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Starting secondary school in Year 7

In this section

1Starting secondary school in Year 7
2Your specific circumstances
3Admissions criteria and catchment areas
4Your three school preferences
5Applying for a school place

Your three school preferences

We treat each of your preferences as if it was a separate application. Schools are unaware of your preference order, or the other schools you have applied to. The school will consider every application it receives against it's oversubscription criteria. 

Each school has a published admissions number (PAN). This is the greatest number of pupils who can be admitted into the year group. Each school will let us know if you qualify for a place. You may qualify for more than one school, but will receive one offer from us.

Your preferences and ranking 

  • You should list three schools in order of preference. There is no advantage in listing only one school.

  • We recommend that you include your catchment or nearest school as one of your three preferences. 

  • If you qualify for more than one school, we will offer the one that you ranked highest. We will withdraw the remaining schools you qualified for.

  • Think about travel and how you will get your child to school. Your preferences could affect your eligibility for home to school transport. 

  • If you submit invalid preferences, such as an independent school. You will not get the opportunity to name other schools.

  • If you apply for a school outside Peterborough, we'll send your application details to the local authority where the school is. They will then tell us if you qualify. We will offer a place based on your preference order.

  • There is no guarantee of a place at any school even if you live in the catchment area

  • If your child does not qualify for any of your preferred schools, we will offer a place at the nearest available school to you. This is only done after considering all other applications so places will be limited. You could be responsible for getting your child to a school some distance from your house.

Your reasons for applying for each of your preferences

You will need to explain why you prefer each preference on your application form. For example you can mention that you have a sibling at the school.

Please include your reasons, it will assist in accurately applying the oversubscription criteria. If you don't tell us about a sibling already at the school, we can't consider it.

When you apply online, you can make as many changes as you like up until the closing date. These changes could include your preferences, or order of preferences. Remember to resubmit your application every time you make a change.

If you make a change and submit after the closing date, your application will be considered as a late application. We will then only consider it after all on-time applications, or those with an earlier submission date.

Changing preferences after the closing date

You can only change your preferences before 22 November 2024 if you have a genuine reason, like a change of address. You cannot change your preferences on a late application. The local authority will consider changing a preference on a case-by-case basis.

If you change your preferences after we offer you a school place, we will use your new preferences and withdraw your previous ones. This will replace any previous offers, even if you already accepted a school place. You are less likely to get a preferred place after all on-time applications have been processed. 

Parents have a duty to ensure that their children attend school and to make any necessary transport arrangements, including accompanying their children, when necessary, on their journeys to and from school. If you make a preference for a school other than your catchment or nearest you will be expected to make your own arrangements for your child’s journey to and from school and meet any costs involved.

We will provide free transport for secondary age children in Year 7 to Year 11 who:

  • attend their nearest suitable or designated school and live at least 3 miles from the school; or
  • attend any one of the three nearest suitable schools, where that school is more than two miles and less than six miles from their home, where the parents are in receipt of the appropriate benefits, and they live at least 2 miles from the school; or
  • attend their nearest suitable school chosen on grounds of religion or belief, where that school is more than two miles and less than fifteen miles from their home, where the parents are in receipt of the appropriate benefits.

If you believe your child is eligible, you can apply for school transport assistance by completing an online application form. Full policy and application form are available on our School Transport webpage.

Example preferences

We provide the following examples to illustrate what may happen. These scenarios are possible outcomes, your circumstances may be different.

Philip lives in Stanground. His parents list the following preferences:

  1. Arthur Mellows Village College
  2. Stanground Academy
  3. City of Peterborough Academy

All three of these schools are oversubscribed. Philip does not live close enough to Arthur Mellows Village College to be offered a place there. As Stanground Academy was higher on his preference on his application than City of Peterborough Academy, he is offered a place at Stanground Academy.

Philip

Amelia lives near Peterborough City Centre. Her parents list the following preferences:

  1. The King’s (The Cathedral) School
  2. Thomas Deacon Academy
  3. St John Fisher Catholic High School

The governors of The King’s (The Cathedral) School are notified of Amelia’s application. However, they are not able to offer Amelia a place as she does not meet a high enough oversubscription criterion as her application has been ranked under the criteria of 'Proximity'. Although Thomas Deacon Academy is closer to the family home than St John Fisher Catholic High School, Amelia cannot be offered a place there as she lives further away than the last child offered before the school reached their Published Admissions Number (PAN). However, she does live close enough to St John Fisher Catholic High School to be offered a place, even though it is slightly further from her home than Thomas Deacon Academy. Amelia is offered a place at St John Fisher Catholic High School.

Amelia

Arrav lives in South Bretton, his catchment school is Queen Katherine Academy. His parents list the following preferences:

  1. Hampton College
  2. Nene Park Academy
  3. Ormiston Bushfield Academy

Unfortunately, Arrav does not live close enough to any of the schools listed on his application to be offered a place. This means that he has to be offered a place at the nearest school to his home with an available place. Queen Katherine Academy, his catchment school, is oversubscribed so a place cannot be offered to Arrav. The next nearest school to Arrav's home address with vacancies at the time of the allocation is Ken Stimpson Academy. Arrav is not eligible for school transport assistance as his home address is within 3 miles of his offered school.

Arrav
Published: 30 October 2024