GIS will be taken into account for the purposes of the distance criterion. Should there be two or more identical distances, the prioritisation will be done by casting lots. The Admissions Team will arrange for this to be carried out by the LA’s Democratic Services who are independent of the school and the admissions process.
The Local Authority operates a Fair Access Protocol which prioritises admissions for certain categories of secondary school age children. This protocol relates to admission applications throughout the year but does not apply to children applying in the normal admissions round.
The protocol takes priority above the school’s admission policy for those on a waiting list and the LA may require the school to admit above their published admission number.
If a parent is unsuccessful with any of their preferences they will have the right of appeal to an independent appeal panel and will be provided with the relevant documentation and advice by the LA’s Admissions Team.
All parents who have been refused a place at the school will have the option to indicate their wish to remain on the waiting list – via a tick box on the allocation response form online or on a paper reply slip. Children will be held on the waiting list by order of the criteria in the Admissions Policy. No account can be taken of the length of time a pupil is on the list. A pupil’s position can change on the list as new applicants join or other applicants come off the waiting list. Children will remain on a waiting list only until the end of the academic year August 2021, if parents/carers want their children to be on the waiting list for the following academic year, they must reapply.
