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How would places be re-allocated?

We will write to parents of current Norton pupils and those allocated Year 7 places for September 2002 about the process for reallocating their child’s place to either Fearnhill, The Highfield or Knights Templar schools. The rules we propose to use, which are subject to approval by the Office of the Schools’ Adjudicator, are:

1	Children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs which will name the school
2	Children who can prove that they have a particular medical or social reason why they must go to the school (we will take into account professional supporting evidence when assessing cases)
3	Children who will have a brother or sister at the school in September 2002
4	Children for whom the school is their nearest to their permanent home. If more children qualify under this rule than there are places available, then the following tiebreak will be applied: those children who would have further to travel to one of the other two schools. Distances will be measured by the shortest designated route. The rules for determining a "designated route" are: it is a public route with a proper made-up surface, such as tarmac or concrete; if it is a road, it does not need to have a separate pavement; the route must be lit if it is in a town or city area or if it is a path. Please note also that the address used to determine the distance from home to school must be the child’s permanent address. If you wish to have your case considered under rule 2, you must submit professional supporting evidence, which may be from a doctor, psychologist or other professional involved.

Parents will be asked to express a preference for one of the three schools now, before a decision is taken whether to close Norton school. This is to ensure pupils know as soon as possible which school they would attend if the closure goes ahead.

Provisional Year 10 allocations will be made in the week commencing 8 April. Year 7 allocations will be made in the week commencing 15 April. This will allow us to take account of any sibling connections for September’s Year 7 pupils which arise from the Year 10 allocations. All other places will be allocated in the week commencing 15 May.

These offers will be provisional and will be confirmed only if Norton School closes. Final confirmation of the allocation would be sent in June if a decision has been taken to close the school and the adjudicator has confirmed the use of the admission rules. An admissions appeals process would follow.

In future years, Year 7 places would be allocated according to the County admission rules applying at that time. The proposed admission rules are consistent with the admission rules which are currently the subject of consultation across the County.