Admissions

Admissions of Pupils : Year 7 – September 2011

Please note that the last date for applications is 1st November 2010, including all supporting evidence. The admissions process is part of the Stoke-on-Trent LA co-ordinated Scheme.

The Admission Policy of the Governors of St Thomas More Catholic College is as follows:

The ethos of this College is Catholic. The College was founded by the Catholic Church to provide education for children of Catholic families. The College is conducted by its governing body as part of the Catholic church in accordance with its Trust Deed and Instrument of Government and seeks at all times to be a witness to Jesus Christ. We ask all parents applying for a place here to respect this ethos and its importance to the College community. This does not affect the right of parents who are not of the faith of this College to apply for and be considered for a place here.

The College’s Admission Number of the school year beginning in September 2011 is 187.

Governors will consider applications in late November/early December and parents will be informed on 1st March 2011 if their child has been allocated a place at the College.

If the number of applications exceeds the admission number, the governors will give priority to applications in accordance with the criteria listed, provided that the governors are made aware of that application before decisions on admissions are made (see Note 1 below).

In all categories, priority will be given to those who have a brother or sister (see Note 3 below) attending St Thomas More Catholic College at the time of admission.

Baptised Catholic children who are in the care of a local authority (looked after children) or provided with accommodation by them (eg, children with foster parents) (Section 22 of the Children Act 1989).
Baptised Catholic children (see Note 2 below) who currently attend a Catholic feeder school (See Note 4 below).
Other Baptised Catholic children. 4 Non-Catholic children who are in the care of a local authority (looked after children) or provided with accommodation by them (eg children with foster parents) (Section 22 of the Children Act 1989).
Non-Catholic children who currently attend a Catholic feeder school.
Other Non-Catholic children.

OVER-SUBSCRIPTION

If there is over-subscription within a criterion, the Governors will give priority first to brothers and sisters and then to children living closest to the College determined by shortest distance. Distances are calculated on the basis of a straight-line measurement between the front door of the applicant’s home address and the front door of the school. The local authority uses a computerised system, which measures all distances in miles. Ordnance Survey supplies the co-ordinates that are used to plot an applicant’s home address within this system (See Note 4).

In a very small number of cases it may not be able to decide between the applicants of those pupils who are qualifiers for a place, when applying the published admission criteria.

For example, this may occur when children in the same year group live at the same address, or where there are twins, or if the distance between the home and school is exactly the same, for example, blocks of flats. If there is no other way of separating the application according to the admissions criteria and to admit both or all of the children would cause the legal limit to be exceeded, the local authority on behalf of the governing body will draw lots to randomly select the child to be offered the final place.

Notes:

Children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs that names the college must be admitted. This will reduce the number of places available to applicants.
In all categories, for a child to be considered as a Catholic, evidence of Catholic Baptism or Reception into the Church will be required. For a definition of Baptised Catholic see the Appendix. Those who face difficulties in producing written evidence of baptism should contact their Parish Priest.
Parents making an application for a Catholic child should also complete the school’s supplementary information form (SIF). Failure to provide evidence of Catholic Baptism may affect the criterion the child’s name is placed in.
The definition of a brother or sister is:
A brother or sister sharing the same parents;
Half-brother or half-sister, where two children share one common parent;
Step-brother or step-sister, where two children are related by a parent’s marriage;
Adopted or fostered children.
The children must be living permanently in the same household.
The designated feeder schools for St Thomas More Catholic College are:
St Augustine’s School, Meir
St Gregory’s School, Longton
St Maria Goretti School, Bucknall
Our Lady’s School, Fenton
Our Lady & St Benedict School, Abbey Hulton (Shared with St Margaret Ward)
St Teresa’s School, Trent Vale (Shared with St John Fisher)
St Thomas’s School, Stoke (Shared with St John Fisher)
The home address of a pupil is considered to be the permanent residence of a child. The address must be the child’s only or main residence. Documentary evidence may be required.

Where care is split equally between mother and father, parents must name which address is to be used for the purpose of allocating a college place.

APPEALS

Parents who wish to appeal against the decision of the Governors to refuse their child a place in the college may apply in writing to the Chair of Governors. Appeals will be heard by an independent panel.

REPEAT APPLICATIONS

Unless there are significant and material changes in the circumstances of a parent’s application for their child or the college, the Governors will not consider a repeat application in the same academic year.

LATE APPLICATIONS

Late applications will be dealt with according to the LA co-ordinated scheme.

APPLICATIONS OTHER THAN THE NORMAL INTAKE TO YEAR 7

An application should be made directly to the Local Authority Admissions and Family Services in accordance with the LA Admissions Procedure for In Year Admissions.

WAITING LISTS

Waiting lists for admission will remain open until the end of the Autumn Term and will then be discarded. Parents may apply to the governing body for their child’s name to be reinstated. The waiting list will be kept in admission criteria order. A child’s name may move up or down the list. Children who are the subject of a direction by a local authority to admit or who are allocated to a school in accordance with a Fair Access Protocol take precedence over those on a waiting list.

There is no cost related to the admission of a child to St Thomas More Catholic College.

APPENDIX

DEFINITION OF A “BAPTISED CATHOLIC”

(For use in the Criteria of Admission to Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Birmingham)

To establish clarity, consistency and fairness in the application of Criteria of Admission in Catholic Schools in accordance with the Trust Deed of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, it is necessary to define the description of a “Baptised Catholic” for the benefit of parents who are making applications and for Governors who formulate and apply the criteria for admissions.

A “Baptised Catholic” is one who:

Has been baptised into fully communion (Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 837) with the Catholic Church by the Rites of Baptism of one of the various ritual Churches in the communion with the See of Rome (ie, Latin Rite, Byzantine Rite, Coptic, Syriac, etc, of Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1203). Written evidence* of this baptism can be obtained by recourse to the Baptismal Registers of the church in with the baptism took place (Cf. Code of Canon Law, 877 & 878).

OR
Has been validly baptised in a separated ecclesial community and subsequently received into full communion with the Catholic Church by the Right of Reception of Baptised Christians into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church. Written evidence of their baptism and reception into full communion with the Catholic Church can be obtained by recourse to the Register of Receptions, or in some cases, a sub-section of the Baptismal Registers of the church in which the Rite of Reception took place (Cf. Rite of Christian Initiation, 399).

WRITTEN EVIDENCE OF BAPTISM

The Governing bodies of Catholic schools will require written evidence in the form of a Certificate of Baptism or Certificate of Reception before applications for school places can be considered for categories of “Baptised Catholics”. A Certificate of Baptism or Reception is to include: the full name, date of birth, date of baptism or reception, and parent(s) name(s). The certificate must also show that it is copied from the records kept by the place of baptism or reception.

Those who would have difficulty obtaining written evidence of baptism for a good reason, may still be considered as baptised Catholics but only after they have been referred to their parish priest who, after consulting the Vicar General, will decide how the question of baptism is to be resolved and how written evidence is to be produced in accordance with the law of the Church.

Those who would be considered to have good reason for not obtaining written evidence would include those who cannot contact the place of baptism due to persecution or fear, the destruction of the church and the original records, or where baptism was administered validly but not in the Parish church where records are kept.

Governors may request extra supporting evidence when the written documents that are produced do not clarify the fact that a person was baptised or received into the Catholic Church, (i.e. where the name and address of the Church is not on the certificate or where the name of the Church does not state whether it is a Catholic Church or not).

Admission Policies should state the requirement of written evidence of Baptism or Reception for the category of “Baptised Catholic”. The policy should also state that those who face difficulties in producing written evidence of baptism should contact their Parish Priest.

Admissions of Pupils : Sixth Form – September 2011

The Admission Policy of the Governors of St Thomas More Catholic College is as follows:

The school was founded by the Catholic Church to provide education for children of Catholic families. The school is conducted by its governing body as part of the Catholic church in accordance with its Trust Deed and Instrument of Government and seeks at all times to be a witness to Jesus Christ.

The College’s Admission Number for the school year beginning in September 2011 is 100.

The College is open to all non-Catholic applicants who are prepared to support the Catholic ethos of the College.

All students wishing to attend the Sixth Form to study “AS” levels must have a minimum of 5 A*-C GCSEs (including Maths and English). Please note that courses normally worth 4 GCSEs will count as 2.

For students wishing to study Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology a minimum of a grade B at GCSE in that subject is required.

For students wishing to follow the Specialist Diplomas or a vocational course, the minimum GCSE results required are 5 A*-D including Maths and English.

All students will be required to follow a course in General RE.

No student will be allowed to study less than the equivalent of 3 “AS” levels.

Progress into Year 13 will be dependant upon obtaining a pass at “AS” level or equivalent in a particular subject. Students who fail to pass a minimum of 2 “AS” levels or equivalent will not be allowed to progress into Year 13.

If the number of applicants who have achieved the minimum requirements exceeds the admissions number the Governors will give priority according to the following criteria:

Baptised Catholic students who attend St Thomas More Catholic College.**
Non-Catholic students who attend St Thomas More Catholic College.
Other Baptised Catholic students.**
Non-Catholic students who are prepared to support the Catholic ethos of the College.

**For a definition of a “Baptised Catholic” please refer to the general admissions policy for the College.

In the case of over-subscription the highest average points score will be given priority.

Each subject will have a maximum class size. Should over-subscription occur in any subject priority will be given to the student with the highest GCSE points score in that subject.

APPEALS

Parents who wish to appeal against the decision of the Governors to refuse their child a place in the Sixth Form may apply in writing to the Chair of Governors. Appeals will be heard by an independent panel.