High School Applications FAQ's

Questions

1. Which school can your child attend?
2. How do you apply for a place at a High School?
3. Why do I have to put three preferences on the application form?
4. My child currently lives outside Worcestershire and would like a Worcestershire High school place, what should I do?
5. When should you apply?
6. What if your application is late?
7. Who has responsibility for the allocation of places?
8. How are places allocated?
9. When are decisions made?
10. What happens if you are moving into a new area?
11. How many children may be admitted to each school?
12. How can my child be placed on a waiting list for a particular school if the year group is full?

Answers

1. Q. Which school can your child attend?
   A. The law says that the Local Authority (LA) must give parents the chance to state their preference for the school they wish their child to attend. The law does not give parents/carers an absolute right to "choose" the school for their child.
   
   It is important to find out the name of the catchment area school for the home address of your child. Search for your catchment school by postcode or view all the schools in your local area.
   
   You may apply for other schools (other than the catchment area school), including Academy, Foundation or Voluntary Aided Schools
   
   • Applications where a preference is expressed on time will take precedence in relation to the school over where a preference is expressed after the closing date. In both of these instances they will have precedence over those where no preference is expressed.
   • You should give careful consideration to the means by which your child will travel to school (see information about School Transport)
     
   Parents should also note that if they gain admission for a child to a High School of their preference, (other than the catchment area school) it does not mean that younger siblings will automatically gain admission to the same school. Should the school be oversubscribed at the time of application of a younger sibling, catchment area children have a higher priority on the oversubscription criteria.
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2. Q. How do you apply for a place at a High School? School admissions to high school?
   A. The parents of ALL pupils resident in Worcestershire, including parents whose preference is for the catchment area school for the child’s home address, seeking a place at any High School, including any Academy, Foundation or Voluntary Aided School, and any School outside Worcestershire, must complete a Worcestershire LA Common Application Form (SA1), by the closing date.
   
   

   Worcestershire parents are invited to state three preferences on the Common Application Form. All preferences are treated as equal initially, and the oversubscription criteria applied to each preference. If it is possible to make a potential offer at more than one school, then the final offer will be the school ranked highest on the application form.

   Parents seeking a place at an Academy, Foundation or Voluntary Aided School or schools outside Worcestershire must:

   • obtain from the school an admissions pack, including a prospectus which will explain if you need to provide/complete supplementary information/forms;
   • complete a Common Application Form (SA1) naming your school preferences and attach all relevant documentation as required with your application i.e. copy of completed supplementary forms, baptism certificate. 
     
     

   NB, if applying online you will need to send any supplementary forms by post to the School Admissions Team.  Supplementary paperwork must be received by the closing date for it to be considered with your application.The postal address is:
   
   School Admissions and Transfers Team
   Children's Services Directorate
   PO Box 73
   Worcester
   WR5 2YA

   Parents are advised to ensure they include their child's details and their name and address with any correspondence sent.

   You can apply for your school place online via the link on the top right hand side of this page.
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3. Q. Why do I have to put three preferences on the application form?
   A. You are not required to use all three preferences, however you should consider all schools in an area in case your application for your higher preference schools are unsuccessful.
   
   If the local authority cannot offer your child a place at your preferred schools, you will be offered the nearest school to your home address that has a place available. By including three preferences, it helps the local authority consider schools that you would find acceptable for your child.
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4. Q. My child currently lives outside Worcestershireand would like a Worcestershire High school place, what should I do?
   A. You should apply to your child's home Local Authority, regardless of which schools you are placing as a preference. If you would like to express a preference for a Worcestershire High school, you will need to add it as a preference on the Common Application Form for your child's home Local Authority. Please refer to the website of your home Local.
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5. Q. When should you apply?
   A. Places in High Schools are allocated on the basis of applications received on or before the closing date of: 31^st October 2011.If your child currently attends a primary or middle school in Worcestershire, you will receive in September 2011:
   • Information about the transfer process
   • A paper Common Application Form (SA1)
     
     

   If your child is not attending a Worcestershire primary or middle school, and yet you live in Worcestershire, you must apply on a Worcestershire form SA1, at the intake stage, for Admissions to High School, under the National Co-ordinated Admission Arrangements, even if your preferences include schools within any other Local Authority.

   Applications can be made online from 1^st September 2011.

   You can apply for your school place online via the link on the top right hand side of this page.

   Proof of application – It is the parent/carers responsibility to ensure a receipt is obtained when making an application. Please retain any receipt as proof of application.

   • Applications made online will receive a return receipt via email once the application has been submitted.
   • Paper application forms have a detachable receipt – see form for details.
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6. Q. What if your application is late?
   A. Between 1^st November 2011 and 31^st January 2012, it is likely that a number of late applications will be received. The Council has agreed in it’s co-ordinated scheme to accept late applications within this time-frame, and treat them as being on time, only in the following circumstances;
   
   

   a) where a family have just moved address,  (See Section 8b - Living in a school catchment area explanatory notes)

   b) where it is agreed by the Directorate of Children’s Services, that individual circumstances apply and the delay was reasonable given the circumstances of the case;

   In each case independent supporting documentary evidence will need to be submitted with the application. In all other circumstances, or if the application is not received until after 31^st January 2012, late applications will receive a lower priority, and will only be considered after the applications received (or deemed to be) on time.

   NB. If the late application is for an Academy, Foundation or Voluntary Aided School, or a school outside Worcestershire, it will be necessary to refer to the late application policy of the school or the LA, in whose area the school is located.

   If making an application after the start of the autumn term 2012 please see the in-year admission to School page.
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7. Q. Who has responsibility for the allocation of places?
   A. If a school is oversubscribed (has more applications than places), it will use admission criteria to decide who to offer places to. Read them carefully for the schools you are interested in.

   For Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools, decisions are made by the School Admissions and Transfers Section.For Academy, Foundation or Voluntary Aided Schools decisions are made by the governing bodies of the individual schools.

   See also the admissions policies published on this site.
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8. Q. How are places allocated?
   A. The School Admissions and Transfers Section will send details to its Academy, Foundation or Voluntary Aided Schools of all applications received for that school, irrespective of ranking, for initial consideration, and also to neighbouring LAs, who will then apply their own oversubscription criteria.
   
   

   The School Admissions and Transfers Section will then receive the outcome of these initial considerations, and will compare against lists of potential offers at other schools nominated on the application, to identify any pupils, who may potentially be offered more than one place. If this is the case, then the single offer will be the higher ranked school on the application form.

   If no place is available at your second or third preference schools as well, or if you have not expressed a second/third preference, the Home Local Authority will name an alternative school with places available.

   This will normally be the nearest school to where you live with available places.
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9. Q. When are decisions made?
   A. Offer letters will be posted on 1^st March 2012 via second class postage. They will be sent direct to parents, by the School Admissions and Transfers Section, even if it is on behalf of the governing body of an Academy, Foundation or Voluntary Aided School, or a school in a neighbouring LA.

   In the few cases where it may not be possible to offer a place at any of the preferences nominated on the application form, a place will be offered at the nearest school with available places for pupils who live in Worcestershire.

   For pupils not resident in Worcestershire, the offer or refusal letters will be sent direct to parents by the home LA, even if it is for a school in Worcestershire.
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10. Q. What happens if you are moving into a new area?
    A. Where families with children of school age are moving into a new area and wish to transfer their children to a different school, parents should at the earliest opportunity either enquire at schools in the area or contact the Local Authority School Admissions and Transfers Section in the area. Please be aware that some schools may well already be full at the time of your application.
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11. Q. How many children may be admitted to each school?
    A. The County Council has a duty to ensure the provision of efficient education and the efficient use of resources. Schools cannot be permitted to become overcrowded.
    
    The number of pupils that may be admitted to a school in the relevant year group is known as the Published Admission Number (PAN). Details for each school are given in Section 7a of the Information for Parents booklet.
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12. Q. How can my child be placed on a waiting list for a particular school if the year group is full?
    A. Waiting lists for Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools, are maintained by the School Admissions and Transfers Section, and parents need to apply, in order to be included. For full details on how to apply please refer to Section 7.7 of the Information for Parents Book.

    Waiting lists are operated in line with the admissions criteria as published in Section 7.3 of the Information for Parents Book. Please refer to the relevant section for full details.

    Waiting lists for Academy, Foundation and Voluntary Aided Schools, are maintained by the individual schools and parents will need to contact the school directly, in order to be included.

    You should be aware that a school waiting list is an active document. As parents request for their children to be included on the list the position of an individual child already on the list can change. A waiting list does not give priority based simply on the date an application was added to the list.
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