Fairfield High School for Girls

Admissions Arrangements 2027/28 - Fairfield High School

Contents

1. Introduction
2. The Process
3. Published Admission Numbers for Fairfield High School for Girls and over subscription criteria
4. Appeals
5. In-Year admission arrangements (Current Years 7 to 11)
6. Admission of children of UK service personnel
7. Requests for admission outside the normal age group
8. In-Year Fair Access Protocol
9. Legal Framework/Statutory Guidance
10. Notes (These notes are part of the admissions arrangements)
11. Appendix 1: Fairfield High School for Girls – Tameside Partner Primary Schools
12. Appendix 2: Tameside timetable of co-ordinated secondary admissions for September 2027 start

1. Introduction

These admission arrangements comply with the requirements of the ‘Admissions Code September 2021’. Fairfield High School for Schools operates on an equal preference scheme managed by Tameside Council.

Fairfield High School for Girls is an 11 – 16 all-girls school with a pupil admission number of 205 in September 2027. 

The application process will be detailed in the ‘Moving On’ document provided by Tameside Council, this is available to download online:

All parents who live in Tameside wishing to apply for a place at Fairfield High School for Girls should use the online facility as outlined in the Moving On’ booklet as above. If you live outside of Tameside, you should complete the appropriate form from your local authority (e.g. Manchester) and this will be sent on to the school. 

2.  The Process

1. Tameside Council’s online application form will invite parents to name 6 schools/academies in order of preference; these can be in or out of Tameside. In allocating places, Fairfield High School will be part of the equal preference scheme coordinated by Tameside Council, details of which can be found in the ‘Moving On’ booklet. 
2. The online application form will give parents the opportunity to include information to support an application to the appropriate school/academy. 
3. A common timetable for all is applicable including a single notification date. The closing date for applications is 31 October. Applications received after this date will be considered after all applications received on time have been processed, this rule applies even if your child has exceptional medical or social needs, or has a sibling at the academy. If your application is late, you may not receive an offer of a school/academy place on National Offer Day, 1 March 2027.
4. Changes to preferences, ranking order or student details, will not be allowed after the closing date of 31 October 2026 except in exceptional circumstances. The closing date for submission if there are exceptional circumstances is 5 November 2026. Exceptional circumstances are applied in limited situations, for example, the family has recently moved address. Evidence must be provided to support the request. An intention to change address cannot be considered by the Trust until the move has actually taken place and proof is available, or parents may provide a solicitor’s letter confirming an exchange of contracts on a property, or a tenancy agreement. No changes can be considered even where there are exceptional circumstances once information has been exchanged with the other admission bodies by the Council, because the allocations process has commenced. In the case of secondary schools/academies this date is the 6 November 2026.
5. The online system will reopen two weeks after the closing date to accept late applications. Late applications will only be dealt with after all of those that have been received on time. This applies even if your child has exceptional medical or social needs, or has a sibling at the school. If your application is late, you may not receive an offer of a school place on National Offer Day. 
6. Tameside Council will liaise with Fairfield over applications.  Governors will apply the academy’s oversubscription criteria, irrespective of the preference order, and provide the Council with a list of applicants ranked according to the criteria. 
7. 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 local authorities nationally. These letters will also inform parents of their right of appeal, and who to contact, if an application to Fairfield has not been successful. 
8. Parents will not receive multiple offers. 
9. If the school is oversubscribed, the Local Governing Board will maintain a waiting list. The waiting list will operate until the end of the autumn term. Parents who have expressed the school as a preference and have not been offered a place at the school, or at a higher preference school, will automatically be placed on the waiting list. All students on the waiting list will be ranked according to the oversubscription criteria. Places will be offered 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. If the circumstances of children on the waiting list change (e.g. they move house) they should inform the school immediately and provide appropriate supporting evidence). 

3.  Published Admission Numbers for Fairfield High School for Girls and over subscription criteria

1. The published admission number for Year 7 at Fairfield is 205 students.

2. Where the number of applications for admission is greater than the published admissions’ number, applications will be considered against the criteria set out below. They will be applied in conjunction with explanatory notes 1 - 4 which form part of the admissions’ arrangements and can be found at the end of this document. 
3. After the admission of students with an EHCP (Education Health Care Plan) where the academy is named on the EHCP, the criteria will be applied in the following order: 
4. Looked After Children (Note 1) 
5. Children and families with exceptional medical or social needs (Note 2).
6. Sibling: This will apply where there are brothers or sisters attending the school at the time of application, who will still be attending at the time of admission, i.e. in the September when the student is admitted to Year 7. Preference will be given to students living nearest to the school. Sibling criteria may apply where, at the time of application, an older sibling is expected to be on roll when a younger child starts at the academy. If the older sibling unexpectedly leaves the school after an offer has been made to a younger child the offer of a place would not be withdrawn on these grounds. (Note 3) 
7. Children attending named partner primary schools on the closing date for applications. Preference will be given to students living nearest to the school (Note 4 and Appendix 1) 
8. All other applications on distance. See Note 4

4.  Appeals 

1. Parents who are unhappy with their child’s school allocation have the right to appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel. To appeal for a place at Fairfield High School for Girls please go to https://www.tameside.gov.uk/schools/admissions/appeals where you can submit your appeal and find more information on the process.
2. All appeals will be heard separately. Every effort will be made to hear appeals before the start of the Autumn Term, but no guarantee can be made that appeals submitted after the deadline will be heard by September. 
3. You will be given 10 school days’ notice of your appeal hearing date, and you will be sent a copy of the school’s case. You can attend the hearing to present the case for your child. You may bring a friend or representative along. At the meeting, a representative from the school will present the school’s case. 
4. The Clerk to the Panel will inform you in writing of the Panel’s decision. The decision is binding and parents have no further right of appeal for the same school in the same school year, unless there has been a significant change in circumstances. 
5. Please note that no places are ‘held back’ for appeals 
6. Parents of students with an EHCP have the right to appeal to the SEND Tribunal.
7. Whilst you are awaiting your appeal it is important that you consider alternative schools (including the one that has been allocated for your child) in case your appeal is unsuccessful. 
8. If you wish to appeal for a school in another local authority area, you should contact the Admissions Team in that local authority for advice. 
9. Full details about admissions and the appeals process can be found online at https://www.tameside.gov.uk/admissions 

5.  In-Year admission arrangements (Current Years 7 to 11)

Details of our procedures for ‘In Year’ admissions can be found on our website.

If you have any questions regarding in-year admission arrangements, please contact the school directly.

6.  Admission of children of UK service personnel

Fairfield High School for Girls acknowledges that service families are subject to movement within the UK and from abroad.   Although the Trust is not able to reserve places for such students we will consider requests, if accompanied by an official MOD letter declaring a relocation date and a Unit postal address or quartering area address. For in year admissions places will be allocated, subject to a place being available in the relevant year group, prior to moving. If we are unable to allocate a place at that time, parents will be offered the right to appeal.

7.  Requests for admission outside the normal age group

Parents are entitled to request a place for their child outside of their normal age group. 

Parents considering requesting a place for their child outside of their normal year group should contact the school in the first instance. 

Decisions on requests for admission outside the normal age group will be made on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. In accordance with the School Admissions Code, this will include taking account of:

• Parents’ views
• Information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development
• Where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional
• Whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group
• Whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely
• The headteacher’s views 

Wherever possible, requests for admission outside a child’s normal age group will be processed as part of the main admissions round. They will be considered on the basis of the admission arrangements laid out in this policy, including the oversubscription criteria listed in section 2. Applications will not be treated as a lower priority if parents have made a request for a child to be admitted outside the normal age group. 

Parents will always be informed of the reasons for any decision on the year group a child should be admitted to. Parents do not have a right to appeal if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group.

8.  In-Year Fair Access Protocol

All local authorities have a Fair Access Protocol for in year transfers that ensures the speedy admission of pupils who may experience difficulty in being allocated a school place, for example, if they have been out of school for a long period of time. With specific short-term exceptions, all schools in Tameside, including Fairfield High School for Girls are participants in the protocol, which may result in schools admitting pupils over their published admission number.   Full details of the In Year Fair Access Protocol can be found on the Council’s website https://www.tameside.gov.uk/schools/secondarytransfers

9.  Legal Framework/Statutory Guidance

• DfE Guidance – Academy Admissions -   
• DfE Guidance – School Admissions Code (September 2021) 
• DfE Guidance – School Admissions Appeals Code (October 2022) 

10.  Notes (These notes are part of the admissions arrangements)

Note 1

Fairfield High School for Girls operates as a single-sex educational institution under the provisions of the Equality Act 2010, Schedule 11, Part 1. Admission is exclusively open to biological females, as defined by their sex at birth. This policy aligns with the legal interpretation of 'sex' under the Equality Act 2010, which, as clarified by the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd v Scottish Ministers, refers to biological sex. The school is committed to ensuring compliance with all relevant legal obligations while maintaining its status as a single-sex school.

Note 2 

Looked after children or children who have previously been looked after but immediately after being looked after become the subject of an adoption, residence or special guardianship order, and those children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. (See section1.7 of the Code) 

Note 3 

Written evidence must be provided by a suitably qualified professional – e.g., a GP or consultant for medical needs, or a social worker for social needs - that he/she has exceptional needs, which means that admission to a particular school is essential. A panel of governors from the academy 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. 

Note 4

Sibling includes; natural sisters/brothers; half-sisters/brothers; step sisters/brothers; adopted sisters/brothers; sisters/ 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. 

Where the last place to be allocated would mean that a sibling group i.e. twins, triplets or other multiple birth sibling groups would be split, the sibling group will be given priority over other children. 

Note 5 

Preference will be given to students living nearest to the school. 

The address from which distances are measured will be the permanent principal residential address, at the time of application, of the parent. The school will not take into account an intention to move to another address without a solicitor's letter confirming an exchange of contract for purchase of a property, or a long-term agreement for renting a residential property. When a child lives with parents who share responsibility, each for part of a week, the home address, for the purpose of distance measurements and travel considerations, will be that from which the child travels to school for the majority of school days during a normal school week. If the number of days is exactly equal the home address will be that of the parent who receives the Child Benefit.

Distance will be measured as a straight line from the child’s home address, using the address point assigned by the National 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 uses a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.

In the event of distances being the same for 2 or more applications where this distance would be the last place/s to be allocated, the place will be allocated to the pupil that is nearer using walking distance as measured using the local authority’s school admissions data mapping software.

In the event of distances being exactly the same for two or more applications who are competing for a final place (for example – a block of flats), the place will be decided by drawing lots; the first name drawn will be offered the place.

An adoption order is an order under section 46 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. A ‘residence order’ is as an order settling the arrangements to be made as to the person with whom the child is to live under section 8 of the Children Act 1989. 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 (or special guardians).

Note 6

Distance will also be used as a tie-breaker where oversubscription occurs within any of criteria 1 to 4. Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school, as stated in Note 5, distance will also be measured as in Note 5.

Appendix 1: Fairfield High School for Girls – Tameside Partner Primary Schools

• Aldwyn Primary School, Lumb Lane, Audenshaw, Manchester M34 5SF 
• Ashton West End Primary School, William Street, Ashton OL7 0BJ 
• Audenshaw Primary School, Ash Street, Audenshaw, Manchester M34 5NG
• Corrie Primary School, Cemetery Road, Denton M34 6FG
• Dane Bank Primary School, Thornley Lane South, Stockport, SK5 6QG
• Denton West End Primary School, Balmoral Drive, Denton, M34 2JX
• Fairfield Road Primary School, Fairfield Road, Droylsden, Manchester M43 6AF
• Greenside Primary School, Greenside Lane, Droylsden M43 7RA
• Greswell Primary School, Percy Road, Denton, Manchester M34 2DH
• Holy Trinity C of E Primary School, Kenyon Street, Ashton OL6 7DU
• Linden Road Academy, Linden Road, Denton M34 6EF
• Manchester Road Primary School, Manchester Road, Droylsden, Manchester M43 6GD
• Manor Green Primary School, Mancunian Road, Denton, Manchester M34 7NS
• Moorside Primary School, Market Street, Droylsden, Manchester M43 7DA
• Parochial C of E Primary School, Keppel Street, Ashton OL6 6NN
• Poplar Street Primary School, Ravenwood Drive, Audenshaw, Manchester M34 5EF
• Russell Scott Primary School, Clare Street, Denton M34 3LQ
• St Anne's Primary School, St Anne’s Road, Denton, M34 3DY
• St Anne's RC Primary School, Clarendon Road, Audenshaw, Manchester M34 5QA 
• St Mary's C of E Primary School, Church Street, Droylsden, Manchester M43 7BR
• St Peter's C of E Primary School, Oxford Street, Ashton OL7 0NB
• St Stephen's C of E Primary School, Audenshaw Road, Audenshaw, Manchester M34 5HD 
• St Stephen's RC Primary School, Chappell Road, Droylsden, Manchester M43 7NA
• Waterloo Primary School, Worthington Street, Ashton OL7 9NA

Appendix 2: Tameside timetable of co-ordinated secondary admissions scheme 2027/28