girls sitting on bench

ADMISSIONS POLICY 2011

1.   OPEN DAYS

We would be delighted to see parents and prospective students at our Open Evening on Thursday 30 September 2010; tours of the school are also available during the normal working day of the school. Please contact the school to make an appointment or if there are any queries the Admissions Team can help with.

2.   ADMISSIONS AT 12

The admissions arrangements for Parkstone Grammar School are in accordance with the Coordinated Admissions Scheme adopted by all the school admissions authorities within the Borough. Only girls who attain the required standards in the prescribed arrangements for selection by reference to high ability will be eligible to be considered for admission to the school. These arrangements require that in order to be eligible for consideration for admission to the school, would-be students must pass an entrance examination.

3.   TESTING APPLICANTS

The closing date for applications to be received by the Borough of Poole is 31 October 2010

All the admission authorities within Poole operate an equal preference admissions system. This means that all first, second and third preference applications are considered equally by the different Admissions Authorities which will not know the ranking that the parents have given to the individual schools. The Local Authority will then offer the highest ranked preference possible.

The entrance test is taken on Saturday 4 December 2010. Further testing may be arranged at other times of the year for in-year applications. On the day of testing all students will take NFER Verbal and Non-Verbal Reasoning tests.

Details of the tests will be sent to the students soon after the closing date for applications.

All applicants received by the published date will be tested together. On the basis of their test results girls will either reach the required standard for consideration for admission or will fail to reach the required standard. The scores for the entrance tests are adjusted (or “standardised”) according to age. There is, therefore, no advantage in taking the test either early or late in the year.

The Governors’ Admissions Panel will then consider which students have met our entrance requirements and this information will then be passed to the Local Authority which will then allocate places in accordance with the ranking order indicated by parents. Test results will be also be forwarded to Headteachers of Poole Middle Schools (with an age of transfer of 12+).

If an application is made it does not commit the applicant to accepting a place.

4.   LATE APPLICATIONS FOR YEAR 8

A late application is one that is received after the published closing date (31 October 2010). Late applications will not be dealt with until after all applications submitted by the closing date have been considered and the admissions process completed.

5.   PUBLISHED ADMISSION NUMBERS

The school’s Published Admission Number for Year 8 for September 2011 is 168. Up to fifty students can be admitted to Year 12 from other schools.

6.   OVER-SUBSCRIPTION

Where the number of students who have met the required standard exceed the Published Admission Number, the following criteria will be applied in the order set out below, to decide which students should be offered a place:

  1. Eligible girls who are classed as ”Children in Care”
  2. Eligible girls who live within the Borough of Poole
  3. Eligible girls live outside the Borough of Poole, in rank order of the entrance test scores, with those girls obtaining the highest scores given higher priority

In the event of over-subscription in any of the criteria (a) to (c), then priority will be given to the girl whose permanent address is nearest to Parkstone Grammar School. In line with the information provided in the Borough of Poole’s Admissions booklet, the distance from home to school is measured by using the shortest, safest, practicable walking route using the centre line of public roads and footpaths (excluding paths identified for the sole use of bicycles i.e. cycleways) from a point outside the centre of the pupil’s home address to a point opposite the nearest approved access point on school property that is for the use of pupils. The GIS maps used are provided by Ordnance Survey and represent the position as at the beginning of the annual admission cycle i.e. September in the year prior to admission. Any footpaths or roads added after this time will not be taken into consideration until the next academic year of application.

For applicants living on islands within Poole harbour the distance measurement will be a straight line from the centre point of the home property to either:

  1. the nearest public landing steps at Poole Quay, or
  2. a point on the mainland that the applicant proves to the satisfaction of the local authority that he/she can access

and from that point the distance will be measured using the shortest, safest, practicable walking route to the nearest point on the public highway and from there using the shortest, safest, practicable walking route using the centre line of public roads and footpaths (excluding paths identified for the sole use of bicycles i.e. cycleways) to a point opposite the nearest approved access point on school property that is for the use of pupils.

If an applicant advises the local authority that the child would or could use the Sandbanks Chain Ferry in the journey to school then the distance will be measured on that basis from the home address including the distance travelled by the ferry.

In the above circumstances, if the applicants live in the same block of flats the allocation will be made by way of drawing lots. Further details of this process can be found in the Borough of Poole’s Admissions Booklet.

7.   PUPILS WITH A STATEMENT OF SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

Pupils with a Statement of Special Educational Needs issued by a local authority naming Parkstone Grammar School will be admitted before preferences are considered for admission in September. Schools are legally obliged to admit such pupils.

8.   HOME ADDRESS

The home address where a child lives is considered to be the address at which she is ordinarily resident during term time. Where a child spends time with parents who have shared parental responsibility at more than one address the local authority will consider the home address as being where the prime carer resides. The prime carer is the parent/carer in whose name Child Benefit payments are made.

9.   APPLICATIONS FROM SEPARATED PARENTS/CARERS

Only one application can be considered for each student. Where parents/carers are separated it is essential that agreement is reached by both parties concerning the nominated preferred schools. If agreement cannot be reached the Governors will only consider the application from the parent/carer who is the prime carer of the child. The prime carer is the parent/carer in whose name Child Benefit payments are made.

10.   APPLICATIONS FOR CHILDREN OF MULTIPLE BIRTHS

If applications from children of a multiple births span the threshold for the published admission number, this will be treated as an exceptional circumstance and they will be admitted.

11.   INDEPENDENT APPEALS

In the event that an offer of a place is not made, parents have the right of appeal to an Independent Panel and information will be given at that time on how parents can exercise this statutory right.

12.   ADMISSION AT AGES 13 - 15

Although the usual ages of admission are 12 and 16, suitably qualified students aged 13 to 15 may be admitted when there are vacancies. Such students will be required to produce evidence that they can benefit from a grammar school education. This is normally a report from their current school and the results of tests administered by the staff of Parkstone Grammar School. Parents should complete the “In-Year” application form which is available from the Local Authority. If there is a vacancy in the year group, students who wish to be admitted to the school will be required to sit an entrance test. The place will then be offered in accordance with the oversubscription criteria as stated in 6 above. In the event that two or more applicants are of equal ranking for this place then priority will be given to the girl whose permanent address is nearest to Parkstone Grammar School. The process used for this is as described in 6 above.

Alternatively if the year group is full, parents may still request that the school tests their daughter. However, the school will be unable to offer a place as the school cannot offer places above its Published Admissions Number but parents will have the right of appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel.

13.   APPLICATIONS FOR THE MAIN SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS OUTSIDE THEIR NATIONAL CURRICULUM YEAR GROUP.

  1. They are already being taught in that year group in another school; and
  2. They have a letter of support from their existing Headteacher

14.   IN-YEAR FAIR ACCESS

All the Admissions Authorities in Poole have established an In-Year Fair Access Protocol. The purpose of the Protocol is to ensure an equitable distribution of in-year admission placements. Cases are considered by a Panel comprising Headteachers or their representatives. Decisions of the Panel may mean that individual schools may have to admit students which could result in the Published Admission Number being exceeded.

15.   WAITING LISTS

Following the allocations of places in March 2011 for entry to Year 8 at the school in September 2011 the school will keep a “waiting list” of all students who had met the required standard but were not offered places for September as well as those who applied late or during the school year who also passed the entrance test but could not be offered a place. Should a place become available and the school is below its Published Admissions Number then the place will be offered to the student who is the highest ranked applicant on the waiting list after applying our over-subscription criteria. This waiting list will end on 31 December 2011.

16.   ADMISSION TO THE SIXTH FORM

Students are required to have achieved six GCSEs (including Mathematics and English) at grades A* to C with an A*, A or B in the subjects chosen at advanced level or in a related subject.

Students attaining this academic qualification in Year 11 at Parkstone have an automatic entry to Year 12.

Up to 50 girls can be accepted into the Sixth Form from other schools. They have to have achieved the same academic requirement as students in Year 11 at Parkstone Grammar School.

A student can only be admitted for a particular AS level if there is a place on the course.

In the event of the over-subscription to the Sixth Form, priority will be given to the girl who scores highest in rank order on the above criteria i.e. success at Key Stage 4 measured by the QCA average points score of their eight best results.

APPLICATION FORMS FOR 2011:

The School Admissions Team
Children & Young Peoples’ Integrated Services
Dolphin Centre
Poole
BH15 1SA
The School Admissions Team
Children & Young Peoples’ Integrated Services
Dolphin Centre
Poole
BH15 1SA

Further information can be obtained from:

The Admissions Team - Parkstone Grammar School
Sopers Lane
Poole
BH17 7EP
Tel (01202) 605605     Fax (01202) 605606
E-mail:
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