Tapton School Sixth Form Admission Guidance

Applications

Tapton Sixth Form Admissions are co-ordinated by the Local Authority, and follow the systems adopted by many other Sixth Forms in Sheffield for a consistent approach.  Students apply through Sheffield Progress, and can make a single application to a Sixth Form, choosing up to three schools to apply to.  Students should select and name these schools in order of preference.

The Authority will then liaise with the Schools on behalf of the student in order to determine a single offer.  The co-ordinated scheme ensures that closing dates and allocation dates are consistent across all Schools.  The Local Authority acts as the co-ordinating body for managing applications on behalf of all external students.

At Tapton we ask that students have a minimum of 5 passes (4 and above) at GCSE (or equivalent, which is a Level 2 BTEC Pass or higher) to include English Language at a grade 5 or higher.  Each subject will also carry its own entry requirement (for example Business Studies asks for a 5 in Maths and a 5 in English Language).  Individual entry requirements will be available on Sheffield Progress and our school website.

Students are allowed to hold a place at one Sixth Form only.  This is the case even if you attend a school with a Sixth Form – you cannot hold a place at your current school and a place elsewhere.  At Tapton, we guarantee the students a place for Tapton Year 11s as long as they have the entry requirements needed for their chosen subjects.  However, if they have been holding a place elsewhere, we cannot guarantee their first choice of subjects.

Applications will be considered by all schools equally, and schools are not aware of the preference order.  Decisions for each application are submitted to the council who allocate places based on the entry criteria for each school, with the aim being to allocate the students highest ranking school.  Students will not be offered a place if they do not meet the entry requirements set out.  If there are more successful external applicants than places available, then a waiting list will be created.  Distance from home to school, in a straight line, will be used to rank this.  This does not apply to Tapton students – students with the correct entry requirements will be offered a place.

Student who attend a Tapton Trust School (Chaucer, Bradfield and Forge Valley) will be offered places above those students who attend elsewhere.  Students on the waiting list will be offered places as and if they become available up until the break for Summer.  However, it may be that we are unable to offer the students first choice of subjects as some subjects may be full (typically, Maths and the sciences can become full).

All eligible applicants who have been refused a place and meet the minimum required grades, may request a statutory appeal to have their case considered by the Independent Appeal Panel. The appeal forms will be available from the Local Authority in July, who, where appropriate, will also conduct any appeal in early September, after the students have received their GCSE results.

Tapton students applying to Tapton and another Sheffield Sixth Form

The Local Authority has issued the below guidance to students if they wish to apply to a Sixth Form other than Tapton, as well as Tapton:

Applications for 6th form schools from Internal Students (if your school has a sixth form). If you go to a school with a sixth form and you select your school as your first preference then, provided you meet the grades and any other requirements, you will be offered a place there, and any other preferences listed lower on your application will not be considered. If you go to a school with a sixth form and list a different school as your first preference and your own school as second or third preference, then any school listed higher than your own school, will be considered. You may find that it is possible to make you an offer of an external school, and your own school. If this is the case, you will be asked to make a decision as soon as possible as to which place you wish to accept. Holding both places means that you are sitting on a place that otherwise could be offered to another eligible student who has not been offered a place in a 6th form.

Applying with qualifications other than GCSEs

If a student is applying from outside of England without GCSEs, then we will ask that they get a Statement of Comparability.  This can be obtained from UK ENIC. We accept iGCSEs without this statement.

Waiting List Criteria

This applies to students applying to us from schools other than Tapton.  The Local Authority will create the Waiting List using the following criteria:

Admission oversubscription criteria for Tapton School

1. Students In Care - this category also includes students who were previously In Care but ceased to be so because they were adopted or became subject to a child arrangement order or special guardianship order immediately after being In Care. The student should meet the minimum entry criteria. Exceptional circumstances may be considered.

2. Students facing exceptional circumstances as described below.

Where exceptional medical, social or special educational needs are demonstrated/supported by professional evidence, an application may be prioritised by the Admissions Committee (AC) but only within the admission category. Please note this list of circumstances is not exhaustive and is provided simply as an example of reasons for which the AC may prioritise a case. It is your responsibility to provide supporting evidence to demonstrate your exceptional reasons. For example, if you or your child has medical reasons for applying for a school, you must provide evidence from a relevant medical professional with your application.

3. Students who are predicted to meet the general minimum entry requirement, of 5 subjects at grade 4-9, with GCSE English Language at a grade 5 or above, who attend a school which is part of the Tapton School Academy Trust. Some subjects will also require a minimum subject grade at GCSE. Certain combination of subjects will also require a minimum GCSE average point score entry requirement. Please see details on the school website. In the event of there being insufficient places for students from this school the tiebreaker would be a straight-line distance between the home address and Tapton.

4. Any other student who is predicted to meet the general minimum entry requirement of 5 subjects at grade 4-9 with GCSE English Language at a grade 5 or above. Some subjects will also require a minimum subject grade at GCSE. Certain combination of subjects will also require a minimum GCSE average point score entry requirement. Please see details on the school website. In the event of there being insufficient places for students from these schools the tiebreaker would be a straight-line distance between home and Tapton School.

5. If an entire category cannot be admitted without exceeding the number of places available then places will be offered to those students within the category that live closest to the school. All distances will be measured in a straight line from home to Tapton school. Conditional offers will be withdrawn if students have not been in contact with Tapton Sixth Form by GCSE Results Day.

Exceptional Circumstances

Supporting evidence from an external provider will be required for any applications for exceptionality; these will be assessed by our Leadership Team to ensure they meet the threshold for consideration and their decision will be final.  

Exceptional Circumstances as outlined by the Local Authority:

Where exceptional medical, social or special educational needs are demonstrated/supported by professional evidence, an application may be prioritised by the Admissions Committee (AC) but only within the admission category. Please note this list of circumstances is not exhaustive and is provided simply as an example of reasons for which the AC may prioritise a case. It is your responsibility to provide supporting evidence to demonstrate your exceptional reasons. For example, if you or your child has medical reasons for applying for a school, you must provide evidence from a relevant medical professional with your application.

Subject Combinations and Option Blocks

To provide the optimum number of students the combination of subjects of their choice, we create the option blocks once the first set of allocations have been processed by the Local Authority.  This allows us to respond to the trends and needs of the year group, and where possible run the number of classes for the demand.  Each year there will be a small number of students for whom we will not be able to accommodate their choices of subjects.  We will endeavour to make this known to the student before the deadline of accepting/declining the offer.  If we have insufficient numbers to run a course, we will tell the students this as soon as possible, and this is a rare occurrence.

Enrolment

In order to secure your place all students holding a conditional offer must enrol in person with us on GCSE Results Day.  We will share guidance on what students should do if they are unable to do this due to holidays or illness.  Unfortunately, if students do not enrol on this date, we will not be able hold your place for September.

Returning Tapton students:

At Tapton, we appreciate that students are going to want to apply for other post-16 providers, and we encourage this if it is the right decision for that young person. Students are allowed to hold a place at a Sixth Form and a College, but only one Sixth Form place.  Sometimes, a student will accept an offer at another Sixth Form, and then decide they wish to stay at Tapton.  We want you to be aware that if this is the case, although their place at Tapton is still guaranteed, their subject choice is not.  We endeavour to fulfil subject choices wherever possible, but as some subjects can be over subscribed we cannot guarantee that we would be able to offer a student their first choice of subjects.  We would add them to the waiting list for any subjects that this applies to.

Additionally, if after Results Day, a student enrols at another school or college and then decides that they wish to return to Tapton, this will only be considered up to 9am on the second Friday of the Autumn Term.  We would only be able to offer subjects where we have space.  This is to allow a strong and smooth start to their Sixth Form studies.

Please note that if a student leaves Tapton to pursue another course, and then reapplies to Tapton after a year, then they will be classed as an external student.

Mid-Year and Mid-Study Applications

Applications for Sixth Form are made through Sheffield Progress when the student is in Year 11, to start the following September.  Students can also apply to start in the September after they are 17.  However, it is not possible to repeat an A Level subject that they have started elsewhere.  Students can apply to start with us if they have been attending a college course for a year, or they have been studying different A Levels to the ones they are applying for.

There is only one point of entry in the year; this is September and students are not permitted to join us at another point in the year.  This is to minimise disruption to teaching and learning. We know it will be a significant challenge for the student and teaching staff even if the same syllabus has been studied; things may have been studied in a different order or at a different pace.  For this same reason it is not possible to join us to start in Year 13, having completed Year 12 somewhere else.

Progression from Year 12 to Year 13

Students will be monitored through assessments and trial exams in Year 12 to see that they are on track to pass their A Level subject (grade E and above).  If this is not the case we will look at an alternative scheme of study at Tapton (different A Levels that the student has the entry requirements for).  If this is not suitable we will offer advice through a careers interview for alternative provisions.

Students will be given opportunities throughout the year for further support and assessment to increase their grade.

Parents and Carers will be kept informed of this through our regular tracking and monitoring processes.

Repeating years

Following EFSA guidelines, students are not permitted to repeat a year of study unless there are exceptional personal/medical circumstances.  Official proof will be needed for this to be considered.  Supporting evidence from an external provider will be required for any applications for exceptionality; these will be assessed by our Leadership Team to ensure they meet the threshold for consideration and their decision will be final.  

Year 14

Please see our separate policy regarding Year 14 study.  This can be found on our school website www.taptonschool.co.uk > Sixth Form> Joining Tapton Sixth Form > Year 14.