distance from school

[september2010]

I have been looking for PAN for 2009 to see if they have increased the intake this year but no luck so far.........will keep sifting through.

[Alex]

Hi,

The school apparently has no catchment area as such but selects on exam pass, whether the school was placed 1st, SEN, brother or sister attending and finally distance.

Bourne Grammar is a Controlled School which means it follows the County Council's Admissions Policy for Secondary Schools. Score is irrelevant once you have reached the qualifying standardised score of 220. It does not matter where you placed the school on your CAF - the school will not know where you put it; the admissions department will allocate you the school placed highest on your list which is able to offer you a place. (All this may change for future years as the school is hoping to become a Foundation School and then would set its own admissions policy)
Distance is always the final criterion as relatively few places are taken up by siblings and only ever the occasional one by children in public care or children with statements of SEN.

I don't have the exact figures on distance in the last few years but it would be unusual for the distance to go out as far as Stamford town itself, though it does sometimes take in the villages just to the north. Last year's distance would be fairly typical.

The PAN used to be 140 and was raised to 150 before last year's allocations; the population transferring is not substantially different overall (but I do not know about local variations), all of which might suggest that the pattern will remain much the same this year - but there are sometimes odd blips so you never can tell.

Oversubscription figures have been reported rather differently over the years and are not really incredibly helpful - the distance of the last place offered is a better guide. However, here are the oversubscription figures for the last few years:

Entry for 2004 - 129 (First preferences refused)
Entry for 2005 - 55 (numbers qualified who did not get a place)
Entry for 2006 - 44 (numbers qualified who did not get a place)
Entry for 2007 - No of 1st pref received - 210
No of 2nd pref received - 37
No of 3rd pref received - 6
Total - 253
PAN - 140
Offered - 140
Entry for 2008 - No of 1st pref received - 186
No of 2nd pref received - 81
No of 3rd pref received - 26
Total - 293
PAN - 145
Entry for 2009 - No of 1st pref received - 189
No of 2nd pref received - 90
No of 3rd pref received - 24
Total - 303
PAN - 150

If she does not get in is it too late to move?

Allocations have already been done and will be posted/available to be viewed online next week on March 1st. The only route into the school after this date is through appeal. The success rate at appeal is not terribly encouraging but chances would depend very much on individual circumstances.

[september2010]

Thanks Alex. This is very detailed information and I would be interested to know where you find this sort data as the Lincs CC website is not easy to navigate.

You say

The only route into the school after this date is through appeal. The success rate at appeal is not terribly encouraging but chances would depend very much on individual circumstances.

Are you sure that if I moved nearer to the school I couldn't re- apply for a place even for 2011? Surely new residents can apply?

[ourmaminhavana]

Hi September2010 and welcome to our little group! I know for some Lincolnshire grammar schools, they specifically say to be considered in area you need to have lived there for at least a year. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it? Perhaps just best to wait and see at this stage, although I know it's stressful. Good luck.

[Alex]

I would be interested to know where you find this sort data as the Lincs CC website is not easy to navigate.

It was taken from past copies of "Going to School in Lincolnshire". I do not think the information appears on the LCC website in this form.

Are you sure that if I moved nearer to the school I couldn't re- apply for a place even for 2011? Surely new residents can apply?

If you move within this academic year you could indeed make a new application for this year's entry, September 2010. However, you would still need to appeal for a place as all places will inevitably have been allocated already.
If you move after September, then you may, of course, reapply, but the likelihood is that the school will still be full and you will have to appeal. The likelihood of getting a place on appeal would undoubtedly be higher if you were living very near to the school, but it is by no means a certainty that you would get in.

There is sometimes some movement in and out of the school so places can come up later, but again, this is difficult to predict.

Did you apply for the Stamford Endowed Schools and scholarship funding?

Although I have probably been less than encouraging about the chances, it is still worth considering an appeal for Bourne Grammar if you do not get a place. If you subsequently move closer you would be able to make another appeal even in the same year as your circumstances would have changed. The success rate is generally not very high at all but in the year for 2007 entry there were 6 successful appeals and all of them were for children who had passed but lived too far away to gain a place at allocation (which I think went out to Tallington or thereabouts).

[september2010]

Thanks for the welcome ourmaminhavana, this is certainly a stressful time! Apparently there is no time requirements for being a resident in Bourne, if you are a resident you can apply regardless of how long you have lived there.

Alex, my daughter did pass the endowed school exam as well as the Bourne 11+ and with a creditable score. She has been offered a fee paying place, however she did not obtain one of only 14 scolarships available. We are about to apply for a bursary but as we are a middle income family we would probably not receive a great deal.

[Alex]

I wish you all the best. Let us know how you get on with the allocations and what you decide to do.

[Marylou]

Best of luck. We were in the same situation as you this time last year!

[september2010]

What happened in your case marylou?

[Marylou]

What happened in your case marylou?

We went on the waiting list and then won an appeal. However, what probably swung it for us was that DD had an older sibling at the school who did not qualify as such under the LA's rules (being about to enter the 6th form). We therefore had to rely on distance and were about a mile short! There were a few extra complications but the upshot was that DD fell foul of both the sibling and the distance criteria, unfairly in our view but them's the rules so we had to appeal. It felt like a long shot at the time, but paid off.

As Alex says, it would be useful to find out the distance for last place offered over the last few years. It's perfectly reasonable to ask for this information as it is such an important factor for oversubscription - Bucks publishes the previous year's distance for each school where it is a factor. The extra ten places on the PAN should extend the distance slightly, but of course the downside is that it makes it relatively difficult to argue at appeal that the school cannot take any more pupils as it has obviously taken steps to meet demand by increasing the PAN.

That said, an appeal really is worth a try. There's plenty of help available on here - everyone was wonderfully supportive to us last year. There are even some notes specific to Lincs in the Appeals section. And the waiting list system is also worth a try, if only to see how far out you really are. Moving nearer to the school as a last result might work, you would be too late for this year but would be higher up the waiting list and, as Alex mentioned, would be entitled to another appeal if still refused a place.

Anyway, good luck and please do let us know how you get on next week!