Shrewsbury secondary schools

Oversubscription criteria

The Admissions Team allocates the places for all Local Authority secondary schools using an agreed set of criteria, in strict order of priority.

These are the criteria which currently apply to all Shrewsbury Secondary Schools. (See further information for Admissions criteria for North and South Shropshire schools.)

Children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs naming a particular school will be be offered a place at that school. After that the priority for places will be allocated as follows:

Priority 1
Looked After Children.

Priority 2
Children living in the Shrewsbury area who will have an older sibling* at the school on the day they are due to start at the school.

Priority 3
After that, priority is normally given to children in the catchment area whose homes are nearest to the school. For avoidance of doubt we measure this as a straight line on a computerised mapping system between home and the nearest appropriate official entrance gate to the school site. However, in circumstances where parents prefer their nearest school, we also apply the Nearest School Test as the deciding factor. This means we look at the straight line distance from your home address to your nearest school, as compared with the straight line distance from other applicants' homes to their nearest school. After we have considered all applicants for whom the Nearest School Test applies all other applicants are determined on a straight line proximity basis (see Priority 4). There is an example on page 48-49 of the "Parents' Guide to Education in Shropshire" which will help to explain how this process works.

Priority 4
After we have considered all applicants for whom the Nearest School Test applies, all other in area applicants are determined on a straight line proximity basis, between home and the nearest gate of the school, the nearest being the highest priority.

Priority 5
After that, any places that are left will be offered to children who live outside the overall catchment area for Shrewsbury. If there are not enough places for all of them, we will look at the following two criteria:

• Firstly, children who will have an older sibling* at the school on the day they are due to start there.
• After that, other children whose homes are outside the catchment area.

*Definition of a sibling is explained in the Parents' Guide booklet (page 46)

Priority due to exceptional circumstances
Very exceptionally where a child has a particular health reason requiring them to attend a specific school, that child may be given a place before any of the children who qualify under Priority 2 and 3. This will only be allowed if Parents/Carers can provide medical evidence that attending that particular school is essential to the medical well being of their child. The County Council reserves the right to check the relevance of the medical condition.