Admissions Policy

Admissions Policy 2024 – 2025

This is important: to get to know people, listen, expand the circle of ideas. The world is crisscrossed by roads that come closer together and move apart, but the important thing is that they lead towards the Good. Pope Francis

ADMISSIONS POLICY AND PROCEDURE

Our Lady’s RC High School is a Catholic secondary school in the trusteeship of the Diocese of Salford. It is maintained by Manchester Local Education Authority and is a voluntary aided school. The governing body is the admissions authority and is responsible for taking all decisions on applications for admissions. The co-ordination of admissions arrangements is undertaken by the local authority.

For the school year commencing September 2024, the governing body has determined that the number of children to be admitted to year 7 will be 210.

The school’s role is to participate in the mission of the Catholic Church by providing a curriculum, including Catholic religious education and worship, which will help children to grow in their understanding of the Good News and in the practice of their faith. The school will help the children develop fully as human beings and prepare them to undertake their responsibilities as Catholics in society. The school requires all parents applying for a place here to understand and respect this ethos and its importance to the school community. This does not affect the rights of parents who are not of the Catholic faith to apply for a place here.

Admissions to the school will be determined by the governing body. Parents must complete a local authority preference form or apply online via the website, [http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500322/secondary_school_admissions].

If there are fewer than 210 applications, all applicants will be offered places. If there are more applications than the number of places available, the following oversubscription criteria will be applied:

Looked After Children and previously Looked After Children. Children who were previously in state care outside of England, and have ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
Baptised Catholic children resident in the parishes of:

St Anne’s RC Primary School

St Chad’s RC Primary School

St Clare’s RC primary School

St Malachy’s RC Primary School

St Patrick’s RC Primary School.

St Thomas of Canterbury

3. Baptised Catholic children who have a sibling in the school at the time of admission.

4. Other baptised Catholic children.

5. Other children who have a sibling in the school at the time of admission.

6. Non Catholic children attending schools names in ‘2’ above

7. Non Catholic children from other Catholic primary schools

8. All other children seeking a Catholic education.

If it is not possible to offer places for all applications within any criterion above, priority will be given to those children living nearest the school. Distance is to be measured in a straight line from the centre point of the child’s permanent home address to the centre point of the school as defined by the Ordnance Survey, the national mapping agency, using the local authority’s computerised measuring system, with those living closer to the school receiving the higher priority. In the event of distances being the same for 2 or more applicants, places will be allocated by method 1-8 above.

Notes for Applicants:

a. All applications will be considered at the same time and after the closing date for admissions. The closing date for admissions can be found on the local authority’s website www.manchester.gov.uk

b. A Looked After Child is a child who is (a) in the care of a Local Authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a Local Authority in the exercise of their Social Services functions (under section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989. A previously Looked After Child is one who immediately moved on from that status after becoming subject to an adoption, residence or special guardianship order. Included in this definition are those children who appear to the governing board to have been in state care outside of England and who ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. If a child was previously in state care outside of England and have ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted, parents will be asked to provide evidence of the child’s adoption from state care outside of England (eg) a UK adoption order or a copy of the order from the child’s country of origin.

c. For a child to be considered as a Catholic evidence of a Catholic Baptism or reception into the Catholic Church is required. Written evidence of reception into the Catholic Church can be obtained by referring to the register of receptions, or in some cases a sub-section of the baptismal registers of the church in which the rite of reception took place. If, for example, a child has been baptised in the Church of England and the parents are subsequently admitted to the Catholic Church through the RCIA programme, the child must also be admitted to the Church by the rite of reception.

The governing body will require written evidence in the form of a certificate of reception before applications for school places can be considered for categories of ‘Baptised Catholics’. A certificate of reception is to include full name, date of birth, date of reception and parent(s) name(s). The certificate must also show that it is copied from the records kept by the place of reception.

Those who have difficulty obtaining written evidence of baptism for a good reason, may still be considered as baptised Catholics but only after they have been referred to the parish priest who, after consulting with the Diocese of Salford will decide how the question of baptism is to be resolved and how written evidence is to be produced in accordance with the law of the Church.

d. Home address is considered to be the address where the child normally lives. Where care is split and a child moves between two addresses, the household in receipt of the child benefit would normally be the address used but the admission authority body reserves the right to request other evidence as fit the individual circumstance. Applicants should not state the address of another relative or person who has daily care of the child.

e. ‘Sibling’ is defined in these arrangements as full, half or step brothers and sisters, adopted and foster brothers and sisters who are living at the same address and are part of the same family unit. This does not include cousins or other family relationships.

f. The admission of a non-Catholic child in a year when there are vacancies remaining after the demand from Catholics is met does not guarantee a place for a sibling in a year where the Catholic demand is greater.

g. A waiting list for children who have not been offered a place will be kept and will be ranked according to the admission criteria. The waiting list does not consider the date the application was received or the length of time a child's name has been on the waiting list. This means that a child's position on the list may change if another applicant is refused a place and their child has higher priority in the admissions criteria.

h. For ‘in year’ applications received outside the normal admissions round, if places are available they will be offered to those who apply. If there are places available but more applicants than places then the published oversubscription criteria will be applied. To apply for a place “in year” you can do so through the local authority https://secure.manchester.gov.uk/info/500322/secondary_school_admissions/7268/apply_for_a_secondary_school_place_for_2016/4. The local authority will let you know the outcome of your application within 15 days of receipt of the application.

i. If an application for admission has been turned down by the Governing Board, parents may appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel. Parents must be allowed at least twenty school days from the date of notification that their application was unsuccessful to submit that appeal. Parents must give reasons for appealing in writing and the decision of the Appeals Panel is binding on the Governors. Information about appeals can be found on the local authority’s website . https://secure.manchester.gov.uk/info/500322/secondary_school_admissions/7268/apply_for_a_secondary_school_place/5

j. The Governing Body reserve the right to withdraw the offer of a school place where false evidence is received in relation to the application.