A guide for parents and carers on admissions to Secondary School

Over-subscribed SchoolsThis means that a school has moreapplications than there are places available.Over-subscription criteriaThese criteria decide which children will begiven priority if a school receives moreapplications than the number of placesavailable (see admission number). The oversubscription criteria <strong>for</strong> each Reading school isgiven in the in<strong>for</strong>mation on the schoolsstarting on page 20.ParentAny person having parental responsibility <strong>for</strong> achild (as defined in the Children Act 1989) orwho has care of a child, including an LA.Section 576 of the Education Act 1996 defines'parent' as all natural <strong>parents</strong>, whether they aremarried or not; any person who, although nota natural parent, has parental responsibility <strong>for</strong>a child or young person; any person who,although not a natural parent, has care of achild or young person (having care of a childor young person means that a person withwhom the child lives <strong>and</strong> who looks after thechild, irrespective of what their relationship iswith the child, is considered to be a parent ineducation lawSelective SchoolsGrammar SchoolsGrammar schools are allowed to select theirpupils on the basis of high academic ability,<strong>and</strong> to leave places unfilled if they haveinsufficient applicants of the requiredst<strong>and</strong>ard. Your child will need to take anentrance test <strong>for</strong> these schools. KendrickSchool <strong>and</strong> Reading School are grammarschools.SENSEN st<strong>and</strong>s <strong>for</strong> special educational needs.SiblingThe definition of sibling can vary but unlessotherwise stated by the admission authorityorthe following definition will be used.Brother or sister, half brother or sister,adopted brother or sister, step brother orsister, or the child of the parent/carer’spartner, <strong>and</strong> in every case, the child should beliving in the same family unit at the sameaddress.Only siblings still attending the school inSeptember 2013 will qualify as siblings <strong>and</strong>children in current Y11 may not qualify. (Youwill need to check the definition of sibling <strong>for</strong>your preferred school(s).)Any younger siblings may have lower priority<strong>for</strong> admission than children living in thedesignated area <strong>and</strong> may not be offered aplace. Please check the admission policy ofyour preferred school.Specialist StatusSecondary schools focus on chosen subjectareas whilst meeting national curriculumrequirements. The specialism of each school isgiven in the in<strong>for</strong>mation about the school.Straight-Line distance – Tie BreakerAn admission authority may use radial orstraight-line distance from the home to schoolas part of the over-subscription criteria. Inmost cases this is used to tell the differencebetween applications when there are moreapplications, than places available, in the samecategory of the over-subscription criteria. Thisis called the tie-breaker. In Reading, mostschools measure the straight-line distancefrom the home to the school using theOrdnance Survey data points of the home <strong>and</strong>the school using computerised software ofReading Borough Council. Every address has aunique data point which is determined by theEasting <strong>and</strong> Northing. This point can beanywhere on the property. The distancecreated using this software is calculated usingPythagoras’ Theorem <strong>and</strong> may not be exactlythe same as that created with a GIS product asthe GIS product may build in a <strong>for</strong>mula toallow <strong>for</strong> the curvature of the earth. The wayin which it is done is to calculate the distancein metres between the Eastings <strong>and</strong> Northings5If 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