Address:
56 New Lane
Eccles
M30 7JJ
Telephone: 0161 921 2301
Email: stpatricks.rchighschool@salford.gov.uk
Headteacher: Mrs A Byrne
School type: Voluntary aided
Total number of places for year 7: 180
Total applications received by offer day: 555
Breakdown of offers at offer day (1 March 2024): All applicants in categories 1-5 to a distance of 1.215 miles (no non-Catholic children were offered places)
Total numbers of offers made (including alternative offers): 180
Total vacancies: 0
St Patrick’s RC High School is a Roman Catholic Secondary School provided by the Diocese of Salford and is maintained by the Salford Local Education Authority as a Voluntary Aided School. The school’s Governing Body is the Admissions Authority and is responsible for taking decisions on applications for admission.
For the school year commencing 2025, the Governing Body has set its planned admissions number at 180.
The Governors recognise that the first responsibility of the school is to serve the Roman Catholic community for which it has been established. This is focused on the identified catchment areas of the Roman Catholic primary schools that are partners in providing for those communities.
In establishing their oversubscription criteria, the Governors have also taken full account of the Admissions Code of Practice 2014, produced by the Department for Education and the emphasis placed of supporting children in public care.
St Patrick’s partner primary schools are:
Maps showing the identified catchment areas of the listed partner primary schools are available on the school website and below.
Decisions on admission to the school will be made by the Governing Body in accordance with the following set of criteria, which will be used to allocate places in priority order if there are more applications for admission than the school has places available.
Where St Patrick’s RC High School receives more applications than places available, the following oversubscription criteria will be applied, once places have first been allocated to children who have an Education, Health Care Plan, which names the school.
a. St Patrick's RC High School will admit children with an Education Health and Care Plan naming the school. We will then allocate the remaining places in accordance with this policy.
b. A Looked-After Child is a child who is (i) in the care of a Local Authority, or (ii) 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 order or special guardianship order. Parent/carers of previously looked after children will be required to produce a photocopy of the relevant order with their application.
All references to previously looked after children in the Code mean children who were adopted (or subject to child arrangement orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following a period of having been looked after as well as 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. This means that other provisions in the Code which apply to PLAC, (for example, in relation to the admission arrangements of schools with a religious character, selective arrangements, and boarding priority) also apply to IAPLAC in exactly the same way.
c. All applicants will be considered at the same time and after the closing date for admission applications, which is 31 October 2024.
d. Roman Catholic applicants from non-partner primary schools will be required to produce a Roman Catholic Baptismal Certificate or Certificate of Reception by 31 October 2024. The Baptism Certificate should be hand-delivered or sent by recorded delivery directly to the school and addressed to 'The Admissions Co-ordinator'.
Written evidence of Baptism/Reception
Written evidence is required in the form of a Certificate of Baptism or Certificate of Reception into the Catholic Faith, before applications for school places can be considered under categories of 'Baptised Roman Catholics'. A Certificate of Baptism or Reception is to include; the full name, date of birth, date of baptism or reception, and parent/carer(s) name(s). The certificate must also show that it is copied from the records kept by the place of baptism or reception. This must be received before 31 October 2024.
e. If in any category there are more applications than places available, priority will be given based on proximity to the school (measured as the shortest straight-line distance from the address point of the home to the centre point of the school in miles). This will be calculated by the Local Authority’s computer software package. In the event of a tie break places will be offered by random allocation. This is with the exception of category 9, where priority will first be given to applicants with brothers and sisters in the school at the time of admission and then based on proximity. Names of applicants will be placed in a draw, independently supervised by the school’s designated Local Authority Education Welfare Officer.
f. Parents/carers should check carefully whether they are resident within the identified catchment area of one of St Patrick’s partner primary schools. Maps showing the identified catchment areas of the listed partner primary schools are available on the school website and the Salford Local Authority website.
g. Children of staff at the school - Priority will be given to children of staff employed by the school in either or both of the following circumstances:
h. If an application for admission has been turned down by the Governing Body, parents/carers can appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel. Appeals should be submitted online to Salford Local Authority within 20 days of refusal. Parents/carers must give their reasons for appealing in writing and the decision of the Appeals Panel is binding on the Governors.
i. Brothers and sisters are defined as blood brothers and sisters, stepbrothers and stepsisters, and brothers and sisters by adoption. Other children may be considered, provided proof is available to demonstrate that the children are permanently resident at the same address as part of the same family unit.
j. Shared custody arrangements - If parents/carers are separated, with the child spending time at each parent/carers address, the address used for school admissions applications is that of the main carer. The main carer is determined as the parent/carer who is in receipt of child benefit. The main carer should provide written evidence of receipt of child benefit to determine the proximity of the main home address from the school. Where parents/carers are not eligible for child benefit, due to income thresholds, applications will be referred to the Governors’ Admissions Committee for consideration/further investigation.
k. A waiting list will be maintained until the 31 December 2025 and children will be ranked in the same order as the oversubscription criteria. The waiting list will be re-ranked as new names are added and this can result in applicants moving up and down the waiting list.
Looked-After Children, Previously Looked-After Children and In-Year Fair Access children take precedence over children on the waiting list.
Parents/carers will be contacted by the School Admissions Coordinator, should a place become available for their child.
Once the waiting list end-date has been reached (end of the autumn term) if a place is still required, the parent/carer will need to reapply for a place using the Local Authority In-Year Fair Access process.
l. Late applications will be considered by Governors after and separately to all other applications.
m. For ‘In-Year’ applications received outside the normal admissions round and provided places, are available then children qualifying under the published criteria will be admitted. If there are places available but more applicants than places then the published oversubscription criteria will be applied. All applications should be made to the School Admissions Team and will be considered by the In-Year Fair Access Panel on a regular basis.
n. The Governing Body reserve the right to withdraw the offer of a school place where false evidence is received in relation to baptism, brother or sister connections or place of residence.
o. For the school year commencing September 2025 the Governing Body has set its planned admissions number at 180, in line with the Local Authority recommendation, based on net capacity.
Please note: If a parent/carer wishes for their child to be taught out of their usual age group, they should make the school aware of this at the time of application. The school governing body will consider the request taking into account information provided by the parent/carer and previous school, and whether the child has previously been taught out of age.
The decision of the governing body will be communicated to the parent/carer in writing giving full reasons for the decision. If a place is offered to the child at the school but not in the age group, the parent/carer requested there is no right of appeal.