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We are undertaking a consultation of our planned admission arrangements for the academic year beginning September 2026 onwards. The consultation will run for a period of 6 school weeks, from 22 November 2024 until 17 January 2025, and is taking place in line with the Department for Education School Admission Code.
The Hallam Diocese have recently updated their guidance on school admission, which the Diocesan Bishop requires schools to comply with. Therefore, the Governing Board amended our admission policy in line with this guidance.
Current Oversubscription Criteria1. Catholic looked after and previously looked after children. 2. Catholic children who live in one of our Parishes or attend one of our family of primary schools. 3. All other Catholic children and members of an Eastern Christian Church. 4. Other looked after and previously looked after children. 5. Children who have brothers and sisters who, at the point of application and admission, attend St Mary’s Catholic High School. 6. Children of other Christian denominations and children of other faiths whose membership is evidenced by a minister of religion or other religious leader who have attended one of our family of primary schools. 7. All other children of other Christian denominations and children of other faiths whose membership is evidenced by a minister of religion or other religious leader. 8. Any other children who have attended one of our family of primary schools. 9. Any other children not in any of the above categories.
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The proposed change is to the oversubscription criteria, which is outlined below.
Proposed Oversubscription Criteria (starting September 2026)1. Catholic looked after and previously looked after children. 2. Catholic children who live in one of our Parishes or attend one of our family of primary schools. 3. All other Catholic children and members of an Eastern Christian Church. 4. Other looked after and previously looked after children. 5. Children of other Christian denominations and children of other faiths whose membership is evidenced by a minister of religion or other religious leader who have attended one of our family of primary schools. 6. All other children of other Christian denominations and children of other faiths whose membership is evidenced by a minister of religion or other religious leader. 7. Any other children who have attended one of our family of primary schools. 8. Any other children not in any of the above categories. Within each of the categories listed above, the following provision regarding siblings will be applied.
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Priority for siblings helps foster links between home, school and parish. It also provides a degree of domestic convenience for parents. Catholic schools are not permitted to operate a ‘siblings first’ policy where the effect is to admit a non-Catholic sibling but thereby deny a place to a Catholic child, who may be the first or only child from a Catholic family. Similarly, admissions legislation allows for priority to be given not only to those who are members of the school’s own faith designation, but also to those of other faiths. As the only faith secondary school in North-East Derbyshire, this is an important priority for our community and governing board. For this reason, through adoption of the diocesan model policy, priority will be given to siblings who will be placed at the top of the criterion under which the application has been made (in recognition of faith), if that criterion is oversubscribed.
The school’s definition of brother and sister will remain the same, and in line with the diocesan model policy. It is not restrictive and aims to give flexibility to enable decisions to be made in the best interests of children regardless of their family circumstances.
We do not anticipate the revised oversubscription criteria to make any significant difference to our intake. Our internal analysis of our intake between 2021-2024 show that by applying the revised oversubscription criteria, the ‘cut off’ would have remained in the same category.
The full copy of the draft admission policy for the school year beginning September 2026 can be found below.
As a part of this consultation, please submit any views or questions by emailing consultation@stmaryschesterfield.org.uk. Your response must outline your name, address and relationship to the school in order to be considered.
All responses to the consultation should be received before 11:59pm on 17 January 2025. Owing to the need for us to consider all responses before making any decisions, we will unfortunately be unable to consider responses received after this time. After the close of the consultation, the Governing Board will meet to consider all of the responses. The outcome of the consultation will be published on the school website as soon as possible, with the final admissions arrangements following shortly after.
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| DRAFT Admission Policy 2026 27 |