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Changes to sibling rule?

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 6:40 pm
by decaff
My friend is worried as she has been told by Rickmansworth school admissions they will not apply sibling rule for her Ds for admission Sep 2018. Her older Ds will be in year 11 (currently year 10) when she applies for younger Ds who will be in year 6 in Sep. Are they mistaken? If this is true this is indeed a big change from previous sibling rule. I have tried to reassure her saying that I think person she spoke to was confused but has anybody else heard this? Rickmansworth is her 1st choice of school. Any info helpful as I have a worried friend who has done no practice for test.

Re: Changes to sibling rule?

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 7:14 pm
by Daogroupie
Applications to sit the SW Herts Academic and Music tests have now closed so if you did not apply then your ds will not be able to sit these tests even if you wanted him to.

I suggest you send an email to the admissions office at the school or phone them up.

I cannot see anything in admissions on the website that indicates that sibling status from the sixth form has been removed but all the admissions data seems to be about September 2017 and not 2018.

If older ds would be in Y12 when younger ds starts then that should be valid.

The admission criteria says siblings in Y7 to Y12. DG

Re: Changes to sibling rule?

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 7:37 pm
by ToadMum
A normal sibling rule would exclude the siblings of pupils who are in their last school year at the time of the application being made and this is what Herts https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/servic ... ments.aspx says in their admission arrangements for community secondary and upper schools for 2018/2019:

Rule 3: Sibling
Children who have a sibling at the school at the time of application, unless the sibling is in
the last year of the normal age-range of the school*.
Note: the ‘normal age range’ is the designated range for which the school provides, for
example Years 7 to 11 in an 11-16 secondary school, Years 7 to 13 in an 11-18 school.


So, if Rickmansworth is a community 11-16 school, the sibling rule would not apply to siblings of pupils currently in year 10, because the older sibling would be in their last year when the application for a place for the younger child was made.

However, according to the oversubscription criteria for 2018/2019 for Rickmansworth School (which I assume is an academy, not a community school, and 11-18, not 1-16)) on the Herts website says

4. Children with a brother or sister on the School’s roll in Years 7 to 12 and who is reasonably expected to be on the
School’s roll in September 2018. See note (d).


Note d says:

‘Sibling(s)’, ‘Brothers’ and ‘sisters’ wherever mentioned in the admission criteria are defined as the sister,
brother, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, child of the parent/carer or partner or a child looked
after or previously looked after1 and in every case living permanently2 in a placement within the home as part
of the family household from Monday to Friday at the time of this application. Parents who submit applications
under Criterion 4 must confirm that an elder sibling of the applicant is on the School’s roll at the time the
application is required. The School will presume if the elder sibling is in Years 7 – 12, he or she will be on its
roll in September 2018.


Do you think your informant had just looked at the Community Schools Admissions arrangements?

Re: Changes to sibling rule?

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 8:20 pm
by decaff
No its not my child thank goodness I am through all this its my friends child. Rickmansworth is a Academy 11-18 and my friend rang the admissions department there herself. If it is true then it is a departure from previous rule which was years 7-12 at time of application. She has already entered him for exam following conversation with school last week. I personally think she has been given wrong info but was just checking on here for more info.

Re: Changes to sibling rule?

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 10:12 pm
by ToadMum
decaff wrote:No its not my child thank goodness I am through all this its my friends child. Rickmansworth is a Academy 11-18 and my friend rang the admissions department there herself. If it is true then it is a departure from previous rule which was years 7-12 at time of application. She has already entered him for exam following conversation with school last week. I personally think she has been given wrong info but was just checking on here for more info.
If she has been told that, it is at odds with the admissions policy listed on the Herts website.

Re: Changes to sibling rule?

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 10:35 pm
by Daogroupie
Unless her elder ds is not planning to remain at the school for sixth form in which case her younger ds will not qualify as a sibling as her elder ds will have left the school by the time their younger ds would be due to start.

I would suggest that she conducts her communications with admissions at the school over email so she has a thread of what has been said.

It is easy to misunderstand something over the phone, it is much better to be able to review it in an email. DG

Re: Changes to sibling rule?

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 10:57 pm
by ToadMum
But the admissions arrangements state that the school assumes that a pupil in years 7 - 12 at the time of application for a place at the school for the sibling will still be on roll at the beginning of the next academic year. So the parent would have had to give notice already that a current year 10 would definitely not be staying on into the sixth form?

The one thing that is slightly odd is that the school website hasn't got the agreed arrangements up for 2018/2019 yet, given that they have already been published on the Herts website.

( 'Information and application forms for Secondary Transfer 2018/2019 will be provided shortly together with information regarding the planned expansion of the School.' )

Re: Changes to sibling rule?

Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2017 11:26 pm
by Daogroupie
Maybe the school knows something about the elder dc that will mean that they will not be staying on until sixth form.

If their predicted grades are a lot lower than the schools critieria for joining the sixth form perhaps the office was warning the parents that you can cannot be a sibling unless the older sibling gets an invite to join the sixth form which may not be forthcoming.

34 of the 200 students in my dds year did not make it into the sixth form. DG

Re: Changes to sibling rule?

Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 10:21 am
by decaff
No she didn't even give her child's name just current year. I think person she spoke to has made a mistake so she will just have to wait until school publishes admissions rules. I myself just don't believe it. Her Ds is planning on staying on to 6th form.

Re: Changes to sibling rule?

Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2017 10:58 am
by Hera
If they had wanted to make any changes to the admissions criteria they would have had to have had a consultation that allowed people to respond. If this has not happened they cannot make any changes from the 2017/2018 (although wasn't their intake going up?). It is a bit poor that the admissions criteria is not on their website and the published date for registering for the exams has passed.