School admissions criteria - 2016-17

Proposal

In accordance with mandatory requirements, Shropshire Council, as the admission authority for all of its community and controlled schools, has a duty to consult on proposed changes to admission arrangements.  

No significant changes are proposed to the arrangements for community and controlled schools in 2016/17.  However, Trinity CE Primary School in Ford has requested a decrease to its Published Admission Number (PAN) and in these circumstances the School Admissions Code stipulates that a formal consultation on admission arrangements must take place.  This includes admission arrangements for schools with a sixth form.  

In addition to the above, the Marches Academy Trust, which is the admission authority for both the Marches School in Oswestry and Sir John Talbot's Technology College in Whitchurch, has proposed changes to their oversubscription criteria.  Consultation on these changes will run simultaneously and responses will be co-ordinated by Shropshire Council. 

The proposed admission arrangements are laid out in the attached documents.  Consultation must take place for a period of 8 weeks, and will last from 19 December 2014 until 13 February 2015. 

The proposed changes are summarised as follows: 

• Shropshire Council's admission arrangements to remain unchanged except for a reduction in the published admission number for Trinity CE Primary School in Ford from 25 to 23.  The timetable for admissions in 2016/17 has also been revised. 
• Increases to published admission numbers at Thomas Adams School and Selattyn CE Primary School (for information only and not part of the consultation process). 
• Responsibility continues to be delegated to schools for mid-term (in-year) admissions and admission to school sixth forms.  Individual admission policies relating to these can be found on schools' own websites. 
• In the admissions policy for the the Marches Academy Trust, which applies to both the Marches School and Sir John Talbot's Technology College, the Trust proposes to extend the definition of sibling criteria to include students in the 6th form, and to give priority to children of members of staff above other out of area applicants.  

Although Shropshire Council is the admissions authority for community and voluntary controlled schools, the governing bodies of those schools have agreed to delegation of responsibility to them for determining admission arrangements to their sixth form.  This means that all publicly-funded schools in Shropshire are responsible for the admission to sixth forms in their schools. Their policies are part of this consultation and attached to this page.