A guide for parents and carers on admissions to Secondary School

parent or legal carer i.e a single parent familywhere the parent is ill <strong>and</strong> the child lives witha gr<strong>and</strong><strong>parents</strong> <strong>for</strong> the majority of the week.A full explanation will need to be supplied,together with supporting evidence from aprofessional supporting the family/child. TheAdmission Authority has the right to rejectapplications or withdraw a school placebased on fraudulent or intentionallymisleading in<strong>for</strong>mation concerning a child’spermanent home address. There will be aright of appeal to an independent appealpanel should this happen. The AdmissionsTeam occasionally receives in<strong>for</strong>mation frommembers of the public concerning potentialmisleading or fraudulent applications. Signedstatements will be required to support suchallegations together with supportingevidence in order that such allegations canbe investigated. The names of anyonesupplying in<strong>for</strong>mation will be withheld inaccordance with the Council’s WhistleBlowing Policy which can be found on theCouncil’s website www.reading.gov.ukLocal Authority (LA)The Local Authority (LA) is responsible <strong>for</strong> themaintained schools in its area.Your home LA is the LA in which you live. Thismay be different from the LA in which yourchild goes to school. It is the Council to whichyou pay Council Tax. Reading Borough Council(RBC) is a Local Authority.Looked After Children (LAC)These are children who are in the care of alocal authority or provided withaccommodation by that authority; or in anarrangement supported by the LocalAuthority. The Local Authority is thecorporate parent.Medical/socialIt is important that you check whether theadmission authority of your preferredschool(s) uses this category as part of oversubscriptioncriteria <strong>for</strong> admission. It is notused by all admission authorities <strong>and</strong> whenused it is given different levels of priority. Ifyou believe your application meets the criteriayou must check how the admission authorityof your preferred school will consider yourapplication <strong>and</strong> what evidence you mustsupply. It will not be sufficient to tick theboxes online or on the paper <strong>for</strong>m assupporting evidence must be provided by youor the professional supporting your request atthe time of application.National CurriculumThe current National Curriculum provides abroad <strong>and</strong> balanced education <strong>for</strong> all children,<strong>and</strong> is divided into four key stages accordingto age. It includes statutory assessments,consisting of tests <strong>and</strong> teacher assessments, atthe end of key stage 2 <strong>and</strong> teacherassessments at the end of key stages 1 <strong>and</strong> 3.The Key Stages in Secondary School are:Year 711-12 yearsYear 8 Key Stage 3 12-13 yearsYear 913-14 yearsYear 1014-15 yearsYear 11 Key Stage 4 15-16 yearsYear 1216-17 yearsYear 13 Post 16 17-18 yearsNORSt<strong>and</strong>s <strong>for</strong> number on roll <strong>and</strong> means numberof children attending a school.OfstedThis is the abbreviated name of the Office <strong>for</strong>St<strong>and</strong>ards in Education, which is thegovernment department responsible <strong>for</strong>inspecting <strong>and</strong> producing inspection reportson schools. Ofsted reports are available fromschools or fromhttp://schoolsfinder.direct.gov.uk/ orwww.ofsted.gov.ukIf you have any queries please contact the Admissions Team on 0118 937 2550 or email: admissions.team@reading.gov.ukApply online at www.reading.gov.uk/schooladmissions 4