Admissions Policy for entry into Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School (Horncastle) in September 2022

Admissions Authority

Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School is an 11 to 18 selective Academy for which the Governing Body is the Admissions Authority, responsible for both admissions and administering appeals. The Governing Body determines all decisions about admissions, including this policy. All allocations of places are determined by the Governing Body.

Visits

Parents of prospective pupils are welcome to visit the school by prior arrangement with the Headteacher. The main open evening is early in the autumn term. Details are sent out to feeder primary schools and are widely advertised in the press.

Entry to Year 7

The school will admit pupils at 11 plus who are in the top 25% of the ability range. The school is a member of the consortium of Lincolnshire Grammar Schools and will apply their selection tests and procedures including appeals procedures, to determine whether or not a pupil is within the top 25% of the ability range. 

Parents who wish to register their children for the tests can obtain the necessary information from the school. There are two tests for all applicants which take place in the Autumn term.

Places will be allocated on or after March 1st according to the co-ordinated admissions scheme for the county.

The agreed admission number for entry in September 2022 is 120 in four forms of entry.

How to apply for a place in Year 7

Arrangements for applications for places in Year 7 at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School will be made in accordance with Lincolnshire County Council’s co-ordinated admission arrangements; parents

resident in Lincolnshire can apply online at www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/schooladmissions, parents resident in other areas must apply through their home local authority. 

Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School will use the Lincolnshire County Council’s timetable published online for these applications and the relevant Local Authority will make the offers of places on their behalf as required by the School Admissions Code.

Please note that all applications for a place at Queen Elizabeth's must also complete 11-plus testing if they are to be considered. Qualification in the school’s 11-plus testing arrangements, however, does not, in itself, guarantee your child a place in the school. Also, sitting the tests does not constitute an application.

In accordance with the legislation, the allocation of places for children with the following, who have reached the qualifying standard, will take place first: 

Education, Health and Care Plan (Children and

Families Act 2014) where the school is named in the plan.

Timetable for admissions

1. Information on testing available from school by the end of May in the year prior to admission.

2. Application form and booklet produced by the local authority in early September in the year prior to admission.

3. Allocation of places 1 March prior to admission in the September.

Policy in the Event of Oversubscription at 11-Plus

In the event that the number of eligible applicants for admission exceeds the number of places available, the following criteria will be applied, in the order set out below, to decide which children to

admit:

(1) Looked after children and all previously looked after children, if they have reached the required standard for entry. A ‘looked after’ is a child who is (a) in the care of the a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of application.

(1) 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 arrangements order or special guardianship order). This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see section 12

adoption orders) and children who were adopted under the Adoption and Children’s Act 2002 (see section 46 adoption orders). Child arrangement orders are defined in section 8 of the Children Act

1989 as amended by section 12 of the Children and Families Act 2014. 

Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order. Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a ‘special guardianship order' as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).

(2) Children who have reached the qualifying standard for entry and who are eligible for pupil premium or the service premium.

(3) Eligible children whose permanent address is within the school’s designated area for free transport with priority being given to the order of their total scores in the entrance tests.

(4) Eligible children from all other areas with priority being given to the order of their total scores in the entrance tests.

In the event that total scores are tied in any of the above categories, priority will be given to the children living nearest the school using the straight line distance. Straight line distance is calculated electronically to 3 decimal places by Lincolnshire County Council school admissions team from Post Office Address Point of the home to Post Office Address Point of the school. 

If distance is not sufficient to distinguish between applicants for the last remaining place then a lottery will be conducted by an independent person, not employed by the school or working in Children's Service Directorate at the local authority.

The date for determining whether a pupil counts as living within the designated area for free transport is January 1st in the academic year preceding entry. No applicant whose home address is outside this

area can become an in catchment applicant by virtue of the primary school that they attend.

By home we mean the address where the child lives for the majority of term time with a parent as defined in section 576 of the Education Act 1989. Where a child lives normally with more than one parent at different addresses during the school week, the home address, for the purposes of school admissions, will be the one where the child spends the majority of term time. If a parent can show that child spends an equal amount of time at both addresses during school term time, they can choose which address to use on the application. 

If a parent has more than one home, we will take as the home address the address where the parent and child normally live for the majority of the school term time.

Details about the number of applicants each year and therefore the likelihood of success are available in the School Prospectus to be published in September. A map of the designated area for transport is

available from the school and is published on the school website and The Consortium of Lincolnshire Grammar Schools website (http://grammarschools.lincs.sch.uk)

Late applications for entry to Year 7

If candidates for entry to Year 7 apply after the normal times for testing, they will still be able to sit the appropriate tests and be considered for places according to the normal criteria set out above and taking into account the co-ordinated admissions scheme for the county.

In year admissions

Applications should be made via Lincolnshire County Council. or directly to the school. The school will accept admissions up to the published admission number of the respective year group at the point of entry. In the event that this would cause prejudice to the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources it may be necessary to refuse a place although the year group has not yet reached the school’s published admission number. 

If it is necessary to refuse a place then you will be informed of your right of appeal. Parents can apply online at www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/schooladmissions or call 01522 782030 for a paper form.

Children of UK service personnel (UK Armed Forces)

In order to support the military covenant aimed at removing disadvantage for UK service personnel (UK Armed Forces), and Crown Servants returning from abroad the following arrangements will apply;

If an application is supported by an official letter declaring a posting and a relocation date then an intention to move to a confirmed address or quartering within the UK will be accepted. The new address will be used to consider the application against the oversubscription criteria. 

A unit postal address can be used if the family do not have a confirmed address at the time of application. Where an application is not supported by an official letter, or is not being made due to a new posting then the current address will be used to examine the application against the oversubscription criteria until the family are formally resident in the new address.

Proof of intended occupation of the residential address such as mortgage statement, exchange of contracts or signed tenancy agreement will be required. For applicants participating in the Future

Accommodation Model trial, a letter accepting an address under the scheme will be accepted if a signed tenancy agreement cannot be provided.

An offer may be withdrawn if a child does not reside at the address listed on the application form if the school is oversubscribed and use of an incorrect address has resulted in a place being denied to another child who would otherwise have been offered the place.

In all cases where parents can demonstrate that the child is a child of a crown servant returning from abroad or is a child of a serving member of the armed forces, the governors will consider whether to offer a place at a school even if the school has reached its official PAN. When making the decision whether to offer over PAN the governors will consider the circumstances of each case including,

If the applicant would have been offered a place had they applied on time in the admissions round of the year of entry:

Whether there is any child on the reserve list with higher priority under the oversubscription criteria;

Whether admission of a further student would prejudice the efficient education and efficient use of resources and this prejudice would be excessive.

The Governors have discretion to admit above the admission number in these circumstances but they are not obliged to do so. If a place is refused, parents will be informed of their right of appeal.

Waiting Lists

For admission into Year 7 the governors will keep a waiting list which we call a reserve list. At Queen Elizabeth’s, we will only add to the reserve list children who have achieved the required standard in the selection tests. If we have to refuse a place at our school, a qualified child is automatically put on the reserve list, unless a higher preference school has offered a place. 

The reserve list is in order of the oversubscription criteria, as required by the school admissions code. This means that names can move down the list if someone moves into the area and is higher placed under the oversubscription criteria. The governors will not take account of the time you have been on the list.

The reserve list is kept by the Schools Admission Team until the end of August prior to admission. After this the school will keep the reserve list until the end of the academic year.

Appeals procedure

Parents have the right of appeal against a decision by the Governors not to admit their child. This process is independent of the school. Further details are available from the school.

In the case of admissions into Year 7 in September 2022, parents are requested to lodge appeals in accordance with the Lincolnshire County Council deadline.

Fair access protocols

Local authorities are required to have a Fair Access protocols in order to make sure that unplaced children who live in the home local authority and that have reached the qualifying standard, especially the most vulnerable, are offered a place at a suitable school as quickly as possible. This includes admitting children above the published admission numbers to schools that are already full.

Fraudulent or misleading applications

As an admission authority we have the right to investigate any concerns we may have about an application and to withdraw the offer of a place if we consider there is evidence that a fraudulent claim has been made or misleading information has been provided, for example a false address being given which denied a place to a child with a stronger claim. We reserve the right to check any address and other information provided so we can apply the oversubscription criteria accurately and fairly.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

Parents may seek a place for a child outside their normal age group, for example, if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. Parents wishing to make these requests must contact their home local authority for guidance on the procedure to follow. It is important for parents to note that they will have the opportunity and responsibility to provide whatever evidence they wish to support their request.

Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School will make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of eachcase and in the best interests of the child concerned. 

This will include taking account of:

1) The parents’ views

2) Any available information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development

3) Where relevant, their medical history and the views of medical professionals

4) Whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group

5) Any evidence that the child may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely

6) The views of the Headteacher.