Fairfield High School for Girls
Tradition. Vision. Learning.
AUGUST 2010 - BEST EVER GCSE RESULTS
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Admission to Fairfield High School
In common with other Tameside secondary schools, Fairfield High School’s admission procedures comply with the requirements of a qualifying scheme under the Education (Co-ordination of Admission Arrangements) (Secondary Schools) (England) Regulations 2007. Fairfield High School will operate an equal preference scheme.
Applying for a Place at Fairfield High School for September 2011
If you are a Tameside resident and your daughter attends a Tameside Primary School
You will have received a ‘Moving On’ booklet in September. The booklet will contain a personally addressed letter, outlining the admissions process to be followed and a Common Application Form (CAF). The completed CAF should be returned to your daughter’s primary school who will forward it to Tameside LA.
If you live outside the Tameside LA area and your daughter attends a Tameside Primary School
You will receive a ‘Moving On’ booklet. The booklet will contain a personally addressed letter, outlining the admissions process to be followed and an explanation of how to get the Common Application Form (CAF) for the education authority where you live. Application must be made to your own LA even if you wish to state Fairfield High School as one of your preferred choices.
If you live outside the Tameside LA area and your daughter attends a Primary School outside the Tameside LA area.
You will receive a booklet from your own LA which will provide details of applying to schools outside your own education authority. Applications forms need to be returned in accordance with their specific instructions and not to Tameside. Application must be made to your own LA even if you wish to state Fairfield High School as one of your preferred choices.
If you live inside the Tameside local authority area and your child attends a Primary School outside the Tameside local authority area
You will receive an application pack from Tameside in September 2010. The pack will contain Tameside’s ‘Moving On’ booklet on secondary admissions, a personally addressed letter, outlining the admissions process to be followed and a Tameside Common Application Form. Application must be made to Tameside even if you wish to state a school in another local authority as one or more of your preferred schools.
The Process
- The Common Application Form will invite all parents to name 3 schools in order of preference. In allocating places, Fairfield High School will operate an equal preference scheme.
- The Common Application Form will give parents the opportunity to include information to support an application to Fairfield High School.
- There will be a common timetable for all including a single notification date. Late applications will be dealt with as late and ranked after all applications received by the deadline.
- Changes to preferences, ranking order or pupil details will not be allowed after the closing date of 31 October 2010 except in exceptional circumstances for example, if the family has recently moved address. Evidence must be provided to support the request. No changes can be considered after tbc, when the allocations process has started.
- Primary schools will forward all application forms (CAF) to the LA who will collate them. Applications from outside the Tameside area will be forwarded by the relevant LA to Tameside. Any application forms mistakenly received by Fairfield High School will be forwarded to the LA.
- The LA will liaise with Fairfield High School over applications. Governors will apply the school’s oversubscription criteria irrespective of the preference order, and provide the Local Authority with a list of applicants ranked according to the criteria (see below).
- Notification letters containing offers of a single school place will be sent out to parents on 1 March 2011. This is common with all other LAs nationally. These letters will also inform parents of their right of appeal, and who to contact, if an application to Fairfield High School has not been successful.
- Parents will not receive multiple offers.
- If the school is oversubscribed the governors will maintain a waiting list. The waiting list will operate until the end of the autumn term 2011. Parents who have expressed the school as a preference and have not been offered a place at the school or at a higher preference school, will automatically be placed on the waiting list. Other parents who have submitted an appeal or who have opted to go on the list will also be placed on the list. All pupils on the waiting list will be ranked according to the oversubscription criteria. Places will be offered, should any become available, to the highest ranked application received by the date the place becomes available. If new or late applications have a higher priority under the oversubscription criteria, they will be ranked higher than those who have been on the list for some time. A significant change of circumstances, such as a change of address, will be taken into account: evidence must be provided. Children who have been referred under the local authority’s Fair Access protocol or who are the subject of a direction by the local authority to admit must be given precedence over any other children on the waiting list.
Electronic Admissions by E-Mail
Parents with a working e-mail address have the opportunity to apply on-line. To access this facility log on to Tameside’s website (www.tameside.gov.uk), then under quick links click on ‘Admissions on-line.’ This will take you to the log on page where you will need to register before you can make an application. The LA will send you a confirmation reply.
Each child will be issued with a unique identification number (UID) which you enter on-line along with your child’s date of birth in order to bring up your child’s details and application form. No one else will be able to access your child’s information.
Preferences can then be entered in ranked (priority) order. These may be changed at any time before the closing date of 31 October 2010. Parents can also opt to receive confirmation of their child’s school allocation by e-mail on 1 March 2011. Letters will additionally be sent by post.
Admissions Arrangements for Fairfield High School
Girls will be admitted at age 11 without reference to ability or aptitude. Thepublished admission number for the school is 195.
Where applications for admission exceed the number of places available, the following criteria (see also ‘Moving On’ booklet) will be applied, in the order set out below, to decide which children to admit.
ADMISSIONS SEPTEMBER 2011
If the school receives more applications for places than there are places available, the criteria for over-subscription are applied to determine who should be offered places. Girls with statements of special educational needs where the school is named will be allocated places before the oversubscription criteria are applied. An application to Fairfield High School indicates a preference for single sex education.
The criteria for over-subscription for Fairfield High School are:
- Children in Public Care (Looked After Children)
- Children and families with exceptional medical or social needs
Evidence must be provided from a doctor or other agency that she has exceptional needs which means that admission to Fairfield High School is essential. Reference will normally be made to the Community Health Physician, Social Services or the Educational Psychologist, as appropriate. The Governing Body will make a decision as to whether to admit a girl under this criterion using the evidence provided. All information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence. - Siblings
This will apply where there are sisters attending the school at the time of admission. Preference will be given to girls living nearest to the school.*
The sibling criterion includes: natural sisters; half sisters; step-sisters; adopted sisters; sisters of fostered girls, and in each case living at the same address. This allows for the admittance of girls whose siblings will still be attending Fairfield High School. The Governing Body reserves the right to give special consideration to twins, triplets or other multiple birth siblings to prevent breaking the sibling link. - Girls attending primary schools in Tameside, including pupils educated at home at the time of application, as identified by the LA.
Preference will be given to girls living nearest the school.* - 5 All other applications on distance
Preference will be given to girls living nearest the school.*
*Where over-subscription occurs in applying criteria 3, 4 or 5, distance will be measured as a straight line from the child's home address, using the address point assigned by The National Land and Property Gazetteer, to the main gate to the school property. Measurements will be made using the local authority’s school admissions data mapping software, which employs a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.
In the unlikely event of distance being the same for 2 or more applicants, where this distance would be for the last place(s) to be allocated, a random lottery will be implemented between the applicants for whom the distance is the same. The random lottery will be carried out in a public place and supervised by someone independent of the school. All the names will be entered into a hat and the required number of names drawn out.
The address from which distance will be measured will be the permanent residential address, at the time of application, of the parent with whom the child is normally resident. Where a child lives with parents with shared responsibility, each for part of a week, the home address is the address from which the child travels to school for the majority of school days per week. If the number of days is exactly equal the home address will be that of the parent who receives the Child Benefit.
In cases where twins, triplets, other multiple birth siblings, or other siblings whose date of birth falls within the same academic year, would be split when allocations take place, governors will exceed the Published Admission Number in order to admit that sibling group.
Appeals
Any parent who is dissatisfied with their school allocation has the right of appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel. For pupils with Special Educational Needs, appeal can be made to the SEN Tribunal (details are included in the Statement).
Parents, therefore, who wish to appeal against any decision of the Admissions Committee in refusing admission to the school, should do so by completing a School Admission Appeal Form, setting out clearly why your child should go to Fairfield High School. These are available, and should be returned to, the School Organisation Section at Tameside MBC, Council Offices, Wellington Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancs. OL6 6DL.
In common with other Tameside secondary schools, Fairfield High School’s admission procedures comply with the requirements of a qualifying scheme under the Education (Co-ordination of Admission Arrangements) (Secondary Schools) (England) Regulations 2007. Fairfield High School will operate an equal preference scheme.