Spalding High School Year 12 (Sixth Form) Admission Policy 2025

Published admission number

Spalding High School is a girls' grammar school with a mixed sex sixth form.

The Published Admission Number (PAN) for students joining the school at the beginning of Year 12 is 50. This does not include students continuing at the sixth form after Year 11.

The approximate number in the sixth form (Years 12 and 13) is 250.

The school is responsible for sixth form admissions so you should approach the school for details. The school will make offers of places subject to the outcome of the actual exams. Year 11 students at the school transfer automatically provided:

• they meet the academic standards set out below and 
• the school can provide the relevant course or combination of courses

In certain cases, the school may offer a place in the sixth form, but for a different combination of courses than the one preferred by the applicant.

We are the Admission Authority for the school. The oversubscription criteria shown below will be applied if there are more applications than available places.

Academic criteria

To be admitted all students must fulfill the following requirements:

1. Achieve at least a Grade 4 in Mathematics and either English Language or English Literature in addition to 4 further GCSEs at Grade 9 to 4.
2. Achieve at least a GCSE Grade 6 in the three subjects they wish to study at A Level. There is more detail on this below.

In the case of new subjects (not studied at GCSE) students will need to achieve at least a GCSE Grade 5 in English Language or English Literature.

Subjects that can be studied on achievement of the entry requirements listed above:

• Business
• Classical Civilization
• Criminology (L3 Diploma)
• Drama and Theatre Studies
• DT: Fashion and Textiles
• English Language
• Geography
• History
• Law
• Religious Studies
• Sociology

German, French, Latin and Spanish can only be chosen if studied previously. 

Additional entry requirements where applicants have studied the subject before:

Additional entry requirements where applicants have not studied the subject before:

Oversubscription criteria

This is used to rank external applicants where there are more applicants than the Published Admissions Number (PAN) given above.

In accordance with legislation, the allocation of school places for children with an Education, Health and Care Plan where the school is named on the plan will take place first.

Remaining places will be allocated in accordance these oversubscription criteria.

If there are more applicants than places available places will be offered using the following criteria:

A. 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).

B. Other Children as prioritised by grade achieved in the relevant subject or subjects, or for those subjects not available at GCSE, a relevant subject specified above. The applicant with the higher grade will have priority.

C. The average points score achieved across all GCSE subjects taken by the applicant. The applicant with the higher score will have priority.

Tie breaker

Straight line distance (2) from home to school, with the applicant living nearer to the school having priority. This would be the tie-breaker if necessary; in the event of a tie on distance the school will offer extra place(s) to accommodate all students with the tied distance.

Definitions and notes

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.

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. 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).

2. 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.

Home address

The home address is the address 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 accept the home address as the address where the parent and child normally live for the majority of school term time.

Right of appeal

If the school refuses a place in the sixth form, both the parents and the student have the right of appeal to an independent panel. The right of appeal does not apply if an applicant receives an offer of a place in the sixth form, but not their preferred combination of subject courses. Please contact the school directly if you wish to appeal a decision to refuse a place in the sixth form.

Fraudulent or misleading applications

We reserve the right to check any address and other information provided so we can apply the oversubscription criteria accurately and fairly. We have the right to investigate any concerns we may have about your application and to withdraw the offer of a place if we consider there is evidence that you have made a fraudulent or misleading application.

Date determined - 23 February 2024