SECONDARY SCHOOL OFFERS. Section 3

Transcription

1 Section 3 99

2 SECTION 3: Secondary school offers This section of the Guide gives you the information you will need when you receive your child s secondary school offer on 1 March Are you happy with the secondary school place offered to your child? Yes You need to accept the offer. If you applied online you can do this online, otherwise please us. No Do you want to accept the offer for the moment to make sure your child has a school place for September? Yes If you applied online you can accept the offer online, otherwise please us. *Only qualified children can be considered for a place at a grammar school and placed on grammar school waiting lists. Children who qualify at appeal can only be placed on the waiting list for that particular grammar school. Only children who have taken The Highcrest Academy s banding test can be placed on their waiting list. Put your child s name on the waiting list for schools you have already applied for*. 100

3 Make sure you read it carefully as it will explain why we have made the offer we have and what you will need to do next. It also tells you about the timeline for accepting the place we have offered, waiting list requests and the Admission Appeal process. Even if you have an older child who is already at secondary school, there are things that are likely to be different so it is important that you understand what happens after you have received your child s offer. This section also has information about how we manage allocation rounds after 1 March. No Decline the offer we have made. You can do this online if you applied online, otherwise please us. You may also Do you still need a secondary school place for your child? Yes No Decline the offer we have made and tell us which school your child will go to in September. If you applied online you can do this online, otherwise please us. Ask for an admission appeal. We will put your child s name on the waiting list for the school you are appealing for* and let you know if a place becomes available after further allocation rounds. This would mean that you would not then need to appeal. Change your preferences as long as you apply for no more than six schools at one time. We will put your child s name on the waiting lists for any new preferences* and write to you during the next allocation round to let you know if we can offer a place. 101

4 Some background information National Offer Day for all Local Authorities (LAs) for children moving up to secondary school in September 2016 is 1 March Each LA will let its residents know which school has been offered for their child. This section is written for Buckinghamshire residents, as each LA will have different deadlines and things for you to do. If you don t live in Buckinghamshire, make sure you understand what your home LA needs you to do. You should also contact them if your child does not have a school place for September. More information about National Offer Day is on our website: First round of allocations 1 March 2016 When will I receive my child s secondary school offer? If you applied before 31 December 2015, we will post you a letter on 1 March 2016 if: You applied using a paper form OR We have not been able to offer you a place at your first preference school OR Your child is currently in Year 6 at St Michael s Catholic School As all other parents will have applied online, they will receive their child s offer by on 1 March as well as being able to view the outcome of the application online from this date at: If we received your application after this date, we will write to you on 29 April 2016 to let you know which school we are able to offer your child. At the same time as we tell you which school your child has been offered, we also provide our secondary schools with the details of those children due to join them in September. The school will write to you directly with a welcome pack for your child. Please make sure you return any forms in this pack direct to the school by their deadline. Remember to tell us that you are accepting the place offered as well. If you have forgotten your online password, use the Forgotten Password feature on our online system. Just enter your address, answer your secret question and your password will be ed to you. 102

5 What do I need to do once I know which school my child has been offered? You must let us know what your response is to the offer we have made by the deadline of 15 March If you applied: Online - we would prefer that you do this online, but if you are not able to then you can do this by or by writing to us Using a paper form please or write to us. We cannot take your response over the phone. If you reply to our offer online you will receive an automated message to confirm your response. If you us you will receive an automated message so that you know we have received it. If you post your response to us, include a stamped, self-addressed postcard or envelope so we can send it back to you to confirm we have received it. Keep this for your records. It is best to do this as we are not able to let you know if we have received your response over the phone. Our address is in the offer and letter as well as on page 3. The allocation profile on our website will show you which schools had more applications than there were places available and the final admission rule under which we were able to offer places on 1 March. For information about other LAs and allocations to their schools you must contact them directly. Contact details for our neighbouring LAs are on pages 75 and 76. If you applied online, have you read our notes about online offers and what to do next? You can see these at: How do I accept the place you have offered my child? Most parents will be happy with the offer that we have made and will just need to accept it. If you made your application online, you will be able to accept the offer online at: Otherwise, please secondaryacceptance@buckscc.gov.uk with your child s name and date of birth; tell us which school you are accepting a place at. If you didn t apply online and don t have access to the internet, then please return the reply form 103

6 enclosed with the offer letter. Please reply to our offer using only one of the ways on the previous page by 15 March If you accept the offer online or by it is not necessary to also send in the reply form if we have sent you an offer letter. Have you accepted the place we offered to make sure your child has a school to go to in September? You have not offered my child a place at my preferred school. What can I do? It is sensible to accept any place offered. If this was not for your preferred school, accepting the place will not affect your child s position on a waiting list or your chances of success at appeal. As well as accepting the place we have offered, there are other things that you can do at the same time if you wish. Make sure we receive your reply by 15 March Add your child to the waiting list for a preferred school. You can ask for your child to be added to a waiting list or lists for the schools on your original application, including those for schools in other LA areas. You can do this online or, where applicable, by using the form with your child s offer letter. If you use the form you can scan and this to us at admissions@buckscc.gov.uk or send it in the post for us to receive by 15 March. Each waiting list is held in admission rules order and will be used to offer places that might become available in later allocation rounds. More information about admission rules is on page 22. All preferences will be treated equally even if they were late for the first allocation round. The Admission Authority for Academies as well as Foundation, Free and Voluntary-Aided schools is the school itself which means it is they who will put their waiting lists in order, although in some cases we may do this on their behalf. Your child can only be placed on a waiting list for a preferred Buckinghamshire grammar school if they qualified in the tests or following a successful selection review. Your child can also be added to the waiting list for a particular grammar school if they were qualified by the Independent Appeal Panel but a place was not available at that particular school 104

7 and the appeal for a place was not successful. Children who qualify at appeal are only added to the waiting list for the particular grammar school once all the appeals for that school have been heard and the decisions advised to the appellants, admission authority and the LA. There is more information later in this Section about admission appeals. It is really important to remember that if we can offer your child a place from a waiting list in a later allocation round, we will automatically take away any place we have already offered as it will be for a school lower on your preference list on your application. We will not contact you first and we can only offer your child one place at any time. Your child s position on a waiting list can go up or down as other children join or leave the list, depending on whether they have a higher priority in the admission rules than your child. If you want to remove your child from a waiting list, please let us know as soon as you decide this. You should do this by to admissions@buckscc.gov.uk or by sending us a letter. Look at the table on page 113 for the deadline dates for later allocation rounds and make sure we receive your request to remove your child from a waiting list in plenty of time. Do you understand what happens if we can make an offer from the waiting list? Call us if you would like us to explain anything to you. AND/OR 2. Change your preferences Think carefully about whether you would like to change your school preferences. You may find it helpful to remind yourself of the information in the allocation profile on our website: Other LAs will have information about the allocations for schools in their area on their websites. You can call them if you don t have access to the internet. If you decide to make changes, you can use the reply form included with your letter to list the schools in order. These new preferences will be considered in later allocation rounds. This list becomes your new preference order and we will automatically put your child on the waiting list for each of the schools. See also the notes on pages 83 to

8 You can include original preferences amongst any new ones as long as the order is clear. If you list schools in other LA areas, we will let them know. When you have filled in the form, either scan and it to us or post it to the address in the offer letter. If we did not send you an offer letter, us if you want to change your preferences, making sure the order is clear. We do not expect this to happen in many cases as you will have been offered a place at your first preference school. We can only consider Buckinghamshire grammar school preferences if your child qualified in the tests or following a successful selection review or if they were qualified for admission to a particular grammar school by the Independent Appeal Panel but a place was not available and the appeal for that particular school was not successful. AND/OR 3. Ask for an Admission Appeal Please see the information on the next page about this option. Why have I not been offered a place at my preferred school when I applied under the exceptional medical or social needs rule? Education professionals (who are independent of the Admissions & Transport Team and of our secondary schools) looked at your case and the supporting evidence you provided. They decided if it was appropriate to consider your application under the exceptional medical or social needs rule. If it was, this was taken into account when we were allocating places. Applications without supporting evidence will not have been considered. The allocation profile on our website will show you how we allocated the places at your preferred school: Academies, as well as Foundation, Free and Voluntary-Aided schools, and schools in other areas, have their own admission rules. If you applied for a place at one of these schools, they will have considered your application under their rules. 106

9 Please note that not all schools have an exceptional needs rule. There is more information about applying under this rule on page 26. As your child was not offered a place at the school you would like, you can ask for an Admission Appeal and put their name on the waiting list. However, only qualified children can be placed on grammar school waiting lists. Admission Appeals What is an Admission Appeal? An Admission Appeal is an opportunity for you to tell an Independent Appeal Panel (IAP) why you want your child to go to a school where you have been refused a place as they were all offered to children with a higher priority. The Department for Education (DfE) provides a School Admission Appeals Code which explains the appeal process and sets out the rules that must be followed by IAPs. You may like to visit the Department for Education website for more information: department-for-education If an appeal is successful, the Admission Authority for the school (see page 9 for more information) must abide by the IAP s decision and admit your child. Admission appeals will be heard from May 2016 onwards. Some things for you to think about Before you decide whether to ask for an Admission Appeal, we suggest that you read the information on our website: about the process so that you understand what will happen. You will also need to think about why you want a place at a certain school for your child. Ask yourself whether you have strong reasons and evidence to support your case. During the admission appeals for a particular school, the IAP will consider your reasons for wanting a place at the school for your child. How do I request an Admission Appeal? After we have told you that we cannot offer a place at your preferred school, you have the right of appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel. You cannot ask for an appeal unless you have applied for a place and been told that one is not available. If your child did not qualify, but you would still like them to be considered for a place at one of your preferred grammar schools, 107

10 you have the right to appeal to an IAP. You should be aware that if you have already had an unsuccessful selection review, the IAP will be restricted by the School Admission Appeals Code to considering whether the review was carried out in a fair, consistent and objective way. It will not be able to substitute its own decision as to the suitability of your child for a grammar school. More information about this is available on the Council s appeals website: schools/admissions-and-movingschool/appeals and in the School Admission Appeals Code which can be found here: publications/school-admissionsappeals-code You can appeal for more than one school a time. If you would like an Admission Appeal pack, which contains the form you need to complete to request the appeal, as well as an information booklet, please complete the online form available at: admissions/appeals.page Otherwise, please us at admissions@buckscc.gov.uk. Make sure you give us your child s name, date of birth, the name of the school you would like to appeal for and a phone number so that we can call you if we need to. The appeal form must be returned to the Education Appeals Team at Buckinghamshire Law Plus within 20 school days of the date on the form. Where a school has different arrangements for its Admission Appeals, we will make this clear where we send you a letter on 1 March 2016, as well as on our website: If you would like to appeal for a school in another area you should contact that LA direct to ask what to do next, the contact details for neighbouring LAs are on page 75 and 76. By asking for an Admission Appeal for a Buckinghamshire school, this also means that we will automatically put your child on the school s waiting list. However, only qualified children can be placed on grammar school waiting lists. Only children who have taken The Highcrest Academy s banding test can be placed on their waiting list. Information about how to contact the Education Appeals Team is on the next page. Please note the Education Appeals Team is completely independent of the Admissions & 108

11 Transport Team and any information that you submit to one team is not forwarded to the other unless you specifically request this. Make sure you read the booklet in your Admission Appeal pack for more information about the process and what to do next. When will I know the outcome of my appeal? The Clerk to the IAP will write to you within five working days of the final appeal for the school being heard. At the same time, they will also let us know if your appeal was successful. We will then update our records to show that this school has been offered to your child on appeal. Any other allocation will be removed and the place offered to another child, we do this automatically when an admission appeal has been successful. A child cannot be offered more than one place at a time. We will also update our records should the IAP qualify a child for a particular grammar school. We would expect any place offered as a result of a successful Admission Appeal to be accepted and that your child is on roll at the school within two weeks of the start of the autumn term, or within two weeks of receiving the letter saying that your appeal was successful. What can I do if I think my appeal was not handled properly? If you feel that your appeal has not been handled properly, you may contact the following: For all schools except Academies and Free schools: Local Government Ombudsman, PO Box 4771, Coventry CV4 0EH Advice Team: Fax: Web: For all Academies and Free Schools: Education Funding Agency, Academies Central Unit Earlsdon Park, Butts Road, Coventry CV1 3BH academy.questions@education.gsi.gov.uk Web: appealing-a-schools-decision There is more information in the Guide to Buckinghamshire Admission Appeals available online at: admissions/appeals.page You should be aware that the decision of the IAP is legally binding on all parties. However, where the Appellant or Admission Authority is successful in applying for a Judicial 109

12 Review of the decision, the High Court may order a re-hearing of the appeal. How can I contact the Education Appeals Team? appeals@buckscc.gov.uk Telephone: Fax: Post: Buckinghamshire Law Plus, Room G52, County Hall, Aylesbury, HP20 1UA I do not need or want the place you have offered my child. What should I do? Your child may no longer need a place in a Buckinghamshire secondary school. This might be because you are moving away or have a place for your child at an independent school. You must let us know by 15 March 2016 and confirm which school your child will be going to in September. You can do this online, by to admissions@buckscc.gov.uk or, if we wrote to you, by returning the form enclosed with your child s offer letter. It is important that you do this not only so we know your plans for your child but so we can offer the place your child does not need to another child. You may decide that you do not want to accept the place we have offered your child. You must let us know by 15 March if this is the case. At the same time let us know if you have made other arrangements for September. You should also read the information earlier in this section about the other options that are open to you and how to reply to our offer. Please bear in mind our advice that it is sensible to accept our offer to make sure that your child has a school place for September We would like to remind the parents of all statutory school age children that it is your legal responsibility to ensure that your child receives a suitable education and that where we believe this may not be the case we will ask the council s Education Welfare Service to check this with you. Are you sure that you do not need or want the place we have offered your child? We may not be able to reoffer it if you change your mind. 110

13 Is my child entitled to free School Transport? If we think your child is entitled to free transport, we will write to you by the end of April You can read more about the School Transport Policy and Guidance on page 70 as well as on our website: Please us at if you think that your child is entitled to free transport but we have not sent you a form by the end of April. Later allocation rounds If we are not able to offer your child a place at your preferred school on 1 March 2016 and you still want us to, we will try to do this in a later allocation round if places become available. We may be able to do this because other parents have refused our offer, for example they have made other arrangements for their child s education in September Successful admission appeals for one school may free up places at another school. For your child to be included in a later allocation round, you must have asked us to put their name on the waiting list for your preferred school or schools, and they must be qualified to attend that particular school. We will only write to you in a later allocation round if: You have asked for a new preference (we need to tell you if this can be offered or not) OR We have been able to make an offer of a place at a school on your original or later application, that you listed higher than the school we have already offered, and your child is on that school s waiting list. We will not write to you again to tell you that we still cannot offer a place at a school that you listed on an earlier application. If you live outside of Buckinghamshire, we will let your home LA know if we can make an offer for your child at one of our schools. It will be for them to let you know and this can be at a different time to Buckinghamshire parents. They will also let us know about any further offers at their schools for our children. 111

14 If your child cannot be offered a preferred school in a later round of allocations, we will let you know where they are on any Buckinghamshire school waiting lists on the dates we have given in the table on the next page. If your child is on a waiting list for a school outside of Buckinghamshire, you will need to contact that LA direct and ask them how you can find out what your child s position is. Waiting lists for admission to Year 7 in Buckinghamshire secondary schools will be maintained until August 2016 at which time we will write to ask you to confirm whether you still wish your child to be considered for a place at the school. If you do, you must reply by the deadline given in the letter. 112

15 Helpful dates The table shows the deadlines by which we need to receive information from you for your child to be included in a later allocation round, and the dates we will write to you: Information about: Adding or removing your child s name to / from a waiting list Changing preferences Moving to Buckinghamshire* must be received by this date: Offer letters will be posted. We will also send a letter where we cannot offer a place at a new preference on this date: Where a place cannot be offered, we will send waiting list position letters on this date: Second round 18 March April April 2016 Third round 10 May May Fourth round 17 May May Fifth round 24 May May Sixth round 7 June June Seventh round 14 June June Eighth round 21 June June June 2016 * For Service families or families of other Crown Servants, the evidence we will accept about your move to our area is mentioned on page 73. All other families must provide the other evidence that we ask for on this page. *Dr Challoner s Grammar School has different moving deadlines. Check their website or contact the school direct for more information: 113

16 We will also include applications we received after 31 December 2015 in the second allocation round. After 23 June 2016, we will offer any further places as they become available. There are usually very few at this time in the year. The nearer we get to the start of September the fewer places we have to offer and the less likely it is that a place will become available at your preferred school. If there have been successful admission appeals for a school we will not be able to offer any places unless the number of children due to join the school in September 2016 falls to below the school s Admission Number. There is more information about Admission Rules on page 22. You can see the Admission Numbers for Buckinghamshire schools by looking in the list that starts on page 30. What will happen if my child does not have a school to go to in September 2016? During August, if our records show that you have still not secured a secondary school place for your child or that you have made other arrangements, we will ask the Education Welfare Service to contact you. They will make sure that your child will be going to school in September. They will have details of the secondary schools in Buckinghamshire that have places available. 114