Admissions criteria
Individual pupils who have a Statement of Special Educational Needs which names the school will be admitted.
In deciding on admissions to The Ripley Academy the following order of priority will be adopted as per John The Ripley Academy’s published Admissions Policy as follows:
a) Students who are looked after by a local authority, or who have been previously looked after, in accordance with the School Admissions Code 2021, which states admissions authorities must give highest priority to the group of children, and who meet the entry criteria
b) Children who permanently reside within the normal areas of Ripley Junior School, Waingroves Primary School, St John’s C of E Primary School and Codnor Community Primary School at the time of application and admission to the school.
c) Children who, at the time of admission to secondary school, will have a brother or sister attending school in Years 7-11.
d) Children attending Ripley Junior School, Waingroves Primary School, St John’s C of E School or Codnor Primary School, but not living in the normal areas served by those schools.
e) All other children who do not qualify for any of the above criteria with priority given to those who live the nearest to the school.
Where, in the case of b) to d), choices have to be made between children satisfying the same criteria, those children living nearest to the school (measured by the nearest available route) will be given preference. Please note, attendance at a particular primary school gives no priority for admission to a particular secondary school.
Residence – in all categories
Please note the home address relates to at the time of application and admission. Where an application includes more than one address due to shared parental responsibility, parents and carers are required to submit full details to enable Derbyshire County Council to determine which address to use for the purpose of admission. Where parents state that the child resides equally at both addresses the county council will use the address where the child resides for the majority of the week (where they usually or mainly sleep between Monday and Friday). Parents and carers are required to submit full details with supporting information to enable us to determine which address to use for the purpose of admission. Where parents provide evidence that the child resides equally at both addresses during the school week, and the county council are unable to reach a decision based on the information received, parents will be asked to notify them of the mutually agreed address to be used for the purposes of school admissions. Please note the same address will be used in the assessment of eligibility for home to school transport assistance. Where the county council have reasonable grounds for believing the home address is not the child’s only or main residence they reserve the right to carry out investigations which may include visits to the property
Important Points
There are several things it is important to remember when making your application.
- Get your application in on time – via the internet, Call Derbyshire, Derbyshire primary school or post. If you miss the deadline the council will not be able to consider your application until the ones received on time have been dealt with. The deadline for applications is midnight on 31 October 2024.
- Don’t name the same school more than once as a preference – this will not increase your chances of a place.
- The county council will withdraw a school place where false information has been used to secure an offer.
- Think about listing your normal area school. You may want to consider including the normal area school as one of your preferences, though it does not have to be your first preference. If you do not include the normal area school as one of your preferences it may fill up with pupils who have said they would prefer to go to that school. This could mean the only school with available places may be further away and could mean you have to pay for transport to a distant school.
- If you do not make an application you cannot assume your child will get an automatic place at your normal area school. Places will be offered first to those who have expressed a preference. If you do not make an application the council will only be able to give your child a place at your normal area school if places are still available. If your normal area school is full the council will give your child a place in the nearest school which has room. This could mean you paying transport costs to a distant school.
- Consider how your child will get to school when making your preferences. You are responsible for getting your child to school. If your child gets a place at a distant school, this could mean that you pay transport costs. Find out more about school transport Please read carefully before deciding your preferences.
- Only make one application by phone, online or on paper.
- Late applications received after the closing date will be included only if the reason for the delay is considered exceptional and appropriate evidence has been provided. Other late applications will not be considered until after applications received by the closing date have been dealt with.
