Appendix 2 - admissions policy for community and voluntary controlled schools for the school year 2023/24

All governing bodies are required by section 324 of the Education Act 1996 to admit to the school a child with an Educational Health and Care Plan (EHCP) that names the school. This is not an oversubscription criterion. This relates only to children who have undergone statutory assessment and for whom a final Educational Health and Care Plan has been issued.

If the number of applications exceeds the Published Admission Number (PAN) after the admission of children where the school is named in the Education Health and Care Plan the following oversubscription criteria will apply:

Order of priority:	Notes:
Priority group 1 Looked after children, all previously looked after children and children who appear to the admissions authority to have been in state care outside of England and cease to be in state care as a result of being adopted. Previously looked after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted or became subject to a child arrangement order or special guardianship order.	This applies to all looked-after children, including those who are in the care of another local authority or being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services function at the time of making an application. In the case of previously looked after children, a copy of the relevant documentation will be required in support of the application. A child is regarded as being in state care outside of England if they were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation or any other provider of care whose sole purpose is to benefit society. This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 and Children who were adopted under the Adopted & Children Act 2002. Child Arrangement Orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a Child Arrangement Order.
Priority group 2 Children the authority considers to have special social or medical reasons for admission.	We will only consider applications on social or medical grounds if they are supported by a professional recommendation from a doctor, social worker, or other appropriate professional. The supporting evidence should set out the particular social or medical reason(s) why the school in question is the only school and the difficulties that would be caused if the child had to attend another school. Panels of professionally qualified people will consider all applications made under priority group 2.
Priority group 3 Children living within the normal area of the school.	Refer to tie-break
Priority group 4 Children of staff at the school.	Priority in this oversubscription criteria is given in either or both of the following circumstances: Where a member of staff has been employed at the school for more than two years at the time when the admission to the school is made, and/or the member of staff has been recruited to fill a post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
Priority group 5 Children living outside the normal area of the school.	Refer to tie-break

Order of priority:

Notes:

Priority group 1

Looked after children, all previously looked after children and children who appear to the admissions authority to have been in state care outside of England and cease to be in state care as a result of being adopted.

Previously looked after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted or became subject to a child arrangement order or special guardianship order.

This applies to all looked-after children, including those who are in the care of another local authority or being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services function at the time of making an application.

In the case of previously looked after children, a copy of the relevant documentation will be required in support of the application.

A child is regarded as being in state care outside of England if they were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation or any other provider of care whose sole purpose is to benefit society.

This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 and Children who were adopted under the Adopted & Children Act 2002.

Child Arrangement Orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a Child Arrangement Order.

Priority group 2

Children the authority considers to have special social or medical reasons for admission.

We will only consider applications on social or medical grounds if they are supported by a professional recommendation from a doctor, social worker, or other appropriate professional. The supporting evidence should set out the particular social or medical reason(s) why the school in question is the only school and the difficulties that would be caused if the child had to attend another school.

Panels of professionally qualified people will consider all applications made under priority group 2.

Priority group 3

Children living within the normal area of the school.

Refer to tie-break

Priority group 4

Children of staff at the school.

Priority in this oversubscription criteria is given in either or both of the following circumstances:

Where a member of staff has been employed at the school for more than two years at the time when the admission to the school is made,

and/or

the member of staff has been recruited to fill a post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

Priority group 5

Children living outside the normal area of the school.

Refer to tie-break

Children in higher priority groups will be offered places ahead of those in lower priority groups (priority group 1 being the highest and priority group 5 being the lowest). All applications within each priority group will be considered equally ( i.e. all applications, regardless of order of preference).

Tie-break

If there are not enough places for all the children in one of these priority groups, we will give priority first to those with a sibling at the school in September 2023, who live the nearest to the school (in all cases sibling refers to brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step-brother or sister, or the child of the parent/carer’s partner where the child for whom the school place is sought is living in the same family unit at the same address as that sibling) and then to those living nearest the school.

All distance measurements are based on the nearest route which is recognised by our electronic mapping system from a child’s home address to school. The measurement is made from a fixed point within the dwelling, as identified by the Ordnance Survey, to the nearest school entrance using footpaths and roads. The routes measured to determine the allocation of school places will be those recognised by the electronic mapping system used by the school admissions team.

If the distance tie-break is not sufficient to distinguish between applicants in a particular priority group a random allocation will be used as set out below.

Ripon Grammar School - boarding admissions policy for the school year 2023/24

Boarding places order of priority	Notes:
Priority group 1 Looked after children, previously looked after children and children who appear to the admissions authority to have been in state care outside of England and cease to be in state care as a result of being adopted. Previously looked after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted1 or became subject to a child arrangement order2 or special guardianship order.	This applies to all looked-after children, including those who are in the care of another local authority or being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services function at the time of making an application. In the case of previously looked after children, a copy of the relevant documentation will be required in support of the application. A child is regarded as being in state care outside of England if they were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation or any other provider of care whose sole purpose is to benefit society. This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 and Children who were adopted under the Adopted & Children Act 2002. Child Arrangement Orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a Child Arrangement Order.
Priority group 2 Children of members of the UK armed forces who qualify for Ministry of Defence financial assistance with the cost of boarding school fees	.
Priority group 3 Children with a ‘boarding need’, defined by Ripon Grammar School as follows: Children at risk or with an unstable home environment and children of service personnel who have died while serving or who have been discharged as a result of attributable injury; or Children of key workers and crown servants working abroad, e.g. the children of charity workers, people working for voluntary service organisations, the diplomatic service or the European Union, teachers, law enforcement officers and medical staff working abroad whose work dictates that they spend much of the year overseas.
Priority group 4 Termly boarding applications	Refer to tie-break
Priority group 5 Weekly boarding applications	Refer to tie-break

Tie-break

If there are not enough places for all the children in one of these priority groups, we will give priority first to those with a sibling* at the school in September 2023, who live the furthest from the school.

In all cases, sibling refers to brother or sister and includes children who live as brother or sister in the same house including adopted brother or sister, where the child for whom the school place is sought is living in the same family unit at the same address as that sibling then to those living furthest from the school.

All distance measurements are based on the furthest route which is recognised by our electronic mapping system from a child’s home address to school. The measurement is made from a fixed point within the dwelling, as identified by the Ordnance Survey, to the nearest school entrance using footpaths and roads. The routes measured to determine the allocation of school places will be those recognised by the electronic mapping system used by the school admissions team.

If the distance tie-break is not sufficient to distinguish between applicants in a particular priority group a random allocation will be used.

Random allocation procedure

Random allocations are necessary where there is more than one applicant ranked equally according to the published admission rules and there are insufficient places available to allocate all of the equally ranked applicants. This occurs where applicants are equidistant from a school because the usual method of measuring distance to the school results in two unrelated applicants having the same distance measurement

Each random allocation event only holds for the allocation of the currently available school place. On any waiting list, the remaining applicants remain equally ranked and any further place is offered as the result of a further random exercise. In making a random allocation it is important that there is scrutiny from a person who is not involved in the allocation process.

Definition of roles

independent scrutineer (IS) – this is a person who ensures the process is carried out in a correct and transparent way - the IS must be independent of the school for which the allocation is to be made and also must be independent of the council’s admissions and transport team
admissions officer (AO) – this is an officer from the council’s admissions and transport team who is responsible for carrying out the administration of the random allocation procedure and recording the results, under the scrutiny of the IS
person who makes the draw (P) – this must be a person independent of the school for which the allocation is to be made and must be a person who is not part of the council’s admissions and transport team

Process to be followed - This entire process is to be carried out in sight of, and under the scrutiny of, the IS

The AO allocates each pupil to be included in the draw a number and records it on the ‘random allocation cross reference sheet’. This is placed in a sealed envelope.
The AO prepares as many equal sized pieces of white paper as are necessary, which are numbered consecutively.
The AO folds each numbered sheet and seals them in identical envelopes, i.e. envelopes with no visibly identifiable differences.
The AO shuffles the envelopes and hands them to P who shuffles the envelopes again, picks one envelope and opens it.
The AO records the first number drawn on the ‘random allocation record sheet’.
If more than one place can be offered they continue to draw envelopes and record numbers until all of the available places are allocated.
The AO then opens the previously sealed envelope containing the ‘random allocation cross reference sheet’ and records the numbers drawn on the ‘random allocation cross reference sheet’, marking clearly which children have been allocated a place and which have not.
Once the process has been completed, the AO, IS and P should sign and date both the ‘random allocation record sheet’ and the ‘random allocation cross reference sheet’ in order to certify that the procedure has been carried out correctly.

We may be able to meet your preference for a place at a school that does not serve the local area you live in. In this case, you will normally be responsible for travel arrangements and the costs of your child's travel to and from school.

Local arrangements

Graham School and Scalby School are academy trust schools and their admissions policy should be considered.

Scarborough area

Graham School - for priority group 3 applications (that is, children living within the normal area covering the school), priority will be given as follows:

children living in the area normally served by East Ayton Community Primary School and the area west of Scalby Road from Lady Edith’s Drive to Scalby Beck
children who will have an older sibling at the school of their choice
children who live nearest to the school of their choice

Scalby School - for priority group 5 applications (that is, children living outside the normal area of the school), priority will be given to children who live in the areas normally served by East Ayton Community Primary School and the area west of Scalby Road from Lady Edith’s Drive to Scalby Beck and who:

will have an older sibling at Scalby School at the start of the term when the younger sibling starts school
would have to make the longest journey to another school without them becoming eligible for help with travel costs from us under the local authority transport policy

Selby area

Brayton Academy and Selby High School – for the purposes of admissions for priority group 3 children a distinction is drawn between those who live in Selby rural area and Selby town area. Each school, Brayton Academy and Selby High, has its own designated rural area and the two schools are jointly the normal schools for the Selby town area. Places will be offered, within priority group 3, to children from the individual rural area associated with each school before those in the town area, using the tie-break elements of the admissions policy for community and voluntary controlled schools for the school year 2023/24 where necessary.

Ripon Grammar School - Ripon Grammar School is a designated grammar school, this means that the school is permitted to select its entire intake on the basis of high academic ability. The school does not have to fill all of its places if applicants have not reached the required standard. Ripon Grammar School offers 103 day places and 14 boarding places.

As a maintained boarding school Ripon Grammar School may take boarders as well as day pupils. Maintained boarding schools can set separate admission numbers for day places and boarding places. As a maintained boarding school it can interview applicants to assess suitability for boarding, but such interviews must only consider whether a child presents a serious health and safety hazard to other boarders or whether they would be able to cope with and benefit from a boarding environment.

Parents of all boarding applicants must complete a ‘suitability for boarding’ form when applying for a place. When assessing how suitable a child is for boarding, Ripon Grammar School considers the following:

whether a child is able to cope with and benefit from, a boarding place
whether a child presents a serious health and safety hazard to other boarders
whether the school can match the needs of a student in a residential setting

Eligibility for boarding

As a state-maintained boarding school, all boarders must have either a full British citizen passport, or an Irish passport or, in the case of EEA (European Economic Area - EU together with Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein) and HK BN[O] passport holders, be dependant children of a parent who is either permanently resident in the UK or who is in the UK on a work or study visa.

All boarding students whose home is outside the UK, or whose parents work abroad, must have a named guardian in the UK.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

Families may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group under various circumstances such as:

ill health
if the child is gifted and talented
when the child has experienced problems
delayed entry for summer-born children

National Offer Day Tuesday 16 April

Guidance

Appendix 2 - admissions policy for community and voluntary controlled schools for the school year 2023/24

Order of priority:

Notes:

Priority group 1

Priority group 2

Priority group 3

Priority group 4

Priority group 5

Tie-break

Ripon Grammar School - boarding admissions policy for the school year 2023/24

Boarding places order of priority

Notes:

Priority group 1

Priority group 2

Priority group 3

Priority group 4

Priority group 5

Tie-break

Random allocation procedure

Definition of roles

Local arrangements

Scarborough area

Selby area

Eligibility for boarding

Admission of children outside their normal age group

Rate this page

A to Z of council services