Admission Arrangements for 2024-25
Introduction
These admission arrangements comply with the requirements of the ‘Admissions Code September 2021’. Longdendale High School operates on an equal preference scheme managed by Tameside Local Authority.
Longdendale High School is an 11 – 16 Co-educational School with a pupil admission number of 180 in September 2024.
The application process will be detailed in the ‘Moving On’ document provided by Tameside LA, this is available to download online: https://www.tameside.gov.uk/TamesideMBC/media/admissions/Moving-On.pdf
All parents who live in Tameside wishing to apply for a place at Longdendale High School should use the online facility as outlined in the Moving On’ booklet as above. If you live outside of Tameside, you should complete the appropriate form from your local authority (e.g. Derbyshire) and this will be sent on to the school.
1. The Process
a) Tameside’s online application form will invite parents to name 6 schools/academies in order of preference; these can be in or out of Tameside. In allocating places Longdendale High School will be part of the equal preference scheme coordinated by Tameside Council, details of which can be found in the ‘Moving On’ booklet.
b) The online application form will give parents the opportunity to include information to support an application to the appropriate school/academy.
c) A common timetable for all is applicable including a single notification date. The closing date for applications is 31st October 2023. Applications received after this date will be considered after all applications received on time have been processed, this rule applies even if your child has exceptional medical or social needs, or has a sibling at the academy. If your application is late, you may not receive an offer of a school/academy place on National Offer Day, 1 March 2024.
d) Changes to preferences, ranking order or student details, will not be allowed after the closing date of 31st October except in exceptional circumstances. The closing date for submission if there are exceptional circumstances is 10th November 2023. Exceptional circumstances are applied in limited situations, for example, the family has recently moved address. Evidence must be provided to support the request. An intention to change address cannot be considered by the Trust until the move has actually taken place and proof is available, or parents may provide a solicitor’s letter confirming an exchange of contracts on a property, or a tenancy agreement. No changes can be considered even where there are exceptional circumstances once information has been exchanged with the other admission bodies by the Council, because the allocations process has commenced. In the case of secondary schools/academies this date is the 10th November 2023.
e) The online system will reopen two weeks after the closing date to accept late applications. Late applications will only be dealt with after all of those that have been received on time. This applies even if your child has exceptional medical or social needs, or has a sibling at the school. If your application is late, you may not receive an offer of a school place on National Offer Day.
f) The LA will liaise with Longdendale over applications. Governors will apply the academies oversubscription criteria, irrespective of the preference order, and provide the Local Authority with a list of applicants ranked according to the criteria.
g) Notification letters containing offers of a single school place will be sent out to parents in accordance with the coordinated admissions scheme. This is common with all other LAs nationally. These letters will also inform parents of their right of appeal, and who to contact, if an application to Longdendale has not been successful.
h) Parents will not receive multiple offers.
i) If the school is oversubscribed, the Local Governing Board will maintain a waiting list. The waiting list will operate until the end of the autumn term 2024. Parents who have expressed the school as a preference and have not been offered a place at the school, or at a higher preference school, will automatically be placed on the waiting list. All students on the waiting list will be ranked according to the oversubscription criteria. Places will be offered to the highest ranked application received by the date the place becomes available. If new or late applications have a higher priority under the oversubscription criteria, they will be ranked higher than those who have been on the list for some time. If the circumstances of children on the waiting list change (eg they move house) they should inform the Governing Body immediately and provide appropriate supporting evidence).
2. Published Admission Numbers for Longdendale High School and over subscription criteria
The published admission number for Year 7 at Longdendale is 180 students.
Where the number of applications for admission is greater than the published admissions’ number, applications will be considered against the criteria set out below. They will be applied in conjunction with explanatory notes 1 - 4 which form part of the admissions’ arrangements and can be found at the end of this document.
After the admission of students with an Education health Care Plan (EHCP) where the academy is named on the plan, the criteria will be applied in the following order:
- Looked After Children (Note 1)
- Children and families with exceptional medical or social needs (Note 2).
- Sibling: This will apply where there are brothers or sisters attending the school at the time of application, who will still be attending at the time of admission, i.e. in the September when the student is admitted to Year 7. Preference will be given to students living nearest to the school. Sibling criteria may apply where, at the time of application, an older sibling is expected to be on roll when a younger child starts at the academy. If the older sibling unexpectedly leaves the school after an offer has been made to a younger child the offer of a place would not be withdrawn on these grounds. (Note 3)
- Children attending named partner primary schools on the closing date for applications. Preference will be given to students living nearest to the school (Note 4 and Appendix 1)
- All other applications on distance. In the event of distances being the same for 2 or more applications where this distance would be the last place/s to be allocated, the place will be allocated to the student that is nearer using walking distance as measured using school admission data mapping. (Note 5)
3. Appeals
a) Parents who are unhappy with their child’s school allocation have the right to appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel. For more information on the appeals process please view: https://www.tameside.gov.uk/schools/admissions/receptionyear7
b) All appeals will be heard separately. Every effort will be made to hear appeals before the start of the Autumn Term, but no guarantee can be made that appeals submitted after the deadline will be heard by September.
c) You will be given 10 school days’ notice of your appeal hearing date, and you will be sent a copy of the school’s case. You can attend the hearing to present the case for your child. You may bring a friend or representative along. At the meeting, a representative from the school will present the school’s case.
d) The Clerk to the Panel will inform you in writing of the Panel’s decision. The decision is binding and parents have no further right of appeal for the same school in the same school year, unless there has been a significant change in circumstances.
e) Please note that no places are ‘held back’ for appeals
f) Parents of students with an Education Health care Plan (EHCP) have the right to appeal to the SEND Tribunal.
g) Whilst you are awaiting your appeal it is important that you consider alternative schools (including the one that has been allocated for your child) in case your appeal is unsuccessful.
h) If you wish to appeal for a school in another Local Authority area, you should contact the Admissions Team in that LA for advice.
i) Full details about the appeals process can be found online at: www.tameside.gov.uk/schools/admissions
4. Arrangements for admitting students to other year groups, including replacing any students who have left the academy
a) Subject to any provisions in the Local Authorities coordinated admission arrangements relating to applications submitted for years other than the normal year of entry, Longdendale High School will consider all such applications and if the year group applied for has a place available.
b) If more applications are received than there are places available, the oversubscription criteria in section 2 paragraph b) shall apply. Parents whose application is turned down shall be entitled to appeal.
c) There will be a right of appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel for unsuccessful applicants.
5. Admission of children of UK service personnel
Longdendale High School acknowledges that service families are subject to movement within the UK and from abroad. Although the Trust is not able to reserve places for such students we will consider requests, if accompanied by an official MOD letter declaring a relocation date and a Unit postal address or quartering area address. For in year admissions places will be allocated, subject to a place being available in the relevant
year group, prior to moving. If we are unable to allocate a place at that time, parents will be offered the right to appeal.
6.Requests for admission outside the normal age group
Parents are entitled to request a place for their child outside of their normal age group. Parents considering requesting a place for their child outside of their normal year group should contact the school in the first instance. Decisions on requests for admission outside the normal age group will be made on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. In accordance with the School Admissions Code, this will include taking account of:
- Parents’ views
- Information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development
- Where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional
- Whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group
- Whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely
- The headteacher’s views
Wherever possible, requests for admission outside a child’s normal age group will be processed as part of the main admissions round. They will be considered on the basis of the admission arrangements laid out in this policy, including the oversubscription criteria listed
Applications will not be treated as a lower priority if parents have made a request for a child to be admitted outside the normal age group. Parents will always be informed of the reasons for any decision on the year group a child should be admitted to. Parents do not have a right to appeal if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group.
7. In-Year Fair Access Protocol
All local authorities have a Fair Access Protocol for in year transfers that ensures the speedy admission of pupils who may experience difficulty in being allocated a school place, for example, if they have been out of school for a long period of time. With specific short-term exceptions, all schools in Tameside, including Longdendale High School are participants in the protocol, which may result in schools admitting pupils over their published admission number. Full details of the In Year Fair Access Protocol can be found on the Council’s website https://www.tameside.gov.uk/schools/secondarytransfers
Notes [These notes are part of the admissions arrangements.]
Note 1
Looked after children or children who have previously been looked after but immediately after being looked after become the subject of an adoption, residence or special guardianship order, and 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. (See section 1.7 of the Code)
Note 2
Written evidence must be provided by a suitably qualified professional – e.g. a GP or consultant for medical needs, or a social worker for social needs - that he/she has exceptional needs, which means that admission to a particular school is essential. A panel of Trustees/governors from the academy will decide as to whether to admit a child under this criterion using the evidence provided. All information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence.
Note 3
Sibling includes; natural sisters/brothers; half-sisters/brothers; step sisters/brothers; adopted sisters/brothers; sisters/ brothers of fostered children, and in each case living at the same address. This allows for the admittance of children whose siblings will still be attending the preferred school.
Where the last place to be allocated would mean that a sibling group i.e. twins, triplets or other multiple birth sibling groups would be split, the sibling group will be given priority over other children.
Note 4
Preference will be given to students living nearest to the school. The address from which distances are measured will be the permanent principal residential address, at the time of application, of the parent (as defined in the introduction to the TMBC Moving On booklet, "We're Here to Help"). The school will not take into account an intention to move to another address without a solicitor's letter confirming an exchange of contract for purchase of a property, or a long-term agreement for renting a residential property.
When a child lives with parents who share responsibility, each for part of a week, the home address, for the purpose of distance measurements and travel considerations, will be that from which the child travels to school for the majority of school days during a normal school week.
Distance will be measured as a straight line from the child’s home address, using the address point assigned by the National Land and Property Gazetteer, to the main gate
to the school property. Measurements will be made using the local authority’s school admissions data mapping software, which uses a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.
Note 5
Distance will also be used as a tie-breaker where oversubscription occurs within any of criteria 1 to 4. Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school. Distance will be measured as a straight line from the child’s home address, using the address point assigned by the National Land and Property Gazetteer, to the main gate to the school property. Measurements will be made using the local authority’s school admissions data mapping software, which uses a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.
In the event of distances being the same for 2 or more applications where this distance would be the last place/s to be allocated, the place will be allocated to the pupil that is nearer using walking distance as measured using the local authority’s school admissions data mapping software.
In the event of two or more applications with distances that are exactly the same competing for a final place e.g. a block of flats: the place will be decoded by drawing lots, the first name drawn will be offered the place.
The address from which distance will be measured will be the permanent residential address, at the time of application, of the parent with whom the child is normally resident. Where a child lives with parents with shared responsibility, each for part of a week, the home address is the address from which the child travels to school for the majority of school days per week.
An adoption order is an order under section 46 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. A ‘residence order’ is as an order settling the arrangements to be made as to the person with whom the child is to live under section 8 of the Children Act 1989. 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).
Appendix 1: Longdendale High School - Tameside Partner Primary Schools
Arundale Primary School, 15 Kennedy Square, Mottram, Hyde SK14 6QW
Bradley Green Primary School, Bradley Green Road, Hyde SK14 4NA
Broadbottom C of E Primary School, Mottram Rd, Broadbottom SK14 6BB
Discovery Academy, Porlock Avenue, Hyde, Tameside, Hyde SK14 3LE
Dowson Primary School, Marlborough Road, Hyde SK14 5HU
Flowery Field Primary School, off Old Road, Hyde SK14 4SQ
Gee Cross Holy Trinity C of E Primary School, Higham Lane, Hyde SK14 5LX
Godley Community Primary School, St John's Drive, Hyde SK14 2QB
Gorse Hall Primary School, Forrester Drive, Stalybridge SK15 2DP
Greenfield Primary School, Queen St, Hyde SK14 1QD
Hollingworth Primary School, Market St, Hollingworth, Hyde SK14 8LP
Leigh Primary School, Walker Lane, Hyde SK14 5PL
Millbrook Primary School, Bank Road, SK15 3 JX
Mottram C of E Primary School, War Hill, Mottram in Longdendale, Hyde SK14 6JL
Oakfield Primary School, St Mary’s Road, Hyde SK14 4EZ
Pinfold Primary School, 9 Hattersley Road East, Hyde SK14 3NL
Silver Springs Primary Academy, School Crescent, Stalybridge SK15 1EA
St George’s C of E Primary School, Church St, Hyde SK14 1JL
St James’ RC Primary School, 7 Cheriton Close, Hyde SK14 3DQ
St Paul’s C of E Primary School, Huddersfield Road, Stalybridge, SK15 2PT
St Paul’s RC Primary School, Turner Lane, Hyde SK14 4AG
Stalyhill Junior School, Hereford Way, Stalybridge SK15 2TD
Wildbank Community School, Demesne Drive, SK15 2PG
Russell Scott Primary School, Clare street, Denton, M34 3LQ
St Mary’s RC Primary School, Kynder Street, Denton, M34 2AR
Arlies Primary school, Broadhill Road, Stalybridge, SK15 1HQ
St Pauls CofE Primary School, Huddersfield Road, Stalybridge, SK15 2PT
St Peter’s Catholic Primary School, Hough Hill Road, Stalybridge, SK15 2HB
Appendix 2: Tameside Timetable of co-ordinated secondary admissions 2024-25
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1 September 2023 |
Online application system is open for parents |
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31 October 2023 |
Closing date for applications to be submitted to the Local Authority and supplementary forms to be submitted to VA schools if required. |
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10 November 2023 |
Details of applications and any relevant supplementary forms to be sent to voluntary aided schools and academies. |
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10 November 2023 |
This is also the last date by which, exceptionally, changes to preferences or pupil details may be made. |
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1 March 2024 |
National Offer Day On this date, all school place offers are communicated to parents. Waiting lists for individual schools open |
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11th March 2024 |
Last date for acceptance by parents to offer of school place |
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29th March 2024 |
Closing date for appeals to be submitted to the Local Authority |
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From 1st April 2024 |
Any places that have become available from this date are allocated and notification sent to parents by the Local Authority
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21st June 2024 |
Last date for hearing appeals
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September 2024 |
Children start school
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