Admissions Policy
(Guidance Published by the London Borough of Harrow )
If there are more applications than places available in a particular high school the council has to decide who should get the places and there are rules which ensure that all decisions are made fairly. These are explained below. It is important to read this information carefully in order to understand how places are allocated. If you want a place in a co-educational high school we recommend you consider a high school linked to your child's middle or first and middle school in order to ensure continuity of teaching and learning. If you do not put a linked high school as your first preference, you will lose priority for it. If you apply for a heavily over-subscribed school you may waste your preference as places will be offered to applicants with a stronger claim under the admissions rules.
The only exception is that you can put Bentley Wood Girls School as your first preference and, if you are not offered a place, your second preference will automatically become your first preference.
Regrettably, however, there is no guarantee of a place at a linked high school. Whether a place can be offered depends on the number of applications received from applicants with a stronger claim under the admissions rule.
YOUR CHANCES OF BEING OFFERED A PLACE IN A SCHOOL WHICH IS NOT LINKED TO YOUR CHILD'S MIDDLE SCHOOL
Some parents have special reasons for seeking a place at a particular school. It is impossible to predict your chances of gaining a place in any school. It is important not to waste your first preference on a school you are not likely to be offered. If you do, you may not get a place in your linked school or a school close to your home because these are already filled by first preference applicants.
High schools usually fill from their linked middle schools, so very few places are left for other applicants. If more applications are received in any one criterion than there are places available the “tie-breaker” of distance, measured by the shortest, safe walking route, will be applied.
CO-EDUCATIONAL SCHOOLS
Places will be offered in the following priority order up to the standard admissions number to applicants who made the school their FIRST PREFERENCE .
- Statemented pupils
Pupils with a Statement of Special Educational Needs.
- Medical reasons
Children with special medical reasons for seeking a place at the chosen school. Such requests will only be considered for the school nearest the child's home.
Applications made on medical grounds must be accompanied by supporting evidence from a Consultant when you apply. This letter must provide information about your child's medical condition, the effects of this condition and why, in view of this, your child needs to attend the school nearest to your home. In assessing these applications we will seek appropriate advice, for example, from the Community Health Service, the Psychology Service and headteachers.
- Sibling link (older brothers and sisters)
Children with older brothers or sisters attending the preferred school at the closing date for receipt of 12+ application forms.
- Sibling link for pupils attending primary schools where the high school link changed in September 2000.
Pupils who, in the academic year 1999/2000, attended Belmont, Elmgrove, Kenmore Park, Norbury, Pinner Park, Whitefriars or St. John's C of E schools AND an older brother or sister attended the previously linked high school in September 1999.
- Pupils attending a linked middle or first & middle school
(Please note that linked schools only apply to year 8 applicants.)
IT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS NO GUARANTEE OF A PLACE IN THE LINKED HIGH SCHOOL
Four primary schools are linked to two high schools. It is possible, therefore, that more parents will apply for one of the dual linked high schools in preference to the other.
This could mean that there will be more first preference linked school applications that there are places available in that school. If your child attends a middle school which is linked to two high schools and you are not offered a place in your first preference linked high school, you will not automatically be offered a place at the linked high school named as your second preference. Whether a place can be offered depends on the number of applications received from applicants with a stronger claim under the admission rules. Children attending a middle school linked to only one high school do not have any higher priority for a place at the linked high school than pupils attending middle schools linked to two high schools.
Most high schools fill from their linked middle schools, so very few places are left for other applicants.
- Applicants with no link, by distance from home to school
Finally places are allocated to applicants who live nearest to the school. It is important to note that a first preference application for a heavily over-subscribed school which is not the linked school may waste your first preference. This could also mean that you will fail to gain a place at any of your preferred schools, as these may already be full with first preference applicants.
- Applicants not offered a place in their first preference school
Parents who do not get a place at the school of their first preference will be offered a place in another school. Second and other preference schools will be considered but only if the school still has vacancies after allocating places to those who named it as a higher preference.
Most schools fill from applicants who name a school as a first preference. It may not be possible to offer a place to parents who name these schools as a second, or subsequent preference as the schools are already full. When this happens, each school on your list of preferences is looked at until a school with a vacancy is identified. In many cases, this may be a school that has been named as quite a low preference. If you do not give a full list of preferences it is taken to mean that all the remaining schools are equally acceptable. A place will be offered at the school with a vacancy nearest to the home address.
For full details see the “A Guide to Secondary Schools in Harrow ” booklet.