Admissions

Admission Arrangements for September 2024

In accordance with the requirements of current legislation the Admission Arrangements and Admission Criteria which this School will apply to applications for admission in September 2024 are detailed below.

Applications must be made in accordance with the co-ordinated admission scheme operated by the child’s home Local Authority. For children resident in Essex this is published by Essex County Council in the Secondary Education in Essex booklet. Applications for admission to Year 7 must be received by the National Closing Date – 31st October. Mid-year applications should be made to the school using the Application Form provided by Essex County Council. The school attracts children from a wide geographical area.

ADMISSION CRITERIA

The Appleton School is an 11-18 mixed comprehensive school. Where applications for admission exceed the number of places available, the following criteria will be applied in this order of priority, to decide which children to admit:

Published Admission Number: 270

1. Looked after children (see definition) will be given first priority.
   A ‘looked after child’ or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after, became subject to an adoption, child arrangements or special guardianship order will be given first priority in oversubscription criteria ahead of all other applicants in accordance with the School Admissions Code 2021. This also includes those children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. 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).
2. Residency within the catchment area. A copy of the catchment area map is available to view at The Appleton School and is available on request.
3. Where the child has, at the time of application, a brother or sister currently attending the school. *
4. Up to 27 children in each year group who have an aptitude for Languages.
   Parents wishing their child to take the aptitude test are required to complete a Supplementary Information Form (SIF), obtainable from the school (the closing date for the return of the SIFs is Thursday 21st September, 2023). The test will be held on 22nd September, 2023 and 27th September, 2023 at The Appleton School. Test results will be posted to parents within two weeks of sitting the test. Places are allocated in rank order. In the event of a tie on score, this will lead to the straight line distance rule applying.
5. Children of staff at The Appleton School :-
   (a) Where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made and/or
   (b) The member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage
6. Proximity of the child’s home to the school, on the basis of straight line distance, with those living nearest being accorded the higher priority.
   A maximum of 270 children will be admitted in accordance with the above criteria.

In the event of over-subscription arising under criterion 1 – 3 and 5, the distance criterion defined in 6 will apply. Distances are calculated by the Local Authority by use of a Geographical Information System which accurately measures the distance from the home address to the school.

Successful applicants will be required to accept or decline the offer of a place by a specified date. If parents fail to respond, it will be assumed that they do not wish to take up the place.

Issues relating to unsuccessful applicants and those on the waiting list will be managed in accordance with the LEA’s scheme for coordinated admission and will be ranked in the order of The Appleton School’s Admission Criteria. Unsuccessful applicants will have the right of appeal to an Independent Appeals Committee as specified in the Code of Practice, which will meet on a specified date. The waiting list will be held until the end of the Autumn Term.

Applications received after the National Closing Date will be handled in accordance with the co-ordinated admissions scheme published by the child’s home Local Authority. For children resident in Essex this is published in the Secondary Education in Essex booklet.

* A relevant sibling is a child who has a brother, sister, adopted brother or sister or stepbrother or stepsister living in the same family unit in the same family household and address, who attends the preferred school in any year group excluding the final year. Biological and adopted siblings who attend the preferred school in any year group excluding the final year will also be treated as siblings, irrespective of place of residence. Children residing in the same household as part of an extended family, such as cousins, will not be treated as siblings

The Governing Body will apply the admission arrangements in accordance with the coordinated scheme for Essex.

Mid Term Admissions

• If you wish to apply for a place at our school, please complete secondary school mid-term application and return directly to the Appleton School. The Application form can be found on the link on this page.
• The Application form needs to be completed and returned to the school.
• Once the Application form is received, we will contact you to inform you whether there is a space available in the respective Year group applied for.
• If the Year group has spaces available, we will invite you in for a meeting at a mutually convenient time.
• If there are no spaces available in that Year group, we will send a letter of refusal within 5 working days. Your child will be added to our waiting list for that Year group. If or when a place did become available in that Year group, we would contact you immediately.
• If you wish to Appeal against this decision, please refer to our Appeals Guidance Notes attached.

Admissions Appeal Procedure

Year 7 Entry September 2024

Deadline for Appeals is 29th March 2024

Please be aware of the following arrangements for this Summer’s Appeals process for parents wishing to appeal the decision not to offer their Year 6 child a place for entry to The Appleton School in September 2023. Deadline for receipt of completed admission appeal form and supporting documentation (This is the latest date to lodge a written appeal against a refusal of a place if you want an appeal to be heard before the end of the Summer term. Appeal documentation received after 29th March 2024 may not be heard before the end of the Summer term).