Admissions - Year 7 Sept 2019

Year 7 Admissions

Chatham Grammar School for Girls Academy Trust has the following agreed admissions numbers for Chatham Grammar School for Girls

a) 150 for girls in Year 7

b) 100 boys and girls in Year 12

In any specific year, Chatham Grammar School for Girls Academy Trust may set a higher admissions number higher than its agreed admissions number for a particular year group. Before setting and admissions number higher than its agreed admission number, Chatham Grammar School for Girls Academy Trust will consult the following groups:

a) the LA

b) the admission forum for the LA

c) any other relevant admissions authorities located in the relevant area for consultation

d) any relevant governing body within the relevant area for consultation

e) parents living in the relevant area for consultation whose children will be eligible to apply to Chatham Grammar School for Girls

f) community groups which Chatham Grammar School for Girls considers relevant

g) teaching unions

Process of Application

Arrangements for applications for places at Chatham Grammar School for Girls will be made on the Medway Common Application Form (CAF) provided and administered by the relevant local authorities Kent and Medway. Parents who wish to apply from schools outside the Medway LA should apply using the form provided by the Local Authority where they live.

Chatham Grammar School for Girls Academy Trust will use the Medway LA’s timetable for application each year. In summary:

a) Opportunities will be provided in September/October for parents and pupils to visit the school.

b) Parents complete the Common Application Form (CAF) and return to the LA.

c) Places will be offered to 150 girls who are deemed to be selective based on the LA Testing Arrangements (Medway Test and/or Kent Test). Places will be offered first to girls having a Statement of Educational Need that specifically names Chatham Grammar School for Girls.

d) Offers will be made to parents on 1st March

Procedures where Chatham Grammar School for Girls is oversubscribed

After the admission of pupils with statements of Special Educational Needs where Chatham Grammar School for Girls is specifically named, the following over-subscription criteria will be applied in the order in which they are set out below:

a) Children in public care or children who have previously been in public care

b) Current family association at any UKAT academy at the time of application or who will be still attending when the applicant is admitted. In this context brother or sister means: - A natural brother or sister (including adopted siblings) - Step brother or sister - Foster brother or sister - Those who live as brother and sister in the same house

c) Children, assessed as selective, of staff at any UKAT academy (where the member of staff has been employed for one year or more at the time at which the application for admission to the Academy is made and/ or where the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage).

d) ii Distance from the pupil’s home as determined using Medway Local Authority measure.

Procedure for Admission to Year 7 from January (In year casual admission entry)

From January each year, following the previous September (main round) entry, the Academy is responsible for its own in-year applications.

Parents/Carers should complete the casual admissions application form via Medway Council and send in the application form to Chatham Grammar School for Girls via the admissions email.

The Academy Trust will consider all such applications and if the year group applied for has a place available, and if the child is assessed as selective, then the Academy will admit the child unless the applicant has significant behavioural or attendance issues (other than at the normal admission point i.e. Year 7) and therefore falls under the criteria for referral to the Local Authority Fair Access panel. If more applications are received than there are places available, the oversubscription criteria above shall apply. Parents/Carers whose application is turned down will be informed of their right to appeal against the refusal of a place.

The Academy will, on receipt of an in-year application notify the LA of both the application and its outcome, to allow the LA to keep up to date figures on the availability of places in the area. Girls will be admitted on the following basis:

a) The availability of a vacant place in the relevant year group.

b) Entry by cognitive ability test and review of student’s work by the Headteacher to determine whether the student will be able to cope with the academic workload.

The Appeals Process

Parents/Carers will have the right of appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel if they are dissatisfied with an admission decision of the Academy.

The Appeal Panel will be independent of the Academy and will be comprised of a minimum of three members who will include:

a) at least one independent lay person (someone without personal experience in the management of any school/academy or provision of education in any school except as a school governor or in another voluntary capacity); and

b) at least one independent person who has experience in education, and who is acquainted with educational conditions in the local area, or who are parents of registered students at a school.

Parents/Carers have the right to attend the Appeal Panel meeting in person and to make an oral representation; that is, to clarify or supplement their written appeal. The Parent/Carer may be accompanied by a friend, adviser or be represented. Parents/Carers may also bring an interpreter. The Academy may also be represented at the Appeal Panel meeting.

The arrangements for appeals will be in line with the Code of Practice on School Admission Appeals published by the Department for Education.

The letter sent to Parents/Carers notifying them of the outcome of the admissions process and the fact that they have been unsuccessful will provide the Parent/Carer with a written statement detailing reason(s) why it has not be possible to allow the child to attend the Academy and will explain the parents/carers right of appeal. The notification will specify the date by which an appeal must be made, such date to be at least 14 days from the date on which the notification is posted. An application for an appeal hearing which arrives after the due date will normally only be considered where the parent/carer can demonstrate that there was a reasonable cause for the appeal not to be made in time.

Parents/Carers wishing to appeal against an admission decision by the Academy should write to the Clerk to the Appeal Panel at the address given in the admission decision letter from the Academy. Other documentation may be submitted in support of an appeal and should be lodged with the Clerk to the Appeal Panel not less than 7 days before the appeal hearing. The Appeal Panel will have the discretion to refuse to admit late evidence. Any materials presented by the Academy to the Clerk will be sent in advance to the parents/carers and materials presented by the parents/carers will be sent in advance to the Academy. The basic principle followed is that all information presented to the Clerk as part of the appeals process is available to all parties to the appeal.

Parents/Carers will be given 10 days notice of the appeal hearing, unless they agree to a shorter period of notice. Where a parent/carer fails to attend an Appeal Panel hearing for which 10 days notice has been given (or a shorter period if the parents have given their prior agreement), the Clerk will offer a second hearing and provide 10 days notice of that appeal hearing, unless parents/carers agree to a shorter period of notice. In offering a second hearing, the Clerk will advise the parents/carers in writing that if they do not attend the second hearing, their written appeal will be considered by the Appeal Panel in their absence.

Operation of waiting lists

In respect of rising Year 7 students, as set out in the co-ordinated scheme, the LA will be responsible for holding a waiting list for pupils who request that their daughters name be added. This waiting list will operate until 31 December. Thereafter, the Chatham Grammar School for Girls Academy Trust will maintain a waiting list.

Children’s position on the waiting list will be determined solely in accordance with the oversubscription criteria set out above. Where places become vacant they will be allocated to young people on the waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria.

The Chatham Grammar School for Girls will establish and publish arrangements for appeals against non-admission, including an independent statutory Appeals Panel.

1 For this criterion, ‘brother or sister’ includes any whole or half-brother or sister by blood or by adoption, and any step or foster brother or sister who lives permanently with the child for whom the application is being made at the date of the application. ii Distance will be measured by the shortest available safe walking route between home and school as measured by the council’s geographical information system. Those living closer to the school will receive the higher priority. Medway Council’s Geographical Information System measures the start point, end point and distance of each route in the following way. The start point The centre point of the road closest to the centre point of the pupil’s home address. The centre point of the pupil’s address is a grid reference taken from Ordnance Survey Mapping. The end point The centre point of the road or path closest to a defined point on the school site represented by a grid reference for the school defined within the geographical information system. The same end point is used for everybody. The distance The shortest available route between the start point and the end point using the centre point of streets and any other available safe walking routes. In a situation where there is no available safe walking route between a child’s home and the school, an appropriate route on the road network will be used, purely to prioritise admission. In these circumstances there would be no expectation that the walk should be the one taken, or that it is a ‘safe walking route’. It is important to note that any roads that have been built recently (particularly in new developments) may not be included on the network. If this is the case, the measurement will start from the nearest available road on the network from the property. In the event that a decision to offer a place has to be made between two applicants who cannot otherwise be separated, a random allocation will be made by drawing the name out of a hat.