Appendix 2 - Determined admissions policy for community and voluntary controlled schools 2025-2026

Determined admissions policy for community and voluntary controlled schools for the school year 2025-2026

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 one: 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 (1) or became subject to a child arrangement order (2) 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 another provider of care whose sole purpose is to benefit society. (1) This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 and Children who were adopted under the Adopted and Childrens Act 2002. (2) 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 two: Children the Authority considers 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 which can meet the child’s needs 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 two.
Priority group three : Children living within the normal area of the school.	Refer to tie break
Priority group four: Children of staff at the school.	Priority in this oversubscription criteria is given in either or both of the following circumstances: a) 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 b) The member of staff has been recruited to fill a post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
Priority group five: Children living outside the normal area of the school.	Refer to tie break

(Normal area as outlined in this policy is also known as the catchment area)

Children in higher priority groups will be offered places ahead of those in lower priority groups (priority group one being the highest and priority group five being the lowest). All applications within each priority group will be considered equally ( for instance, 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 2025, 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 who lives permanently at the same address where the child for whom the school place is sought is living in the same family unit) 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 2025-2026

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. A child must have reached the prescribed academic standard and also be considered “suitable for boarding” before being offered a place.

Ripon Grammar School is an academically selective co-educational maintained school with day and boarding places (boarding is weekly or termly). As an academically selective school, all students must reach the prescribed academic standard before being offered a place.

The admissions policy for boarding places is set out below:

Boarding places order of priority	Notes
Priority group one: 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 adopted (1) or became subject to a child arrangement order (2) 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 another provider of care whose sole purpose is to benefit society. (1) This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 and Children who were adopted under the Adopted and Childrens Act 2002. (2) 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 two: 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 three : Children with a ‘boarding need’, defined by Ripon Grammar School as follows: I. 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 ii. Children of key workers and Crown Servants working abroad, for example, 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 four: Termly boarding applications.	Refer to tie break
Priority group five: Weekly boarding applications	Refer to tie break

Tie break

In all cases sibling refers to brother or sister and includes children who live as brother or sister in the same house permanently 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:

1. 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.
    
2. This occurs when applicants are equidistant from a school because the usual method of measuring the 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 independent scrutineer 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 independent scrutineer.

The 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.

The process to be followed

This entire process is to be carried out in sight of, and under the scrutiny of, the independent scrutineer.

1. The admissions officer 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.
    
2. The admissions officer prepares as many equal-sized pieces of white paper as are necessary, which are numbered consecutively.
    
3. The admissions officer folds each numbered sheet and seals them in identical envelopes, for instance, envelopes with no visibly identifiable differences.
    
4. The admissions officer shuffles the envelopes and hands them to the person who makes the draw who shuffles the envelopes again, picks one envelope, and opens it.
    
5. The admissions officer records the first number drawn on the ‘random allocation record sheet’.
    
6. If more than one place can be offered they continue to draw envelopes and record numbers until all of the available places are allocated.
    
7. The admissions officer 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 child(ren) has(have) been allocated a place and which have not.
    
8. Once the process has been completed, the admissions officer, independent scrutineer and the person who makes the draw 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.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

Families may seek a place for their child outside of his/her normal age group under various circumstances such as ill health, if the child is gifted and talented or when the child has experienced problems.

Our local arrangements

Harrogate High School, Harrogate Grammar School, Rossett School, Graham School and Scalby School are Academy Trust Schools. For the purpose of admissions where there are more applications than places available, places will be allocated according to the school's own admission arrangements and their priority groups.

Harrogate area – with regard to the priority group(s) that relate to children living within the normal area covering the school) that include Harrogate rural and Harrogate town zones the remaining places, after applications from higher priority groups have been taken into account, will be allocated on the basis of 21 per cent of places being available to children living in the Harrogate rural zone and 79 per cent of places being available to children living in the Harrogate town zone. Unallocated places in either of the zones would be assigned to the other zone before giving priority to children from outside the Harrogate zones.

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

1. 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.
2. Children who will have an older sibling at the school of their choice.
3. Children who live nearest to the school of their choice.

Scalby School - for priority group five 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:

1. Will have an older sibling at Scalby School at the start of the term when the younger sibling starts school; or
2. 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.

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:

1. Whether a child is able to cope with, and benefit from, a boarding place.
2. Whether a child presents a serious health and safety hazard to other boarders.
3. 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.