Considering your preferences
If your child does not reach the standard for entry to selective school(s), these preferences will be withdrawn. Once all the applications have been received, a list of applicants will be produced for each Wirral school. For community schools we will rank the applications according to our criteria, and decide whether your child is eligible for a place at any of the schools listed.
Schools where the governing body is the admission authority are provided with application information to enable them to apply their own admission criteria and rank applicants. This does not include what order you have put that school in your application, because schools are not allowed to use the order of parents preference in their admission criteria. They will not know whether you have put their school first, second, third, fourth or fifth.
If you have given a preference for a school in another English authority, that authority will tell us whether they can offer your child a place in that school.
If you are successful in meeting the criteria for more than one school, we will offer you the school which you listed as the highest preference.
It can happen that all the schools given as a preference by a parent are oversubscribed (in other words, there are more applications than places available) and it is not possible to offer a child a place at any of them. If this happens, your child will be given a place at the nearest appropriate school with a place available.
Admission criteria for community schools
Applications for community schools will be dealt with in order according to the following criteria.
- Children who are Looked After or previously Looked After as defined in the Admission Code 2021.
- Children who have a valid medical reason for a specific placement. You must give details on the preference form and this may be checked by a medical officer of the health authority. A letter in support from a senior health care professional will be required as evidence when you submit your preference form. You need to make it clear why only this school is appropriate for your child’s medical needs.
- Pupils who have a brother or sister (including half-brothers and sisters or step-brothers and step-sisters living in the same household) on roll at the school and of statutory school age when it opens in September.
- We will then take account of where your child lives. We will give priority to those pupils who live nearest to the school. We use a computer mapping system, based on Ordnance Survey maps, to measure the distance from your home to the nearest school pedestrian gate to your child’s home using the shortest road route, unless it is possible to use a footpath which we consider a safe walking route. As a general guide we will treat routes with no pavements and no street lighting as unsafe for children.
A Looked After child is a child who is a) in the care of a Local Authority, or b) being provided with accommodation by a Local Authority in the exercise of their Social Services functions under section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989.
A previously Looked After child is one who immediately moved on from that status after becoming subject to an adoption, child arrangements or special guardianship order. This also includes those children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted (A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society.)
Admissions to academy, foundation, trust and voluntary-aided schools
The admission arrangements for these schools are decided by the governing bodies and you can get them directly from the schools concerned. Wirral Local Authority will co-ordinate the preferences for those schools and the governing body will rank their applicants against their policy.
Admission to grammar schools
The admission arrangements for all grammar schools say that children should be assessed to decide whether they have reached the necessary standard for grammar school. The deadline for request for assessment forms to be returned was 31 May 2024.
Wirral Local Authority will carry out the assessments for the non-denominational grammar schools. The assessments for St Anselm’s College and Upton Hall School will be carried out by those schools.
Selective assessments for the non-denominational grammar schools are expected to take place during the Autumn term. Parents will be notified of the outcome of the grammar assessment tests by 21 October 2024. If you have requested that your child is assessed for a place at any grammar school and they have attended the initial assessment sessions, do not submit a school preference application until you have received the outcome of the test/s.
If more children achieve the standard than there are places available in grammar schools, other criteria are used to decide which children should receive places. These criteria are published in the admission policy for the school.
Assessment arrangements for non-Catholic grammar schools
The assessment is based on the results of a test comprising two papers that pupils take in the Autumn term of Year 6. The tests have been designed to predict a pupil’s potential performance at secondary school and so preparation for the tests is not necessary. However, familiarisation materials containing sample questions will be available to help children prepare for the tests.
To ensure that children are not disadvantaged because of their date of birth, in each case the score is standardised to take account of each child’s age in years and completed months. The two test scores are then added together to provide a final score. A total weighted score is calculated from the Verbal, Maths and Non verbal components across both papers for boys and girls. Children who reach the required score will be deemed to have reached the grammar school standard.
The council will send the outcome of the assessment tests by e-mail to parents who have provided a valid email address on their request for assessment form within 6 weeks of the assessment date. Postal notification will be despatched to all other parents on the same date as e-mails are sent out, by first class post.
If your child is unwell on the morning of the test, it is advised that they do not sit the test that day. They can take it at another time, when they are feeling better.
A late test will take place later in the Autumn term for pupils who were registered to take the test but were unable to do so due to illness or absence on the main test date. No other arrangements will be made to assess children if request forms were received after 31st May, unless they have moved from another part of the country. Parents should still submit a preference form before 31st October naming at least one grammar school. If their child does not meet the grammar standard, any grammar preferences will be withdrawn
At the end of this process, we will have a complete list of the children who have reached the grammar school standard. This does not necessarily mean that they will go to a grammar school - that will depend on the number of preferences that we have for the grammar schools. If a grammar school is oversubscribed, the governors have to use other criteria to decide which children should be given places.
Children who do not live in Wirral
Requests from parents of children living in other authorities are considered on the same basis as described for Wirral children. For other English authorities, if you want your child to be considered for a place in a Wirral school you need to contact your Local Authority and complete an application following their procedures.
Parents who live outside England will need to apply online or complete a Wirral Parental Preference Form at the Admissions Portal, www.wirral.gov.uk/schooladmissions or on request (0151 606 2000, email secondaryplaces@wirral.gov.uk).
Reasons to refuse your preferences
The law says that the Local Authority can refuse to follow your preference if to do so ‘would prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources’. The quality of education for all children cannot be allowed to suffer by admitting more pupils than the school can accommodate.
If a community school is oversubscribed (more pupils apply than there are places available), the admission criteria will be used to decide which children should get places. In academy, foundation, trust and voluntary aided schools, the governing bodies publish their own admission arrangements which will explain the admission criteria they use.
Even if a child has achieved the necessary standard for a grammar school, the admissions authority may still refuse to give your child a place. This will happen if the school is oversubscribed and there would be prejudice of the kind referred to above.
If you include a grammar school as one of your preferences and your child has not reached the standard for grammar school, the grammar school preference cannot be taken into account and will be disregarded.
Late applications
Applications received by Wirral Local Authority by 31 October 2024 will be treated as on-time. Late preferences received on or after 1 November 2024 will be dealt with after places have been allocated to “on-time” applicants. Late grammar school test sessions will be held only for applicants who were not previously able to complete a request for assessment form for a grammar school, for example, parents who have only recently moved into the area.
Allocation of places
If you are a Wirral resident we will tell you which school your child has been allocated. On 3 March 2025, online applicants will receive an email with their child’s allocated school place. An allocation letter will be posted out to paper form applicants on this date.
The Mainstream Admissions team cannot guarantee to send an allocation email to you unless you apply online. Allocations cannot be given out over the telephone.
If you have applied online and have since changed your email address, you should email secondaryplaces@wirral.gov.uk providing your old and new email address, before 3 March 2025, otherwise you may not receive your allocation email.
If you live in another English authority they will tell you where your child has been allocated.