CRITERIA FOR THE ADMISSION OF PUPILS 2010

Parents should note that as an Aided School decisions about the admission of pupils to the school are made by the School Governors, rather than the Local Authority.

In addition to the information published in the Local Authority’s ‘Secondary Schools 2009/10 A guide for Parents and Carers’, the Governors will provide additional information about the school and guidance about its Admissions Criteria. Parents should consider this carefully before applying for admission.

The Governors will admit up to 180 children into year 7 in September.

Guidance note:  Applicants who are regular worshippers at Church should look first at ‘(A) Foundation Places’. All other applicants should look first at ‘(B) Open Places’

(A) Foundation Places

The Governors have designated 80 places, to be offered to pupils whose families are regular worshippers within the Church of England or a church in communion with Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.

If there are more than 80 qualifying applicants, places will be allocated according to the following criteria. These are stated in order of priority:

1. children in the care of the local authority or who are provided with accommodation by the authority;
2. the presence of a sibling in the school who will still be attending the following year
3. Students who are resident in part of Boughton, part of Vicars Cross and the parishes of  Huntington, Great Boughton, Lower Kinnerton, Dodleston, Marleston-cum-Lache, Claverton, Eccleston, Pulford, Eaton, Saighton, Aldford, Lea Newbold, Bruera and Poulton (a map indicating the boundaries is available from the school And Local Authority website)
4. the nearness of the home to the school. The distance will be measured in a direct line from the applicant’s home to the school using the Local Authority’s ‘address-point’ system.

Unsuccessful applicants for Foundation Places will be considered for Open Places.

(B) Open Places

The Governors have designated 100 places each year as Open Places, to be offered to pupils who do not qualify for a Foundation Place but whose parents have chosen the school for the type of education it provides.

Parents applying for an Open Place do so knowing that Religious Education, collective worship and the ethos of the school are based on the faith and practice of the Church of England.  Parents who would be unwilling to support the school’s Christian ethos might wish to seek a place elsewhere.

If there are more than 100 applicants, places will be allocated according to the following criteria. These are stated in order of priority:

• children in the care of the local authority or who are provided with accommodation by the authority;
• the presence of a sibling in the school who will still be attending the following year;
• Students who are resident in part of Boughton, part of Vicars Cross and the parishes of  Huntington, Great Boughton, Lower Kinnerton, Dodleston, Marleston-cum-Lache, Claverton, Eccleston, Pulford, Eaton, Saighton, Aldford, Lea Newbold, Bruera and Poulton (a map indicating the boundaries is available from the school And Local Authority website)
• the nearness of the home to the school. The distance will be measured in a direct line from the applicant’s home to the school measured using the Local Authority’s address-point system.

Unsuccessful applicants for Open Places will be considered for any Foundation Places remaining unfilled at the end of the allocation procedure.

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FAMILIES

A parent is any person who has parental responsibility or care of the child. Where admission arrangements refer to ‘parent’s attendance at church’ it is sufficient for just one parent to attend.  ‘Family members’ include only parents and siblings.

SIBLINGS

Sibling refers to brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step brother or sister, or the child of the parent/carer’s partner, and in every case, the child should be living in the same family unit at the same address.

TWINS

In the event of one twin being offered a place at the school and the other not because the planned admission number had been reached, both twins would be admitted (or all the siblings in the case of multiple births) even if this goes above the admission number of the school.

TIMETABLE FOR ADMISSIONS

The Governors will adhere strictly to the Admissions timetable laid down by the Local Authority (please see the Local Authority’s annual publication  ‘Secondary Schools – a  Guide for Parents and Carers’).

ADDRESS OF PUPIL

The address used on the school’s admission form must be the current one at the time of application.  If the address changes subsequently, the parents should notify the school.  Where the parents live at different addresses, the current-at-the-time-of-application, normal address of the child will be the one used.  This will normally be the one where the child wakes up for the majority of Monday to Friday mornings (term-time).  Parents may be asked to show evidence of the claim that is being made for the address, e.g. identity cards of various sorts showing the child’s address as the one claimed.  Where there is dispute about the correct address to use, the governors reserve the right to make enquiries of any relevant third parties, e.g. the child’s GP. For children of UK Service personnel and other Crown Servants returning to the area proof of the posting is all that is required. 

REGULAR ATTENDANCE

By “regular” the Governors mean attendance at a minimum of two services per month.  A letter from your incumbent, minister, or other appropriate local church leader will be required to confirm church attendance and this should be sent directly to the school (and not the Local Authority) before the Local Authority’s published closing date. 

Please note that the Governors will not consider an application for a Foundation Place unless this letter is provided.

Pupils attending Church of England Primary Schools are not automatically be entitled to entry to The Bishops’ High School. Such pupils are subject to the Admission Criteria.

REPEAT APPLICATIONS

The Governors will not consider repeat applications within the same school year, unless the parents’ or the school’s circumstances have changed significantly since the original application was made.

LATE APPLICATIONS

Where there are extenuating circumstances for an application being received after the last date for applications, and it is before the Governors have established their list of pupils to be admitted, then it will be considered alongside all the others.

Otherwise, applications which are received after the last date will be considered after all the others, and placed on the waiting list in order according to the criteria.

NON-ROUTINE ADMISSIONS

It sometimes happens that a child needs to change school other than at the “normal” time; such admissions are known as non-routine admissions.  Parents wishing their child to attend this school may arrange to visit the school. An application form should be obtained and completed. In order to apply the admissions criteria, it is important that the school is given as much information as possible, including the address.  If there is a place in the year group requested then the governors will arrange for the admission to take place.  If there is no place, then the Governors’ Pupils Committee, which is the Admission Authority, will consider the application and information about how to appeal against the refusal will be provided. 

WAITING LIST

When there are more applications than places, the admissions criteria will be used. Children who are not admitted will have their name placed on a waiting list. The names on the waiting list will be in the order resulting from the application of the admission criteria. Since the date of application cannot be a criterion for the order of names on the waiting list, late applicants for the school will be slotted into the order according to the extent to which they meet the criteria. Thus it is possible that a child who moves into the area later to have a higher priority than one who has been on the waiting list for some time. If a place becomes available within the admission number, the child whose name is at the top of the list will be offered a place. This is not dependent on whether an appeal has been submitted.

This waiting list operates until 31st October of the year in which the admission is sought.

FRAUDULENT APPLICATIONS

Where the governing body discovers that a child has been awarded a place as the result of an intentionally misleading application from a parent (for example a false claim to involvement in a place of worship) which effectively denies a place to a child with a stronger claim, then the governing body is required to withdraw the offer of the place.  The application will be considered afresh and a right of appeal offered if a place is refused.

RIGHT OF APPEAL

Where the governors are unable to offer a place because the school is over subscribed, parents have the right to appeal to an independent admission appeal panel, set up under the School Standards and Framework Act, 1998, as amended by the Education Act, 2002.  Parents should notify the Clerk to the Governors at the school within 14 days of receiving the letter refusing a place.  Parents will have the opportunity to submit their case to the Appeals Panel in writing and also to attend in order to present their case.  You will normally receive 14 days’ notice of the place and time of the hearing.

Please note that this right of appeal against the governors’ decision does not prevent you from making an appeal in respect of any other school.

ADMISSIONS INFORMATION

Parents should note that, as a result of the School Admissions Code 2007, the Governors, in order to protect the ethos and the character of the School as a Church of England School, have had to change the Admissions Criteria significantly to ensure that the School receives a significant number of pupils whose families are practising members of the Church of England.

Numbers of applicants and admissions numbers for schools in Cheshire are published by the Local Authority in the annual Secondary Schools guide for Parents and Carers which is available online or from the Local Authority.

This information is published by the Governors of The Bishops’ Blue Coat CE Aided High School in accordance with the relevant sections of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 as amended by the Education Act 2002, the Schools Admission Code 2007 and the Diocesan Board of Education Guidance on the Code.

Please note that the Admission Criteria may change from one year to the next.

With effect from 2010, the Local Authority will coordinate all ‘in year’ applications.

(March 2009)