School admissions

The Governors' Policy is to give priority to children from committed Christian* families. The number of intended admissions each year to Year 7 is 270. All pupils are admitted without reference to ability and aptitude except in the case of applicants to the Sixth Form to take GCE Advanced Level courses.

For admission to Year 7, the following criteria will be taken into consideration by the governors:

The Governing Body abides by the requirements of Section 324 of the Education Act 1996 in respect of children with Special Educational Needs.

Looked After Children (a 'looked after child' is defined as one who is in the legal care of a Local Authority) who have a letter from a church official confirming their involvement in a Christian Church will be offered places first.

Thereafter the Governors will discriminate between applicants using:

1. How regularly and frequently the child attends weekly worship at a Christian* Church (weekly worship excludes school assemblies or acts of worship taking place as part of the school day).
2. How regularly and frequently at least one parent attends weekly worship at a Christian* Church.
3. The number of years the child's attendance at Church has been sustained.
4. The number of years the parent's attendance at Church has been sustained.

(Weekly worship excludes school assemblies or acts of worship taking place as part of the school day)

Information must be provided by an authorised church official, usually the parish priest/minister. Points are awarded according to each criterion, and when the total has been calculated for each child, the governors will allocate places to those children reaching the appropriate qualifying 'score'. This is the point at which 270 pupils can be admitted. This 'score' varies from year to year as it is dependent upon the number of applications received and the nature of the church affiliation of that year's applicants, so it cannot be determined before all applications have been processed.

Should a situation occur where either:

(i) offering places to all of a group of applicants on a particular point score takes us over our standard number, or
(ii) all remaining candidates have zero points and the intake is not yet full;

then a lottery will be drawn as a tie-break. This will be carried out by the Chairman of Admissions Committee or his nominee and in the presence of an independent scrutineer.

*Please note that the Governors have defined 'Christian Church' as being any Church in membership of, or sharing the statement of belief ('the Basis') of 'Churches Together in England'.

**Please see application form for definitions.

APPLICATION

Once all sections of our application form have been completed, the parent should send it to the Head (envelope marked 'Admissions') to reach him by Monday, 14 November 2011 at the latest. We look forward to receiving your application.

RIGHT OF APPEAL

In the event of parents being refused a place for their child, they have the right of appeal to an independent panel established by the Governing Body. Information explaining how to appeal will be sent should your application be unsuccessful. Repeat applications with the same academic year will not be considered unless there has been a significant change in circumstances.

In 2009/2010 there were 346 applications for entry into Canon Slade.
There were 10 appeals, of which 2 were upheld and 8 refused. 270 places were awarded.