Policies

Determined Admission Arrangements for entry in 2024 for Leigh Academy Minster

1. Arrangements for admission to 11-16 Provision 

The admission arrangements for Leigh Academy Minster for the academic year 2024-2025 and, subject to any changes approved or required by the Secretary of State, for subsequent years are: 

a. Leigh Academy Minster has an agreed admission number of 180 students. The Academy will accordingly admit up to 180 students in the relevant age group each year if sufficient applications are received. 

b. Leigh Academy Minster may set a higher admission number as its Published Admission Number for any specific year. Students will not be admitted above the Published Admission Number unless exceptional circumstances apply and such circumstances shall be reported to the Secretary of State. 

2. Process of application 

Applications for places at the Academy will be made in accordance with Kent County Council’s co-ordinated admission arrangements and will be made on the Secondary Common Application Form (SCAF) provided and administered by the Kent County Council. Leigh Academy Minster will use the timetable for applications each year to fit in with the common timetable agreed by Kent County Council or its Admissions Forum. The closing date for applications is 31^st October 2023. 

3. Consideration of applications 

Leigh Academy Minster will consider all applications for places. Where fewer than the published admission number of 180 for the relevant year groups are received, Leigh Academy Minster Academy will offer places to all those who have applied. 

Applications for Children to be Taught Outside their Expected Year Group 

Requests for admission outside of the normal age group should be made to the Principal as early as possible in the admissions round associated with the child’s date of birth. This allows the Academy and admissions authority sufficient time to make a decision before the closing date. Parents are not expected to provide evidence to support their request. However, where provided it must be specific to the child in question and may include medical or educational psychologist reports. There is no legal requirement for this medical or educational evidence to be secured from an appropriate professional. However, failure to provide this may impede the academy’s ability to agree to a request for admission outside of the normal age group. 

Parents are required to complete an application for the normal point of entry at the same time, in case their request is declined. Deferred applications must be made via paper SCAF to the Local Authority, with written confirmation from the Academy Principal attached. Deferred applications will be processed in the same way as all applications for the cohort in the following admissions round, and offers will be made in accordance with the academy’s oversubscription criteria.

Oversubscription Criteria 

Where the number of applications for admission of 180 is greater than the published admission number, applications will be considered against the criteria set out below. After the admission of students with statements of Education, Health and Care Plans (ECHPs) where the Leigh Academy Minster is named on the statement, the criteria will be applied in the order in which they are set out below: 

• As a result of admissions for students with Education, Health and Care Plans (ECHPs), the published admissions number will be reduced accordingly. 

Where applications for admission exceed the number of places available, the oversubscription criteria will be applied in the following priority order:

1) Looked After Children and Previously Looked After Children – a looked after child is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school. A previously looked after child means such children who were adopted (or subject to child arrangements orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after and those children who appear to the admission authority to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.

A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society.

2) Children who were registered pupils of Oasis Academy, Isle of Sheppey during the final term of the 2023/24 school year and children who have been offered a place at the school for September 2024 entry. Within this criterion children will be prioritised for admission in the following order:

• Siblings who were either registered pupils of the above Oasis Academy during the final term of the 2023/24 school year, or who have been offered a place at the above Oasis Academy for September 2024 entry (and whose parents have accepted that offer).
• Other children who were either registered pupils of the above Oasis Academy during the final term of the 2023/24 school year, or who have been offered a place at the above Oasis Academy for September 2024 entry (and whose parents have accepted that offer).

3) Students who will have a sibling (a brother or sister) at the Academy on the date of entry.

Note for criteria 2 and 3

For these criteria, sibling or brother or sister means children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers or sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters, foster brothers or sisters. Children residing in the same households as part of an extended family, such as cousins, will not be treated as siblings. If siblings from multiple births (twins, triplets etc) apply for the academy and the academy would reach its Published Admissions Number (PAN) after admitting one or more, but before admitting all of those siblings, the academy will offer a place to each of the siblings, even if doing so takes the academy above its PAN.

4) Health and Special Access Reasons – Medical, health, social and special access reasons will be applied in accordance with the academy’s legal obligations, in particular those under the Equality Act 2010. Priority will be given to those children whose mental or physical impairment means they have a demonstrable and significant need to attend a particular school. Equally this priority will apply to children whose parents’/guardians’ physical or mental or social needs mean that they have a demonstrable and significant need to attend the academy. Such claims will need to be supported by written evidence from a suitably qualified medical or other practitioner, at the point of application, who can demonstrate a special connection between these needs and that of the academy.

5) Child of a Staff Member – The son or daughter of a member of staff who has been recruited to fill a vacant post at the academy for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage. For this criteria son or daughter means a child who lives in the same house as the member of staff, including a natural son or daughter, an adopted child, stepson or daughter, or foster child. Children residing in the same households as part of an extended family, such as cousins, will not be eligible under this criterion. The academy reserves the right to ask for proof of relationship.

6) Isle of Sheppey residents - The Academy will give priority to those living on the Isle of Sheppey.

7) Nearness of children's homes to school - We use the distance between the child’s permanent home address and the Academy, measured in a straight line using the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) address point data. Distances are measured from a point defined as within the child’s home to a point defined as within the school as specified by NLPG. The same address point on the school site is used for everybody. These straight line measurements are used to determine how close each applicant’s address is to the academy with those living closest being given priority. If more than one applicant lives in a multi-occupancy building (e.g. flats) priority will be given to the applicant whose door number is the lowest numerically and/or alphabetically. Where parents live at separate addresses, and have joint custody, the address used will be the one where the child spends the main part of the academy week (i.e. Sunday night to Thursday night inclusive). 

Note for applications eligible under 2–6:

Each application will be ranked using either the address (if an Isle of Sheppey resident) or the proximity of the child’s home to the academy, using the method given in criterion 7. A child's home address is considered to be a residential property that is the child’s only or main permanent residence and not an address at which your child might stay sometimes or sleep due to your own domestic or special arrangements. The address must be the child’s home address on the day you completed your application form and which is either owned by the child’s parent, parents or guardian OR leased to or rented by the child’s parent, parents or guardians under a lease or written rental agreement. 

If you live separately from your partner but share responsibility for your child, and the child lives at two different addresses during the week, we will regard the home address as the one at which the child sleeps for the majority of school nights. School nights are Sunday night to Thursday night inclusive. In a case where the child spends an equal number of school nights at each address, then the address registered for receipt of Child Benefit will be used. Where no Child Benefit is claimed, the address used to register the child with a doctor will be used.

Tiebreaker 

In the unlikely event that two or more children living the same distance away from the Academy and in all other ways have equal eligibility for the last available place at the Academy, the names will be issued a number and drawn randomly to decide which child should be given a place. 

Late Applications 

All applications received by Kent County Council after the deadline will be considered to be late applications. Late applications will be considered after those received on time. 

Operations of Waiting Lists 

Leigh Academy Minster will operate a waiting list for each year group, where in any year the academy receives more applications for places than there are places available. This will be maintained by Leigh Academy Minster 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 set out above. 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 reordered in accordance with the oversubscription criteria whenever anyone is added or leaves the waiting list.

Appeals 

The academy uses an independent appeals panel to consider appeals against non-admission. Parents have a right to appeal against refusal of a place in accordance with the School Admissions Appeals Code. Applicants should contact Leigh Academy Minster at info@laminster.org.uk for information on how to appeal. 

Entry to Year 12 

Leigh Academy Minster will publish specific criteria in relation to minimum entrance requirements for the Sixth Form and for the range of courses available based upon GCSE grades or other measures of prior attainment conduct and behaviour. Conduct and behaviour information will be garnered from relevant academic references. These criteria are the same for internal and external applicants. The academic entry criteria will be published in the autumn immediately preceding the year of admissions (that is 2023) for 2024 admissions. The criteria will be included within the academy’s prospectus and details of these will also be available on the academy website. Priority will be given to existing pupils transferring from Year 11 at Oasis Academy, Isle of Sheppey.  The PAN for external candidates will be 25 but this figure may be exceeded in the event that this and the number of internal pupils transferring into Year 12 from Year 11 is less than the overall figure for the year group that is 250. Oversubscription policy for Year 12 will be the same as for all applicants to all other year groups as stated above. 

General Information 

After a place has been offered the school reserves the right to withdraw the place in the following circumstances: 

• when a parent has failed to respond to an offer within a reasonable time, or 
• when a parent has failed to notify the academy of important changes to the application information, or
• the admission authority offered the place on the basis of fraudulent or intentionally misleading application from the parent. 

The school uses an Independent Appeals panel to consider appeals against non-admission. Details of the arrangements and appeals will be published each year. Parents have a right to appeal against refusal of a place in accordance with the School Admissions Appeals Code. 

Requests for admission outside of the normal age group should be made to the Principal.

We believe that every learner is entitled to a high quality, varied and personalised education; delivered through a broad and balanced curriculum that provides challenge, irrespective of need, starting point or background. Our commitment to maximising the potential of every child; teaching them the skills they need to be successful and nurturing a desire to be a lifelong learner, will prepare them for whichever career path they choose to follow. 

To ensure that all students access a curriculum of appropriate challenge, selected students at Leigh Academy Minster will be placed in Cody College, the Academy’s grammar stream. Cody College will have up to 64 students in Years 7 to 10, up to 90 in Year 10 and up to 80 in Year 11. 

From September 2024, students will be selected for Cody College using the following criteria:

 

Year 7 students 

1. Data used to assess suitability: 

1.1 Kent and Medway Tests: Students in Kent are able to sit the Kent or Medway tests to be considered for a Grammar School place. Kent County Council and Medway Council use these tests to determine if a child is eligible for a place at a Grammar School.  Families are informed directly if their child is eligible for a Grammar School. A child’s eligibility for a Grammar School place should be recorded by the child’s family on the Leigh Academy Minster Admissions Form. Proof of eligibility should be sent to the Academy by the child’s family via email to admissions@laminster.org.uk. If evidence is not provided, students will be assessed for eligibility using criteria 1.2 and 1.3.

1.2 Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores: All students joining the academy in Year 7 will have sat Key Stage 2 assessments in Reading, mathematics and science in May 2024. The results of these assessments and their scaled scores are made available to the academy when the student joins the academy roll on the 1st September. Students will receive a scaled score of between 80 and 120. The Department for Education categorises a student with a mean scaled score of 110+ as a high prior attaining pupil. 

1.3 Cognitive Ability Tests (CATs): As part of their transition process, all Year 7 students will sit CATs that assess pupils abilities in the following areas:

• Verbal reasoning (thinking with words)
• Quantitative reasoning (thinking with numbers)
• Non-verbal reasoning (thinking with shapes and space)
• Spatial ability (thinking with visual images)

Students are provided with a score for each test. All students will have a mean score generated using the total of all scores, divided by the number of tests taken. Students are deemed to be in the ‘high band’ of cognitive ability with a mean score of 111+. 

 

2. Criteria used to assess suitability: 

2.1 Passing of the Kent or Medway Test: Students who pass the Kent or Medway test and are therefore eligible to attend a Grammar School are automatically allocated to Cody College. 

2.2 High Prior Attaining students: All students with a mean Key Stage 2 Scaled Score of 110+ are automatically allocated to Cody College.

2.3  Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores: Following the allocation of Cody College places using criteria 2.1 (Kent and/or Medway Test), and criteria 2.2 (High Prior Attaining students), remaining places will be allocated following a rank ordering of student mean Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores. All remaining students are placed in rank order using their mean Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores. 

In the event of two or more students having identical Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores, a student’s mean CATs score will be used to determine their rank within this Scaled Score.  In the event of a tie, a student's Verbal and Quantitative reasoning scores will be used to determine their entry. Any student who meets the entry criteria but is not successful in gaining a place within Cody College will be held on a waiting list. 

 

Year 8, 9 and 10 students 

1. Data used to assess suitability: 

1.1 Kent and Medway Tests: Students in Kent are able to sit the Kent or Medway tests to be considered for a Grammar School place. Kent County Council and Medway Council use these tests to determine if a child is eligible for a place at a Grammar School.  Families are informed directly if their child is eligible for a Grammar School. A child’s eligibility for a Grammar School place should be recorded by the child’s family on the Leigh Academy Minster Admissions Form. Proof of eligibility should be sent to the Academy by the child’s family via email to admissions@laminster.org.uk. If evidence is not provided, students will be assessed for eligibility using criteria 1.2 and 1.3.

1.2 Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores: The majority of students joining the academy in Years  8 and 9 will have sat Key Stage 2 assessments in Reading, mathematics and science at Primary School. The results of these assessments and their Scaled Scores are made available to the academy when the student joins the academy roll on the 1st September. Students will receive a scale score of between 80 and 120. The Department for Education categorises a student with a scaled score of 110+ as a high prior attaining pupil. 

1.3 Cognitive Ability Tests (CATs): As part of their transition process to Leigh Academy Minster from Oasis Isle of Sheppey Academy, all Year 8 and 9 students will sit CATs that assess pupils abilities in the following areas:

• Verbal reasoning (thinking with words)
• Quantitative reasoning (thinking with numbers)
• Non-verbal reasoning (thinking with shapes and space)
• Spatial ability (thinking with visual images)

Students are provided with a score for each test. All students will have a mean score generated using the total of all scores, divided by the number of tests taken. Students are deemed to be in the ‘high band’ of cognitive ability with a mean score of 111+. 

2. Criteria used to assess suitability: 

2.1 Passing of the Kent or Medway Test: Students who pass the Kent or Medway test and are therefore eligible to attend a Grammar School are automatically allocated to Cody College. 

2.2 High Prior Attaining students: All students with a mean Key Stage 2 Scaled Score of 110+ are automatically allocated to Cody College.

2.3  Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores: Following the allocation of Cody College places using criteria 2.1 (Kent and/or Medway Test), and criteria 2.2 (High Prior Attaining students), remaining places will be allocated following a rank ordering of student mean Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores. All remaining students are placed in rank order using their mean Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores. 

In the event of two or more students having identical Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores, a student’s mean CATs score will be used to determine their rank within this Scaled Score.  In the event of a tie, a student's Verbal and Quantitative reasoning scores will be used to determine their entry. Any student who meets the entry criteria but is not successful in gaining a place within Cody College will be held on a waiting list. 

 

Year 11 students 

1. Data used to assess suitability: 

1.1 Kent and Medway Tests: Students in Kent are able to sit the Kent or Medway tests to be considered for a Grammar School place. Kent County Council and Medway Council use these tests to determine if a child is eligible for a place at a Grammar School.  Families are informed directly if their child is eligible for a Grammar School. A child’s eligibility for a Grammar School place should be recorded by the child’s family on the Leigh Academy Minster Admissions Form. Proof of eligibility should be sent to the Academy by the child’s family via email to admissions@laminster.org.uk. If evidence is not provided, students will be assessed for eligibility using criteria 1.2 and 1.3.

1.2 Cognitive Ability Tests (CATs): As part of their transition process to Leigh Academy Minster from Oasis Isle of Sheppey Academy, all Year 11 students will sit CATs that assess pupils abilities in the following areas:

• Verbal reasoning (thinking with words)
• Quantitative reasoning (thinking with numbers)
• Non-verbal reasoning (thinking with shapes and space)
• Spatial ability (thinking with visual images)

Students are provided with a score for each test. All students will have a mean score generated using the total of all scores, divided by the number of tests taken. Students are deemed to be in the ‘high band’ of cognitive ability with a mean score of 111+. 

 

2. Criteria used to assess suitability: 

2.1 Passing of the Kent or Medway Test: Students who pass the Kent or Medway test and are therefore eligible to attend a Grammar School are automatically allocated to Cody College. 

2.2  Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores: Following the allocation of Cody College places using criteria 2.1 (Kent and/or Medway Test), and criteria 2.2 (High Prior Attaining students), remaining places will be allocated following a rank ordering of student mean Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores. All remaining students are placed in rank order using their mean Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores. 

In the event of two or more students having identical Key Stage 2 Scaled Scores, a student’s mean CATs score will be used to determine their rank within this Scaled Score.  In the event of a tie, a student's Verbal and Quantitative reasoning scores will be used to determine their entry. Any student who meets the entry criteria but is not successful in gaining a place within Cody College will be held on a waiting list. . 

 

Removal of Cody College place 

A student's place within Cody College is not fixed for their entire time at the academy. A students member of Cody College will be reviewed throughout the academic year and take account of:  

• Persistent absence (less than 90% attendance), and/or persistent lateness to the Academy and lessons. 
• Repeated poor behaviour and/or poor engagement in lessons as determined by the Academy’s Behaviour Policy. 
• Persistently low levels of academic achievement in line with course expectations and peer group performance. 
• Other reasons as determined by the Principal, Deputy Principal or Head of Cody College, for example a one off serious breach of the Academy’s Behaviour Policy.