Sixth Form Admissions

Sixth Form Admissions

Every year a proportion of students from Year 11 enter the Sixth Form to continue their studies and students from other schools and colleges may be eligible to join them.

Sixth Form Capacity

September 2020         Year 12                24

                                    Year 13                 0

Advice and guidance

All students will receive advice and guidance to support them in making the correct post-16 choices.

Internal applicants

Priority for places is given to students in Year 11 currently on roll who meet the entry requirements for Sixth Form courses.

If the number of applications exceeds the admission number, the governors will give priority to applications in accordance with the criteria in the order listed, depending upon applicants achieving the relevant entry requirements for individual subjects.

External applicants

For external applications the remaining places available on a particular course will be offered to those who have the better grades at GCSE or related subject specific requirements.

Academic entry requirements:

• BTEC courses – Level 3 - A minimum of 4 GCSE’s at Grade 4 and above to include English & Maths or suitable qualification at Level 2

Over subscription criteria

The oversubscription criteria of looked after children, siblings and distance will only be used if the number of external candidates exceeds the amount of places the school is able to admit.

1. Looked after or previously looked after children

A 'looked after child' or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, residence, or special guardianship order. 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 (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989).  In the case of previously looked after children, admission authorities may request a copy of the adoption order, residence order or special guardianship order and a letter from the local authority that last looked after the child confirming that he or she was looked after immediately prior to that order being made.

2. Siblings
Children (siblings) with an older brother or sister already at the school who will still be in attendance at the time the sibling enters the school.

Siblings (brothers or sisters) are considered to be those children who live at the same address and either:

A  have one or both natural parents in common; or
B  are related by a parent’s marriage; or
C  are adopted or fostered by a common parent.

Unrelated children living at the same address, whose parents are living as partners, are also considered to be siblings.  Children not adopted or fostered or related by a parents’ marriage or with one natural parent in common, who are brought together as a family by a same sex civil partnership and who are living at the same address, are also considered to be siblings.

3. Children who live nearest the school
Thereafter, children will be admitted on the basis of distance between their home address and the school gate.    

Distance will be calculated according to a straight line measurement between the applicant’s front door to their home and the school gate (as the crow flies). 

In a very small number of cases it may not be possible to decide between the applications of those pupils who are the final qualifiers for a place, when applying the published admission criteria.

For example, this may occur when children in the same year group live at the same address, or where there are twins, or if the distance between the home and school is exactly the same, for example, blocks of flats. If there is no other way of separating the application according to the admissions criteria and to admit both or all of the children would cause the legal limit to be exceeded, the local authority will use a computerised system to randomly select the child to be offered the final place.

A student’s home address is considered to be a residential property that is the child’s only or main residence at the time places are allocated and is either:

A.  Owned by the child’s parent(s), or the person with parental responsibility for the child or ...

B.  Leased to or rented by the child’s parent(s), or the person with parental responsibility under lease or written rental agreement of not less that twelve months duration.

Evidence of ownership or rental agreement may be required, plus proof of permanent residence at the property concerned.

Where parents have shared responsibility for a child, and the child lives with both parents for part of the week then the main residence will be determined as the address where the child lives the majority of the week. Parents may be requested to supply documentary evidence to support the address used for the allocation.

If a student is allocated a place on the basis of an address that is subsequently found to be different from a child’s normal and permanent home address, then that place is liable to be withdrawn.

Appeals

Where applicants are not satisfied with the school’s decision, arrangements exist for appeals to be heard by an Appeals Panel, which is independent of Harborne Academy.

Appeals in respect of Admission to Harborne Academy Sixth Form should be sent to the Consultant Clerk to the Governing Body at the school’s address, in accordance with prescribed procedures.

Unsuccessful applicants will be informed of their right to appeal and asked if they wish to go on to Harborne Academy’s waiting list, which will be held for at least one term in the academic year of admission.

Waiting List

Children named on the waiting list will be ranked in the same order as Harborne Academy’s published oversubscription criteria.

Should places become available at Harborne Academy, an offer to students from the waiting list will be made. 

Inclusion on Harborne Academy’s waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available.  It may be that those already allocated places do not give them up and that Harborne Academy is unable to make further offers in the future.

Fair Access Protocol

The Governing Body of Harborne Academy is committed to taking its fair share of children who are vulnerable and/or hard to place, as set out in locally agreed protocols.  Accordingly, outside the normal admission round the governing body is able to give priority to a child where admission is requested under any locally agreed protocol.  The Governing Body has this power, even when admitting the child would mean exceeding the published admission number subject.​

*No supplementary information form is used by Harborne Academy