School Admissions Policies 2024-2025

The admission number for Year 7, 2024/2025 is: 155

St Bernard’s is a Catholic Voluntary Academy for students between the ages of 11 to 16 years. As a Catholic Voluntary Academy the Governing Body is responsible for admissions. It is guided in that responsibility by the requirements of law, the requirements of the Trust Deed and the school’s Articles of Association and Funding Agreement; by advice from the Diocesan Trustees and its duty to the Catholic community and the common good. This policy should be read in conjunction with Annex B of the Articles of Association (Appendix 1 attached).

Please note that admission to a Catholic Primary School does not guarantee admission to a Catholic High School.

If you would like to visit the school before applying, please call 01709 828 183 to make an appointment.

Co-ordinated Scheme for Admission Arrangements

The co-ordinated scheme for admissions is a mechanism that ensures that all parents resident in Rotherham LA and who have expressed a preference for St Bernard’s Catholic High School before the closing date will receive a single offer of a school place on the same day from the Authority.

In order to provide every parent with an offer of a single place the Authority works with the Governing Bodies of the Voluntary Aided secondary schools within the Rotherham area, including St Bernard’s Catholic High School. Details of the co-ordinated scheme are available from the Authority.

Application procedure

Applications are made by the completion of the online application form or a paper form, available from the Local Authority in which you live. You should also complete the Diocese of Hallam SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION FORM (available online) and return to the school. Failure to complete and return the form may affect the admission category your child is placed in.

Parental Preference

All applications will be placed in an admission category on an equal basis irrespective of preference.

Criteria for Admission

Our priority is to provide Catholic secondary education for Catholic children resident in the parishes of Forty Martyrs’, St Bede’s, St Mary’s (Herringthorpe), St Mary’s (Maltby), Blessed Trinity, St Gerard’s in the Rotherham Deanery and St Joseph’s, Dinnington, in the Bassetlaw Deanery. Applications from Catholic and Non-Catholic children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (see note 1) will be admitted where the school is named in the Plan.

Where there are more applications for admission than the published admission number stated, as agreed with the Local Authority, the Governing Body will apply the following criteria in strict order of priority:

1. Catholic ‘Looked After Children’ and ‘Previously Looked After Children’ (see notes 2 and 3)
2. Other ‘Looked After Children’ and ‘Previously Looked After’
3. Catholic children who are attending a Catholic feeder Primary School (see note 4)

(St Bede’s Catholic Primary School – Rotherham; St Gerard’s Catholic Primary School – Thrybergh; St Joseph’s Catholic Primary

School – Dinnington; St Mary’s Catholic Primary School – Herringthorpe; St Mary’s Catholic Primary School – Maltby)

4. Other Catholic children who have a sibling (see note 8) in school, at the time of enrolment
5. Other children who have a sibling in school, at the time of enrolment
6. Other children who attend a Catholic feeder Primary School (see list of schools at point 3 above)
7. Catechumens, members of the Orthodox Church, members of an Eastern Christian Church and other Christian children, resident (see note 10) within the Parishes detailed above (see notes 5,6,7)
8. Other Catholic children
9. Children who have at least one parent currently employed by St Bernard’s Catholic High School, irrespective of their faith
10. Catechumens, members of the Orthodox Church, members of an Eastern Christian Church
11. Other Christian children
12. Other applications, who wish to be educated in a Christ-centred environment
13. Other children

Please refer to the ‘Supplementary Information Form’ which details the supporting documentation required with your application.

Tie break

With the exception of categories 1-6 above, should the published admission limit be reached mid category, priority will be given to those children who live nearest the school. The measurement (made by the Rotherham LA) is the shortest distance measured in a straight line from the applicant’s home address to the school (for a full explanation of the method used to calculate distance please refer to the LA’s Admission to Secondary School booklet). In circumstances where two or more children live the same distance from the school, the offer of a place will be decided by drawing lots. The first name drawn will be offered the place.

Late Applications

Late applications received by the LA will be dealt with in accordance with the Authority’s Co- ordinated Admission Scheme.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

A request may be made for a child to be admitted outside their normal age group, for example if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. Any such request should be made to: Local Authority Admissions Team, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Children and Young People’s Services, Riverside House, Main Street, Rotherham, S60 1AE at the same time as the Admission Application is made. The School’s Governing Body will make its decision about the request based on the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child. In addition to taking into account the views of the Principal, including the Principal’s statutory responsibility for the internal organisation, management and control of the school, the Governing Body will take into account the views of the parents and of appropriate medical and education professionals, as appropriate.

Waiting List

In addition to their right of appeal, unsuccessful children will be offered the opportunity to be placed on a waiting list. This waiting list will be maintained in order of the oversubscription criteria set out above and not in the order in which applications are received or added to the list. Waiting lists for admission to Year 7 will operate until 31st December 2024.

Inclusion in the school’s waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available.

In-Year Applications

An application can be made for a place for a child at any time outside the admission round and the child will be admitted where there are available places. Applications for the school should be made to: Local Authority Admissions Team, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Children and Young People’s Services, Riverside House, Main Street, Rotherham, S60 1AE.

Where there are places available but more applications than places, the published oversubscription criteria, as set out above, will be applied.

If there are no places available, the child will be added to the waiting list (see above).

You will be advised of the outcome of your application in writing, and you have the right of appeal to an independent appeal panel.

Fair Access Protocol

The school is committed to taking its fair share of children who are vulnerable and /or hard to place, as set out in locally agreed protocols. Accordingly, outside the normal admission round the Governing Body is empowered to give absolute priority to a child where admission is requested under any local protocol that has been agreed by both the Diocese and the Governing Body for the current school year. The Governing Body has this power even when admitting the child would mean exceeding the published admission number.

False Information

Where the Governing Body has made an offer of a place at this school on the basis of a fraudulent or intentionally misleading application from a parent, which has effectively denied a place to a child with a stronger claim to a place at the school, the offer of a place may be withdrawn.

Where a child starts attending the school on the basis of fraudulent and intentionally misleading information the place may be withdrawn by the Governing Body, depending on the length of time that the child has been at the school.

Timetable

Closing date for receiving applications:   31st October 2023

Offer day:                                         1st March 2024

You will be advised of the outcome of your application on 1st March or the next working day, by the Local Authority on our behalf. If you are unsuccessful (unless your child gained a place at a school you ranked higher) you will be informed of the reasons, related to the oversubscription criteria listed above, and you have the right of appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel.

Notes:

Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

An Education, Health and Care Plan is a plan made by the local authority under section 37 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Specifying the special educational provision required for a child. Please note that the school must be named in the EHCP.

2. Looked After Children and Previously Looked After Children

A ‘looked after child’ has the same meaning as in section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989, and means any child who is (a) in the care of a local authority or (b) being provided with accommodation by them in the exercise of their social services functions (e.g. children with foster parents) at the time of making application to the school.

A ‘previously looked after child’ is a child who was looked after but ceased to be so because he or she was adopted, or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order 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, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society.

3. Catholic children

‘Catholic’ means a member of a Church in full communion with the See of Rome. This includes the Eastern Catholic Churches. This will normally be evidenced by a certificate of baptism in a Catholic Church or a certificate of reception into the full communion of the Catholic Church. For the purposes of this policy, it includes a looked after child who is part of a Catholic family where a letter from a priest demonstrates that the child would have been baptised or received if it were not for their status as a looked after child living with a family where at least one of the parents is Catholic (e.g. a looked after child in the process of adoption by a Catholic family).

For a child to be treated as Catholic, evidence of baptism or reception into the Church will be required. Those who have difficulty obtaining written evidence of baptism should contact their Parish Priest who, after consulting with the Diocese, will decide how the question of baptism is to be resolved and how written evidence is to be produced in accordance with the laws of the Church.

4. Attendance at a Feeder Primary School

For the purposes of this admission policy, attendance at a feeder primary school includes those who were prevented from attending a feeder school due to oversubscription of Catholics and whose application to attend was unsuccessful, normally evidenced by a letter of rejection from the feeder primary school.

5. Catechumen

‘Catechumen’ means a member of the catechumenate of a Catholic Church. This will normally be evidenced by a certificate of reception into the order of catechumens.

6. Eastern Christian Church

‘Eastern Christian Church’ includes Orthodox Churches, and is normally evidenced by a certificate of baptism or reception from the authorities of that Church.

7. Other Christian Denominations

“Children of other Christian denominations” means children who belong to other churches and ecclesial communities which, acknowledge God’s revelation in Christ, confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the Scriptures, and, in obedience to God’s will and in the power of the Holy Spirit commit themselves: to seek a deepening of their communion with Christ and with one another in the Church, which is his body; and to fulfil their mission to proclaim the Gospel by common witness and service in the world to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. An ecclesial community which on principle has no credal statements in its tradition, is included if it manifests faith in Christ as witnessed to in the Scriptures and is committed to working in the spirit of the above.

All members of Churches Together in England and CYTÛN are deemed to be included in the above definition, as are all other churches and ecclesial communities that are in membership of any local Churches Together Group (by whatever title) on the above basis.

8. Sibling

1. all natural brothers or sisters, half brothers or sisters, adopted brothers or sisters, stepbrothers or sisters, foster brothers or sisters, whether or not they are living at the same address; and
2. the child of a parent’s partner where that child for whom the school place is sought lives for at least part of the week in the same family unit at the same home address as the child who is the subject of the application.

9. Parent

A ‘parent’ means all natural parents, any person who is not a parent but has parental responsibility for a child, and any person who has care of a child.

10. Place of residence

The child’s ordinary place of residence will be deemed to be a residential property at which the person or persons with parental responsibility for the child resides at the closing date for receiving applications for admission to the school.

Where parental responsibility is held by more than one person and those persons reside in separate properties, the child’s ordinary place of residence will be deemed to be that property at which the child resides for the greater part of the week, including weekends.

A child’s ‘home address’ refers to the address where the child usually lives with a parent or carer, and will be the address provided in the Common Application Form (CAF). Where parents have shared responsibility for a child, and the child lives for part of the week with each parent, the home address will be the address given in the CAF, provided that the child resides at that address for any part of the school week.

Oversubscription Criteria

At any time where there are more applications for places than the number of places available, places will be offered according to the order of priority, please refer to the ‘Criteria for Admission’ above.

Appeals against the Governing Body’s decision to refuse admission

1. If a place is not available, parents have the right of appeal. Such appeals will be heard by an Independent Appeals Panel formed in accordance with the DfE Admissions Appeal Code. Details of the appeals process can be obtained via the Local Authority Website, Admissions Appeal Booklet.
2. Parents who intend to make an appeal against the Governing Body’s decision to refuse admission must submit a notice of appeal to:

Useful Contacts

Appeals Clerk

Legal & Democratic Services Town Hall, The Crofts Moorgate Street

Rotherham S60 2TH

Tel No: 01709 822 054

Email: schoolappeals@rotherham.gov.uk

Annex B (Appendix 1)

Requirements for the admission of pupils at St Bernard's Catholic High School, a catholic voluntary academy

1. This Annex may be amended in writing at any time by agreement between the Secretary of State and the Academy Trust.
2. The Academy Trust will act in accordance with, and will ensure that an Independent Appeal Panel is trained to act in accordance with, all relevant provisions of the School Admissions Code and the School Admission Appeals Code published by the Department for Education (“the Codes”) as they apply at any given time to maintained schools and with equalities law and the law on admissions as they apply to maintained schools. For this purpose, reference in the Codes or legislation to “admission authorities” shall be deemed to be references to the Governing Body of the Academy Trust.
3. Notwithstanding the generality of paragraph 2 of this Annex, the Academy Trust will take part in any mandatory Admissions Forum set up by the local authority (“LA”) in which they are situated and have regard to its advice; and will participate in the co-ordinated admission arrangements operated by the LA and the local Fair Access Protocol.
4. Notwithstanding any provision in this Annex, the Secretary of State may:

1. direct the Academy Trust to admit a named pupil to the Academy on application from an LA. This will include complying with a School Attendance Order1. Before doing so the Secretary of State will consult the Academy Trust.
2. direct the Academy Trust to admit a named pupil to the Academy if the Academy Trust has failed to act in accordance with this Annex or has otherwise failed to comply with applicable admissions and equalities legislation or the provisions of the Codes.
3. direct the Academy Trust to amend its admission arrangements where they fail to comply with the School Admissions Code or the Admission Appeals Code.

1.  Local authorities are able to issue school attendance orders if a child is not attending school. These are legally binding upon parents. Such an order might, for instance, be appropriate where a child has a place at an Academy but his/her parents are refusing to send him/her to school. The order will require a parent to ensure his/her child attends a specified school.

4.1     St Bernard’s Catholic High School is a Roman Catholic Academy in the diocese of Hallam.

5. The Academy Trust shall ensure that parents and ‘relevant children2’ will have the right of appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel if they are dissatisfied with an admission decision of the Academy Trust. The Independent Appeal Panel will be independent of the Academy Trust. The arrangements for appeals will comply with the School Admission Appeals Code published by the Department for Education as it applies to Foundation and Voluntary Aided schools. The determination of the appeal panel is binding on all parties.

Relevant Area

6. Subject to paragraph 7, the meaning of “Relevant Area” for the purposes of consultation requirements in relation to admission arrangements is that determined by the local authority for maintained schools in the area in accordance with the Education (Relevant Areas for Consultation on Admission Arrangements) Regulations 1999.
7. If the Academy does not consider the relevant area determined by the local authority for the maintained schools in the area to be appropriate, it must apply to the Secretary of State by 1 August for a determination of the appropriate relevant area for the Academy, setting out the reasons for this view. The Secretary of State will consult the Academy and the LA in which the Academy is situated in reaching a decision.

Requirement to admit pupils

8. The Academy will:

a. subject to its right of appeal to the Secretary of State in relation to a named pupil, admit all pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the Academy;

b. adopt admission oversubscription criteria that give highest priority to looked after children, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the School Admissions Code.

2.  relevant children’ means:

1. in the case of appeals for entry to a sixth form, the child, and;
2. in any other case, children who are above compulsory school age, or will be above compulsory school age by the time they start to receive education at the school.