Oversubscription criteria
In accordance with relevant legislation the allocation of places for qualifying children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (Children and Families Act 2014) where the school is named on the plan will take place first. Remaining places will be allocated in accordance with this policy.
In the event of the school being oversubscribed by qualified children, places will be allocated using the oversubscription criteria listed below. Criterion marked with a number 1, 2 and 3 are explained in the definitions section.
- Looked after children and previously looked after children including those children who appear to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. (1).
- Children with a brother or sister on roll at Spalding High School at the time of application or who will be attending the school at the expected time of admission (2).
- Other Children
Tie breaker
If any admissions category is oversubscribed then the applicants in that category will be ranked in increasing order of straight line distance (3). If the distance criterion is not sufficient to distinguish between two or more applicants for the last remaining place then a lottery will be drawn by an independent person, not employed by the school or working in the Local Authority Children's Service Directorate.
Definitions
(1) A 'looked after child' is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school.
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 arrangements orders are defined in s.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).
A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society.
(2) Children with a sibling attending the school at the time of application, or who will be attending the school at the expected time of admission. In all cases both children must live at the same address. We include in this criterion:
- siblings who share the same biological parents
- half siblings and step siblings
- a legally adopted child, a child legally adopted by a biological or step-parent
(3) The distance measurement is found by measuring the distance from the child's home address to the school. Distances are measured in a straight line and are calculated to three decimal places (for example 1.543 miles) by our school admissions team, using the “Synergy” system.
Information about the address used for each application is taken from the Ordnance Survey AddressBase database. This provides 12 figure X and Y coordinates for each individual property. Distances are measured from this point of the child’s home to the school.
Home address
The home address is where the child lives for the majority of term time with a parent as defined in section 576 of the Education Act (1996).
Where a child lives normally during the school week with more than one parent at different addresses, 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 their 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.
We do not take into account an intention to move for the purposes of the oversubscription criteria except for armed forces personnel and returning crown servants.
Twins, other siblings from a multiple birth and siblings in the same year group
If one or more can be admitted within the published admission number the school go above its admission number as necessary to admit all the children, unless this would prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources. All siblings must have reached the qualifying standard.