Admissions Policy and Process

Harris Academy Clapham admission arrangements for September 2020

Introductory Statement

Harris Academy Clapham is a mixed ability academy for girls and boys. It is a six form entry secondary school with a published admissions number (PAN) of 195.

Admission number(s)

The school has an admission number of 195 for entry in year 7. The school will accordingly admit this number of pupils if there are sufficient applications. Where fewer applicants than the published admission number(s) for the relevant year group are received, the Academy Trust will offer places at the school to all those who have applied.

Application Process

Harris Academy Clapham will form part of the Pan London Co-ordinated admissions scheme for secondary admissions, Parents must complete their Home Local Authority (LA) Common Application Form (CAF) and return it to their Home Local Authority by the closing date. Lambeth’s CAF is available at https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/school-admissions/secondary-school-admissions .If you wish to apply for a place, you must name the school as one of your preferences on the CAF.

The closing date for the application is 31^st October 2019

Offers will be made on 1^st March 2020.

Oversubscription Criteria

When the school is oversubscribed, after the admission of pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan or a Statement of Special Educational Needs naming the school, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in priority order:

1. Looked after children and children who were previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to adoption, a child arrangements order, or special guardianship order.
2. Priority will next be given to the siblings of pupils attending the school at the time the application is received.
3. Priority will next be given to the children of staff who have been recruited to fill a skill-shortage area.
4. Priority will next be given to children attending the following feeder school – Glenbrook Primary School.
5. Remaining places will be offered on the basis of proximity of the child’s home address to the school. The point within the school to be used in any distance calculation will be the main entrance to the school building. Distances will be measured in a straight line from the child’s home address, with those living closer to the school receiving the higher priority. Where two or more applicants share a priority place, the child allocated will be determined by drawings of lots.

Tie-break

Random allocation will be used as a tiebreaker where there are two or more applicants who have equal ranking/are equal distance from the nodal point, but there is only one school place available. Where random allocation is used, it is independently verified.

Children of multiple births

Random allocation will not be applied to multiple birth siblings (twins, triplets etc.) from the same family tied for the final place. We will admit them all and exceed our PAN.

Late applications

All applications received by the LA after the deadline will be considered to be late applications. Late applications will be considered after those received on time. If, following consideration of applicants the school is oversubscribed, parents may request that their child is placed on the school’s waiting list.

Admission of Children outside their normal age group

Parents may request that their child is admitted outside their normal age group. To do so parents should include a request in their application, specifying why admission out of normal year group is being requested.

When such a request is made, the academy trust will make a decision on the basis of the circumstances of the case and in the best interests of the child concerned, taking into account the views of the head teacher and any supporting evidence provided by the parent.

Waiting Lists

The Academy will operate a waiting list for Year 7. Where the school receives more applications for places than there are places available, a waiting list will operate until the end of the first term after the beginning of the school year. This will be maintained by the Academy Trust and it will be open to any parent to ask for his or her child’s name to be placed on the waiting list, following an unsuccessful application.

Children’s position on the waiting list will be determined solely in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. Where places become vacant they will be allocated to children on the waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. The waiting list will be recorded in accordance with the oversubscription criteria whenever anyone is added to or leaves the waiting list.

Appeals

All applicants refused a place have a right of appeal to an independent appeal panel constituted and operated in accordance with the School Admission Appeals Code.

Appellants should contact Poornima Karthik Venkatraman, Harris Federation, 4^th Floor, Norfolk House, Wellesley Road, Croydon CR0 1LH by 29 March 2020 for information on how to appeal. Information on the timetable for the appeals process is on our website at www.harrisclapham.org.uk

Our admissions policy can be accessed below.

Notes

Home address:

The home address is where a child normally lives. Where a child lives with parents with shared parental responsibility, each for part of a week, the address where the child lives is determined using a joint declaration from the parents stating the pattern of residence. If a child’s residence is split equally between both parents, then then parents will be asked to determine which residential address should be used for the purpose of admission to school. If no joint declaration is received where the residence is split equally by the closing date for applications, the home address will be taken as the address where the child is registered with the doctor. If the residence is not split equally between both parents, then the address used will be the address where the child spends the majority of their school week.

Sibling:

‘Sibling’ means a natural brother or sister, a half brother or sister, a legally adopted brother or sister or half-brother or sister, a step brother or sister or other child living in the same household as part of the same family who, in any of these cases, will be living at the same address at the date of their application for a place.