Proposed Changes to SGHS admissions Sept 2018

[tyke]

New to the forum so please be gentle....

I have today received communication that Skipton Girls has launched a consultation this week about changes to their admission process. The documents are on their website here
http://www.northernstaracademies.org.uk ... hool/home/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; admissions

The documents aren't particularly clear so I would really appreciate some very kind person to help with interpretation.
The main changes they say are that they want to be able to admit more girls. The number will be 140 but from what I can see this particular change will be effective from Sept 2017. BUT there is no reference now to siblings in the criteria and there is significant priority to be attached to applications from families where the Pupil Premium applies. This doesn't serve the aim of getting more girls in - but cynically does help the school attract higher levels of funding.
Please can someone who knows about such matters have a read and confirm. There is a meeting at the school in early December and email consultation feedback is also being invited.

[tyke]

I have reread it and it looks like that the oversubscription criteria will be in priority order
1) Looked after children
2) pupil premium
3) those inside the priority area
4) those outside the area.

Again would appreciate someone who knows what all this means to help, as the above suggests that a girl some distance away on pupil premium grounds would get a place before a girl living in Skipton whose parents are working .

[hermanmunster]

It looks like the PAN is being increased to 140. The in area girls are not usually very high - something like 45 (or even less) -60 in previous years I think.

That means that there would have to be a very large number of pupils admitted under 1&2 for an in area pupil not to get a place.

Not sure that there is enough room on the site for 140 pupils in each year!

[tyke]

We are actually out of area but our other daughter is at SGHS already. So the sibling rule was more significant for us.

[hermanmunster]

I suspect the change to the sibling rule will be more significant than the pupil premium changes. Are you far out of area? Suspect there will still be a significant number of OOA girls admitted

[hermanmunster]

Just thinking Tyke - are you planning to comment on the consultations?

Might be interesting to know if they are planning to have a limit on the number of PP places?

Highly unlikely it would happen but they have no criteria by which they would decide which in-area girls would get places if they hadn't got enough places for all of them - would have to be something like distance (which would not be good for the Kettlewell / Buckden girls). Also worth mentioning the sibling criteria as many people who have daughters there will be hit by this

[Marylou]

I would definitely recommend responding to the consultation with your concerns about the removal of the sibling link from the oversubscription criteria. It would be fairer on existing families if such a change were to be phased in so that younger siblings of current pupils are not disadvantaged, their families having presumably anticipated that they would be able to rely on some degree of priority in future applications for younger children. I suspect a large number of families would be affected by this and the school would find itself having to defend a lot of appeals, so needs to be prepared for this eventuality.

[tyke]

Sorry not been on here for a while. I did respond to the consultation, making particular reference to the impact of the sibling rule. The response was that, they did not dee this to be particularly relevant as it is not unusual to have two siblings at different schools - especially where one is at primary and the other at secondary. We will have to wait and see what happens with the entrance exam and take it from there.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read and respond.

[tyke]

Well DD2 passed so now waiting to see how they apply the new criteria. DD1 already at the school. Do they apply the pupil premium criteria first, in respect of all girls who passed or distance ?

[hermanmunster]

I read it as giving places to all PP girls who passed, then in area then distance

How far out of the catchment are you ?