Admissions 2022-23

The Governing Body are consulting on admission arrangements for students applying for places for the academic year beginning in September 2022. The consultation will run for 7 weeks from 2 December 2020 to 20 January 2021.

The full draft admissions arrangements for 2022/23 can be found by clicking on:

HA-Orpington-Admission-Policy-2022-2023.pdf

We believe it is important for all stakeholders, including prospective parents and carers, to understand how our Academy manages the admission process. The Trust Board have developed a Trust wide template policy for use by all Harris academies to ensure consistency, clarity and compliance with the Admission’s Code. This may look different to previous policies, but we are simply setting out our existing criteria in a clearer way.

Proposed changes to the policy include a change of wording and clarification regarding definitions and the inclusion of a section solely for children with an Educational Health Care plan. They are as follows:

Section 2: Definition of a 'Parent'

A 'parent' includes a natural or adoptive parent of the child (regardless of whether they child lives with them, has contact with them, or they have parental responsibility for the child).  It also includes a person who is not a natural or adoptive parent of the child, but who has care of and/or parental responsibility for the child.

Section 4: Children with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHC plan)

4.1 Children with an EHC plan are admitted to school under separate statutory procedures set out in the Children and Families Act 2014. These procedures are managed by the child's home Local Authority, not under the school's determined admission arrangements.  Parents of children with an EHC plan should therefore liaise with their child's home Local Authority's SEN team if they want the Academy to be named in their child's EHC plan as their child's school.

4.2 Where this happens in the normal admission round (i.e. entry to Year 7 in September), these children will be allocated places before all other children, reducing the number of places left within the published admission number (PAN). 

4.3 At all other times, the child will be admitted even where this means the PAN will be exceeded.

Section 5: Published Admission Numbers (PANs)

5.2 The PAN for Year 12 to reduce to 30 pupils.

Section 6.12: Definition of a ‘Sibling’

A 'sibling' is a full sibling (sharing both parents), a half sibling (sharing one parent), an adopted sibling, a long term foster sibling (i.e. not a temporary placement), a step sibling (one child's parent married to the other child's parent), a cohabitee child, or child of their parent's cohabiting partner.  In all cases, the sibling must live at the child's home address (as defined by this policy) as part of the same core family unit.  For the avoidance of doubt, a child of a friend or extended family member (e.g. cousin) will not be a 'sibling' for this purpose, even if they live at the same address as the applicant child. The sibling must still be attending the Academy at the time of application/application closing date, and at the time of the applicant child’s admission.

Section 6.1.4:  Definition of ‘Children of Staff’

A 'child' of a staff member is:

• their natural or adopted child, whether they live with the staff member or elsewhere; and/or
• their step-child or child of their cohabiting partner, who lives and sleeps with the staff member at their home address for more than 50% of their time from Sunday to Friday night during term time.
• For the avoidance of doubt, or a step-child or child of a cohabiting partner, who lives elsewhere, will not be eligible for a place under this category.

Section 7: Minimum Academic Entry Criteria for Entry to Year 12 (Sixth Form)

The details of minimum entry have been updated in line with Harris Federations Sixth Form requirements. Full details of these changes can be found in section 7 of the above policy.

Section 9: Change to Tie Breaker (All Year Groups) Definition

The Tie Breaker definition in section 9 will change within each category as explained below

Where there are more applications than places remaining in any of the oversubscription categories, the order in which places will be allocated will be determined by the distance between the child's home address (as defined by this policy) and the Academy, with those living nearest receiving highest priority.

Distance will be measured in a straight line from the easting and northing co-ordinates for the child's home address to easting and northing coordinates for the front door of the Academy, using the London Borough of Bromley's electronic measuring system which relies on Ordnance Survey GIS references. 

Where the child lives in a multi-dwelling building (for example, an apartment block), distance will be measured from same point in the building so that the distance will be the same for all children living there. 

Where two or more children live an equal distance from the Academy (including where they live in the same multi-dwelling building), the order in which places are allocated will be determined by random allocation supervised by someone who is independent of the Academy.

Section 12: Twins, Triplets and Siblings of a Higher Multiple Birth (Year 7 to Year 11 Only)

12.1 Where a twin, triplet(s) or sibling(s) of a higher multiple birth achieves a place at the Academy within the PAN in the normal way, but their twin, triplet(s) or sibling(s) of a higher multiple birth does not achieve a place, the Academy will strictly apply this policy even where that results in not all of the siblings achieving a place.

---

The consultation has been communicated by Harris Academy Orpington as follows:

• Notification to the London Borough of Bromley
• Notification to all parents, carers and guardians of the academy and publication on the academy website
• Adverts in the local newspaper and other social media platforms that the academy use.
• Headteachers/Principals and Chair of Governors for all primary and secondary schools in a 10m radius of Harris Academy Orpington and all nurseries and pre-schools (that are listed on the Bromley Council website).
• Neighbouring Councils

---

Your questions

We are happy to answer any questions you may have.

Please contact us at info@harrisorpington.org.uk and we will respond to you. Please also provide your telephone number.

Your views

We would welcome your views on our consultation.

Please ensure you respond to our consultation by noon on 20 January 2021, which is when our consultation period closes.

You can respond in three ways:

• By email:  governor.services@harrisfederation.org.uk
• In writing: correspondence should be sent to Clerk to the Governors, C/O Mrs H Rumble, Harris Academy Orpington, Tinatgel Road, Orpington. BR5 4LG.
• By filling in the form below

Next steps

After our consultation, we will consider all the responses and discuss these with our board of Governors.