Admission to Secondary School (2025)

This document sets out the admissions policy for Grace College in accordance with the School Admissions Code 2021 and is applicable to pupils seeking admission for the academic year 2025-2026. Grace College is a mixed sex, comprehensive secondary school with a sixth form. It is part of Emmanuel Schools Foundation, a multi-academy trust. The Trust is the 'Admission Authority' for Grace College and has a legal duty to formally determine the admission arrangements for each year's intake in accordance with the requirements of the Code. Authority to deal with admissions has been delegated to each school in the Trust. As such, this means that the admissions arrangements for Grace College will be dealt with by the College's School Improvement Board.

Admissions

Published admission number (PAN) and eligibility to apply

Grace College has an agreed admission number of 210 pupils for entry in Year 7. We will accordingly admit up to 210 pupils in the relevant age group, each year, if sufficient applications are received. All applicants will be admitted if 210 or fewer apply. Admission is open to all pupils without regard to their sex, race, religion or ability. We offer places at Grace College using the admission criteria given below and we follow Gateshead Council's requirements in their co-ordinated admission scheme:

• We normally admit students between the ages of 11 and 19 years of age.
• We will accept students up to the College's agreed PAN for the year group unless we feel there are lawful grounds not to do so.

Application process

The deadline for applications is 31 October in the year prior to entry to Year 7. Gateshead residents can apply online at https://www.gateshead.gov.uk. Alternatively, parents can request a paper application from The School Admissions Team on 0191 4332757. Paper applications must be returned to The School Admissions Team, Floor 2, Civic Centre, Gateshead, NE8 1HH by the 31 October deadline.

If you live outside of the Gateshead area and want to apply to a Gateshead school, you must obtain an application form from your home Council and return it to them by their closing date, even if the schools you want to apply to are in Gateshead. However, you must still consider the information in Gateshead Council's 'Admission to Secondary School' booklet so that you know what the admission arrangements are to Gateshead schools. This information is available at https://www.gateshead.gov.uk. Your own Council will send us notification of your application and they will let you know the final allocation of a school place for your child.

Offers

Parents will be informed of the school they have been offered for their child on 1 March in the year the child will be admitted, or the next working day if this falls on a weekend. Gateshead residents who apply online are informed by email and a letter will be also sent to parent/carer's residence in Gateshead.

Children with Educational Health Care Plans (EHCP)

Where the Local Authority propose to name Grace College in an EHCP for an applicant, we shall consent to being named. The exception to this is where admitting the applicant would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education for other children, and where no reasonable steps may be made to address this. When making this decision, we shall have regard to the relevant guidance issued by the Secretary of State to maintained schools.

Oversubscription criteria

We will consider applications from parents who have named Grace College as any ranked preference on the application form, this is called the equal preference system. If there are more applications than the number of places available at Grace College, we will allocate places using the following order of priority, after the admission of pupils with an EHCP where Grace College is named in the plan: 

1. Children in Public Care (and as deemed under Section 22 of the Children Act 1989) including a child who was previously "looked after" but immediately after being "looked after" became subject to an adoption, residence, or special guardianship order. Children who appear to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as result of being adopted.
2. Children of staff employed at Grace College fulfilling either or both of the following circumstances: a. Where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or b. The member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
3. Children who live in the school's catchment area as shown here. For the purposes of deciding whether a child lives in the catchment area of the College, we will use the parent or carers address or the address of a relevant adult who has parental responsibility, as defined under the 1989 Children Act, for the child.
4. Children who will have siblings attending Grace College during the coming academic year. Sibling is defined as children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers or sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters and longterm foster brothers and sisters. For your child to receive priority because of an older brother or sister in the Sixth Form at the College, the brother or sister must have been at the College at the start of Year 11.
5. Other children who have exceptional medical and social grounds. We can consider individual applications in cases involving exceptional medical or social needs. Such applications must be supported in writing from relevant registered health professionals i.e. a doctor or social worker. The evidence must demonstrate why Grace College is the most suitable school and what difficulties would be caused if your child were to attend another school. We will not consider such applications if the relevant evidence is not provided. Each case will be considered individually, and no assumption should be made that submission of the relevant evidence will be sufficient to allocate a place.
6. All other children.

Tie breaker

If within any of the above criteria there are more applicants than places available priority will be given to those children based on the distance they live from the College, measured 'as the crow flies' in a straight line from the centre of the home residence to the College's main entrance. Children living nearest to the College will have priority. Distance is measured using a geographical information system (GIS). Where two or more applicants share the same distance, a random allocation process will be used to determine the ranked order of the applications in question.

Siblings of multiple birth

Where a twin, triplet(s) or sibling(s) of a higher multiple birth achieves a place, but their twin, triplet(s) or sibling(s) of a higher multiple birth does not achieve a place, Grace College will admit their twin, triplet(s) or sibling(s) of a higher multiple birth even where this means exceeding the published admission number.

Waiting lists

If places become available, we will consider all relevant applications using a waiting list. The waiting list will be maintained by the council from the start of the academic year and be kept for the rest of the academic year. All applicants on the waiting list are placed according to the admission criteria and priorities set out above. However, children who are the subject of a direction to admit by the local authority or who have been referred for admission and have been allocated a place through the Fair Access Protocol will take precedence over any child on the waiting list.

In-year admissions

Fair Access Protocol

Grace College is committed to taking its fair share of students who are vulnerable and/or hard to place, as set out in locally agreed protocols. Accordingly, outside the normal admission round of admissions, the admissions authority is empowered to give absolute priority to a student where admission is requested under any local protocol that has been agreed by the admissions authority for the current school year. The admissions authority has this power, even when admitting the student would mean exceeding the published admission number. Copies of the Fair Access Protocols are available here or from the Education Support Team, telephone number 0191 433 8745.

Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

School transfer requests for children with an EHCP will be referred to the Special Educational Needs Team who will work with parents to secure a place at a school where the specific needs of the child can be met.

All other in-year admissions

Parents with children of statutory school age who either move into Gateshead and need a school place or are resident in Gateshead and wish to change their child's school must complete an in-year transfer application form. Paper copies are available from the School Admissions Team on telephone number 0191 433 8589. The application form allows you to express a preference for up to three schools in Gateshead.

If you are moving to a new house, they will need a copy of the exchange of contracts or a rental agreement before they consider the new address. They cannot offer school places on the basis of intended future changes of address unless you can provide the relevant documentary evidence.

Once the School Admissions Team receive your completed form, a copy will be forwarded to the relevant schools, who have 10 school days to respond to the request, advising if a place is available.

The offer of a place is dependent on the availability of places in the relevant year group at the time of application. Year groups may be full and may not have places available when you move house or decide to transfer your child from one school to another.

Gateshead Council will notify of the outcome of your request.

Oversubscription criteria

If there are no school places available, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria outlined above.

Sixth form admissions

Grace College provides courses of study for post 16 (Sixth Form) students. Applications can be made during Year 11 up to the deadline of 1 September of the year of entry. Pupils admitted into Year 12 must be 16 or 17 years of age on 1 September in the year in which they join College.

The published admission number for external applicants to Year 12 is 40 pupils. Existing Year 11 pupils will transfer into Year 12, if they meet the entry criteria for the courses they wish to study and want to continue their education in the sixth form. The subject specific requirements are published each year in our Sixth Form Prospectus and apply equally to internal and external applicants.

A pre-admission meeting may take place for any applicant to discuss courses and entry requirements. Applicants should note that this is not an interview and will play no part in whether a place is offered or not.

Once the total number of places allocated to internal pupils and external candidates within a year group are known, it may be possible to admit further external candidates until Year 12 reaches capacity.

Oversubscription criteria

Should a course be oversubscribed, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in the following order:

1. Students who have attended the College in the previous academic year (during Year 11) and who satisfy the College's entry requirements for the course available.
2. All other students of the relevant age who satisfy the College's entry requirements for the course available.

Where there are more applicants than places available in any of the priorities above, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria outlined above.

Appeals

Year 7 admissions

The email or letter informing you that a place cannot be offered to your child will advise you how to appeal if you wish to do so. If you decide to appeal, you should contact the School Admissions Team following receipt of your refusal letter and request an appeal form. Once completed, you should send your appeal form to: Strategic Director, Corporate Services and Governance, Civic Centre, Regent Street, Gateshead, NE8 1HH. Please note that the council is required where possible to arrange and conduct all admission appeal hearings for September 2025 before the end of the current academic year (i.e. by July 2025). Accordingly, the council requests that all parents wishing to have an appeal return their appeal forms duly completed on or before the 29 March 2025. If parents submit appeal forms after this date it may result in appeal hearing dates having to be re-arranged at short notice with inconvenience to other parents and appeal panel members.

Before deciding whether to appeal, you will probably want to think about the admission policy for admitting pupils, your reasons for wanting your child to attend the school and how strong a case you have. You may also want to consider visiting the school where you have been offered a place or alternative schools that still have places available. Contact the School Admissions Team on 0191 433 2757 if you would like information on the availability of places at other schools you may consider.

If you decide to appeal, your appeal will be heard by a panel which is independent of the school and Gateshead Council. You may want to attend an appeal for more than one school at which you have been refused a place. The outcome of one appeal does not prevent you from attending the other.

You will be informed of the date and place of the appeal hearing. You should be given at least seven days' notice. Ten days before the hearing, the School Admissions Team will send copies of the statement of case that will be put before the appeal panel in support of the local authority's decision not to offer your child a place.

You are advised to attend the appeal hearing, where you will be given the opportunity to put your case forward and ask questions. You can take someone with you if you wish. If you are unable to attend, the case made by you in writing will be considered in your absence. In making your case, you will probably want to refer to your original reasons for choosing the school.

If you want the panel to take any additional information into account, you should, if possible, submit any supporting documents with your appeal form or provide these to the clerk in good time for the members of the panel and local authority to be able to consider them properly.

There will be representatives from the local authority and the school at the hearing to explain to the panel why it was not possible to offer your child a place.

At the end of the hearing, the clerk should be able to give you an idea of how soon you can expect to receive the panel's written decision, this decision is binding on all parties.

The Panel's decision is final. You can only appeal once for admission of your child to a particular school for any given academic year. The Council will only determine a second application for any given academic year where it accepts there has been a significant and material change in your circumstances relevant to the question of admission.

In-year admission

If your child is not offered a place at your chosen school, the School Admissions Team will let you know which other schools have places available and will notify you in writing of your right to appeal. Appeal forms are available from the School Admissions Team.

Completed appeal forms must be returned to Democratic Services and Governance, Civic Centre, Regent Street, Gateshead, NE8 1HH. Your appeal will be heard within 30 school days following the date of receipt. Vacant places may arise before the date of the appeal hearing. Where this happens, the school will offer the vacant place to the child that is top of their waiting list using the admission criteria set out within our admission policy.

Where year groups are full the school will maintain a waiting list and any vacancies which may arise will be offered using this list. If you would like your child's name placed on the Grace College waiting list for Years 8-11, you must complete this form to request this. If a place becomes available which can be offered to your child, we will contact you to discuss next steps.

Sixth Form

Applicants refused admission to a Sixth Form are entitled to appeal to an independent appeals panel. Information is available from the local authority here.