Proposed Admission to West Hill School in September 2010

In common with other Tameside secondary schools, West Hill has introduced a number of changes to its admission procedures to comply with the requirements of a qualifying scheme under the Education (Co-ordination of Admission Arrangements) (Secondary Schools) (England) Regulations 2007. West Hill will operate an equal preference scheme.

Applying for a Place at West Hill for September 2010

If you are a Tameside resident and your son attends a Tameside Primary School

You will have received a ‘Moving On’ booklet in September. The booklet will contain a personally addressed letter, outlining the admissions process to be followed and a Common Application Form (CAF). The completed CAF should be returned to your son’s primary school who will forward it to Tameside LEA.

If you live inside the Tameside local authority area and your child attends a Primary School outside the Tameside local authority area

You will receive an application pack from Tameside in September 2009. The pack will contain Tameside’s ‘Moving On’ booklet on secondary admissions, a personally addressed letter, outlining the admissions process to be followed and a Tameside Common Application Form. Application must be made to Tameside even if you wish to state a school in another local authority as one or more of your preferred schools.

If you live outside the Tameside LEA area and your son attends a Tameside Primary School

You will receive a ‘Moving On’ booklet. The booklet will contain a personally addressed letter, outlining the admissions process to be followed and an explanation of how to get the Common Application Form (CAF) for the education authority where you live. Application must be made to your own LEA even if you wish to state West Hill as one of your preferred choices.

If you live outside the Tameside LEA area and your son attends a Primary School outside the Tameside LEA area.

You will receive a booklet for your own LEA which will provide details of applying to schools outside your own education authority. Applications forms need to be returned in accordance with their specific instructions and not to Tameside. Application must be made to your own LEA even if you wish to state West Hill as one of your preferred choices.

The Process

• The Common Application Form will invite all parents to name 3 schools in order of preference. In allocating places, West Hill will operate an equal preference scheme.
  
• The Common Application Form will give parents the opportunity to indicate their preference for a single sex school.
  
• There will be a common timetable for all including a single notification date. Late applications will be dealt with as late and ranked after all applications received by the deadline.
  
• Changes to preferences, ranking order or pupil details, will not be allowed after the closing date, which has been set in accordance with the co-ordinated admission scheme, except in exceptional circumstances for example, if the family has recently moved address. Evidence must be provided to support the request. No changes can be considered after the date when the allocations process has been started, this date been set in accordance with the co-ordinated admission scheme.
  
• Primary schools will forward all application forms (CAF) to the LEA who will collate them. Applications from outside the Tameside area will be forwarded by the relevant LEA to Tameside. Any application forms mistakenly received by West Hill School will be forwarded to the LEA.
  
• The LEA will liaise with West Hill over applications. Governors will apply the school’s oversubscription criteria, irrespective of the preference order, and provide the Local Authority with a list of applicants ranked according to the criteria.
  
• Notification letters containing offers of a single school place will be sent out to parents in accordance with the coordinated admissions scheme. This is common with all other LEAs nationally. These letters will also inform parents of their right of appeal, and who to contact, if an application to West Hill has not been successful.
  
• Parents will not receive multiple offers.
  
• If the school is oversubscribed the governors will maintain a waiting list. The waiting list will operate until the end of the autumn term 2010 for those parents who have submitted an appeal or who have opted to go on the list. All pupils on the waiting list will be ranked according to the oversubscription criteria. Places will be offered, should any become available, to the highest ranked application received by the date the place becomes available. If new or late applications have a higher priority under the oversubscription criteria, they will be ranked higher than those who have been on the list for some time. A significant change of circumstances, such as a change of address, will be taken into account: evidence must be provided. Children who have been referred under the local authority’s Fair Access protocol or who are the subject of a direction by the local authority to admit must be given precedence over any other children on the waiting list.

Electronic Admissions by E-Mail

Parents with a working e-mail address have the opportunity to apply on-line. To access this facility log on to Tameside’s website (www.tameside.gov.uk), then under quick links click on ‘Admissions on-line.’ This will take you to the log on page where you will need to register before you can make an application. The LEA will send you a confirmation reply.

Each child will be issued with a unique identification number (UID) which you enter on-line along with your child’s date of birth in order to bring up your child’s details and application form. No one else will be able to access your child’s information.

Preferences can then be entered in ranked (priority) order. These may be changed at any time before the closing date which is set in accordance with the coordinated admissions scheme. Parents can also opt to receive confirmation of their child’s school allocation by e-mail on the date which is set in accordance with the coordinated admissions scheme. Letters will additionally be sent by post.

Admissions Arrangements for West Hill School

Boys will be admitted at age 11 without reference to ability or aptitude. The published admission number for the school is 165.

Where applications for admission exceed the number of places available, the following criteria (see also ‘Moving On’ booklet) will be applied, in the order set out below, to decide which children to admit.

Proposed Admissions September 2010

Published Admission Number: 165

Oversubscription Criteria

If the school receives more applications for places than there are places available, the criteria for over-subscription are applied to determine who should be allocated the places at the school. Children with statements of special educational needs, where West Hill is the named school, will be allocated places before the oversubscription criteria are applied. The criteria for over-subscription for West Hill School are:

1. Children in Public Care (Looked After Children)

2. Children and families with exceptional medical or social needs

Written evidence must be provided from a doctor or other agency that he/she has exceptional needs which means that admission to a particular school is essential, reference will normally be made to the Community Health Physician, Social Services, or the Educational Psychologist, as appropriate. Members of the school’s Admission Committee will make a decision as to whether to admit a child under this criterion using the evidence provided. All information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence.

3. Sibling: this will apply where there are brothers attending the school at the time of admission i.e. in the September when a student is admitted into Year 7. Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school.*

The sibling criterion includes; natural brothers; half brothers; step brothers; adopted brothers; brothers of fostered children, and in each case living at the same address. This allows for the admittance of children whose siblings will still be attending the preferred school. The governing body reserves the right to give special consideration to twins or triplets etc to prevent breaking the sibling link. For example, where twins, triplets or other multiple birth siblings would be split when allocations take place, and there are too few places available at the school to accommodate them all, the governors will consult with the Local Authority and the parent to consider whether all the siblings can be offered a place at the same alternative school (which may not be a preference school named on the CAF) or whether the parents can be offered places at two or more schools with a view to the parent deciding which child will take up which offered place.

4. Single sex education - The Common Application Form allows an expression of a general preference for single sex education. If the school is oversubscribed on this criterion preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school.*

5. All other applications on distance. Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school.*

*Where oversubscription occurs in applying criterion 3, 4 or 5, distance will be measured as a straight line from the child's home address, using the address point assigned by Tameside Council Master Address Database, The Local Land and Property Gazetteer, to the main gate to the school property. Measurements will be made using the local authority’s school admissions data mapping software, which employs a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey In the case of flats, the front entrance to the block will be used to measure distance. The address from which distance will be measured will be the permanent residential address, at the time of application, of the parent with whom the child is normally resident. Where a child lives with parents with shared responsibility, each for part of a week, the home address is the address from which the child travels to school for the majority of school days per week. If the number of days is exactly equal the home address will be that of the parent who receives the Child Benefit

In the event of distances being the same for 2 or more applicants where this distance would be the last place/s to be allocated, a random lottery will be implemented between the applicants where the distance is the same. The random lottery will be carried out in a public place and supervised by someone independent of the school. All the names will be entered into a hat and the required number of names will be drawn out.

Appeals

Any parent who is dissatisfied with their school allocation has the right of appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel. For pupils with Special Educational Needs, appeal can be made to the SEN Tribunal (details are included in the Statement).

If you wish to appeal against any decision of the Admissions Committee in refusing admission to the school, you should do so by completing a School Admission Appeal Form, setting out clearly why your child should go to West Hill. These are available, and should be returned to, the School Organisation Section at Tameside MBC, Council Offices, Wellington Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancs. OL6 6DL.

The Appeals Panel will:

• be independent of the governing body;
• give the appellant at least ten school day's written notice of the time and place of the hearing;
• give the appellant, who may be accompanied by a friend or be represented, the opportunity to make oral representation;
• give the appellant at least seven day's notice of any written representations made to it by the governing body. The information provided by the governing body will include how places were allocated and how decisions were made.

The appeal shall be decided by a simple majority of the votes cast, the chairman of the panel having a casting vote.

The decision of the Appeals Panel and the grounds on which it was made shall be communicated by the Clerk in writing to the appellant. That decision shall be binding on all parties. Subject to the above conditions, all matters of procedure shall be determined by the governing body.