The Corbet School Prospectus - Pupil Admissions

School Prospectus

Pupil Admissions

1. Admissions

Pupils are admitted at the age of eleven without reference to ability or aptitude. Where applications for admission exceed the number of places available, the Admissions Committee of the Governing Body will apply the admissions criteria, which are published as The Corbet School Admissions Policy.

The school’s published Standard number for each Academic Year is 135. That is the number of pupils we are expected to take in total. For September 2008 we received 166 first preferences and a further 2 second and third preferences and allocated a total of 151 places using the Admissions Criteria shown below.

All parents of admitted pupils will be requested to confirm that they have read and understood this publication the Handbook to Parents and Pupils.

2. Over-Subscription

The Governing Body’s Admissions Committee will discharge the functions conferred on it by The Education (School Government) (England) Regulations 1999. Where applications for admission exceed the number of places available, the Admissions Committee will apply the following criteria in order of priority set out below to decide which children to admit.**

Children who are in public care as Looked After Children, residing in Shropshire, and those who have a Statement of Special Educational Needs from Shropshire County Council which names The Corbet School as the appropriate school to meet the needs of the child.
Children living within the attendance area, (as defined by Shropshire County Council as the Local Authority), with an older brother or sister at The Corbet School who will be on the school roll on the day that they are due to start at The Corbet School.
Other children living inside the attendance area.
Children living outside the attendance area with an older brother or sister at The Corbet School who will be on roll on the day that they are due to start at The Corbet School.
Children outside the attendance area without an older brother or sister at The Corbet School but who have attended a maintained primary school that lies within The Corbet School’s attendance area for more than a whole academic year immediately prior to transfer.
Children living outside the attendance area.

Where the admission number is reached and a decision has to be made to differentiate between children who fall into the same criteria groupings of A-F above, priority will be given to those children who live nearest to the school measured as a straight line on the map between home and school.

** in very exceptional circumstances the following criterion may apply and such children may be allocated highest priority before B-F above.

Where a child has particular health reasons for wishing to attend The Corbet School. Such cases will be only be given priority if written medical evidence can be provided which demonstrates that attending The Corbet School is essential to the medical well-being of the child. The Governing Body reserves the right to check the essential nature of the medical condition with the relevant medical practitioner.

3. Applications

Admissions to the Corbet School for all Year 7 September Intakes will be via a common Shropshire County Council’s Admission Form. This form will be available to all Year 6 pupils in their current Shropshire maintained Primary School or can be obtained from the County Council’s Admissions Team, Shirehall, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, SY2 6ND. These applications will be required by 5th November, or the nearest school day that particular year, via the pupils’ existing Primary Schools (not directly to the Corbet School). They will then be passed on to the County Council’s Admission Team in the first instance. The School’s Admissions Committee will then consider all applications made to the school via the County Council and will inform the County Council’s Admissions Team of the places allocated. The County Council will inform parents on behalf of the school of its decision by post on 1st March, or the nearest school day that particular year. This will be a common date for secondary allocations across the country. Parents will only be offered one school place for each child. Therefore if The Corbet School is not able to offer a place the County Council will inform parents/carers of a place at another school which they can offer to the child. Parents are advised that it is in their child’s best interest to ensure that they have given more than one preference on their application form.

Late Applications: Parents are asked to note that the closing date for applications is 5th November (or the nearest school day). Any forms received after this date will not be considered until after all other allocations have been made unless there are exceptional circumstances, e.g. a family has just moved house into the area. In such circumstances the school and County Council will endeavour to include the application up until mid February. Otherwise late applicants will be placed on a waiting list.

Any mid term/year applications to all year groups need to be made using the Application form available from The Corbet School. Where a year group already meets or exceeds the school’s published standard number of 135 it would not normally expect to admit further pupils. This is because the Governing Body’s Admissions Committee have always felt that the admission of more pupils would lead to overcrowding and large classes in some teaching sets and would jeopardise the ability of the school to provide effective teaching to all of its pupils. Additional admissions to The Corbet School would thus prejudice the efficient use of resources.

4. Appeals

The Governing Body has established arrangements for appeals against non-admission, which include an independent element.

Where a child is refused admission by the School’s Admissions Committee, the Governing Body will ensure that the parents are informed of their rights to initially seek a review of the decision. If this review still turns down a possible admission, parents will then have the right to appeal against the decision (by a given date), to the Independent Appeal Tribunal. This Independent Appeal Process is managed by the Local Authority who will keep all interested parties fully informed about the relevant arrangements. These arrangements for review and appeal will be fully explained to parents and details are available from the School Office.

The Corbet School Technology College