Admissions criteria for community secondary schools

These admissions criteria are used by:

• Deptford Green School
• Forest Hill School
• Sydenham School

Schools that use their own criteria

For admission in September 2027, the following are schools that are their own admissions authority:

• Addey and Stanhope School
• Bonus Pastor Catholic College
• Conisborough College 
• Haberdashers' Hatcham College
• Haberdashers' Knights Academy
• Prendergast School
• Prendergast Ladywell School
• Prendergast Vale School
• St Matthew Academy
• Sedgehill Academy
• Trinity Church of England School, Lewisham

Where there is oversubscription, places will be offered to:

First criterion: Looked after and previously looked after children

Children who are looked after or were previously looked after by a local authority, receive the highest priority for a school place. If a child meets one of the following definitions, parents should indicate this on the application and include supporting evidence. A looked after or previously looked after child is:

a. A child who is in the care of a local authority or provided with accommodation by a local authority in accordance with section 22 of the Children Act 1989 at the time an application for a school is made, for example, children who are fostered or living in a children's home.

b. A child who have previously been in the care of a local authority in accordance with Section 22 of the Children Act 1989 and who have left that care through adoption, a child arrangement order (in accordance with section 8 of the Children Act 1989 and as amended by the Children and Families Act 2014) or special guardianship order (in accordance with section 14A of the Children Act 1989).

c. A child who appears (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 will be regarded as having been in state care outside England if they were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society. The parent/carer will need to provide evidence to demonstrate that the child was in state care outside England and left that care as a result of being adopted.

Parents applying under this criterion must provide appropriate evidence of the child's status. This may include written confirmation from the relevant local authority, an adoption order, child arrangements order, special guardianship order, or, in the case of a child who appears to have been in state care outside England and ceased to be in state care as a result of adoption, evidence that the child was in state care and subsequently adopted. The local authority may request further information where necessary to determine whether this criterion is met.

Second criterion: exceptional social/medical need

In exceptional circumstances there is discretion to admit children on the grounds of their or their family’s severe medical or social need for that school and who would not otherwise qualify for admission.

The application must be supported by a letter from a hospital consultant, social worker or similar professional, setting out the reasons why the school is the only one to meet the child’s needs, before an admission decision is made.

The admission decision will be considered in consultation with a panel of teaching and medical professionals. Medical professionals provide advice on applications made under medical conditions and teaching professionals advise on applications made for social or special reasons. Supporting evidence must be provided before the closing date for applications. 

Crown servants and military personnel

Lewisham has a military covenant that enhances services offered by the Council to ex / serving military and their extended families, all applications for school places for the children of full-time service personnel are prioritised under the 'exceptional medical or social' criterion for Lewisham’s community schools.

Third criterion: children who are expected to have a sibling at the school or at an infant/junior school which will operate shared sibling priority for admission at the time of the child’s admission

Secondary: 11–16 community schools - Children whose older brother or sister is on roll of the school on the closing date for applications as well as those whose sibling was a former pupil of the school and who transferred to a 16-18 education provision at the end of the previous academic year. If the school is over-subscribed entirely with siblings, priority will be given first to:

(i) children of staff, then
(ii) those who are permanently living nearest to the school.  

Or 

3b 11-18 community schools - Children whose brother or sister is on roll of the school on the closing date for applications and will still be on the roll of the school at the intended date of admission. If the school is over-subscribed entirely with siblings, priority will be given first to: 

(i) to those children of staff, then
(ii) to those living nearest the school.  

In all cases siblings include all blood and adoptive siblings, half-siblings, foster siblings of Looked After Children and step siblings.  Siblings must all live at the same address as the child.  Proof of the sibling relationship may be required.

Fourth criterion: children of a member of staff

Priority will be given to children of staff where the member of staff is employed at the school and either:

a. has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time the application for admission is made; or
b. was recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

For the purposes of this criterion, “staff” means staff directly employed by the school. This criterion does not apply to contractors, agency staff, volunteers or other staff who are not directly employed to work at the school.

Parents applying under this criterion must provide confirmation from the headteacher that the member of staff meets one of the requirements set out above. 
Where priority is claimed on the basis of recruitment to a post with a demonstrable skill shortage, the headteacher’s confirmation must explain that the post was identified as having a demonstrable skill shortage at the time of recruitment.

Where there are more applicants under this criterion than places available, priority will be determined by applying the distance criterion.

Fifth criterion: distance

Remaining places will be allocated on the basis of home-to-school distance, with priority given to children who live nearest to the school. Distance will be measured in a straight line using the Local Authority’s computerised distance measuring system. Measurements will be taken from the address point for the child’s permanent home address to designated point within the school.

The Council uses geographical references, including eastings and northings, provided by the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), to determine the address point for each property. The address point will usually fall within the footprint of the property.

Where two or more applicants have the same measured distance from the school and there are insufficient places for all of them, priority will be determined as follows:

a. where the applicants live in the same block of flats or other multi-occupancy building, priority will be given to the applicant whose home address has the lowest door number, ordered numerically and then alphabetically; and

b. where this does not resolve the tie, or where applicants live at different addresses but have the same measured distance, priority will be determined by drawing lots in accordance with the tie-break procedure set out in section 8.

Twins, triplets and other multiple births

Where twins, triplets or children from other multiple births qualify for the last school place to be allocated Lewisham will admit all the qualifying siblings more than the published admissions number and they will be considered as ‘excepted pupils.

Tie break

On the rare occasion where two or more identical applications qualify for the last available place, lots will be drawn to decide which qualifying child is offered the place.

Where one or more applicants live exactly the same distance from the school applied for and all would qualify for the last available place, the allocation of the last place will be made by drawing lots. 

This will be done in the presence of two from the following list: a Headteacher from a different school, Lewisham’s independent Clerk, A Lewisham Cllr.  The two present will sign the results to validate that the process has been used correctly; this will be kept for 2 years from the date of the lot drawing. 

The first child drawn will be offered the place, the names of the children who were unsuccessful will be added to the waiting list, in accordance with the published admission criteria, in the same way as for other children.

Waiting lists

In accordance with the pan London agreement, and to ensure Lewisham meets its duty to continue to coordinate admissions beyond offer date and comply with the school admissions code section 2.15, waiting lists for Year 7 for secondary schools will be maintained in a clear, fair, and transparent way until 31 December of each school year of admission. When new applicants are added or withdrawn from the waiting list; it will be reranked in line with the published oversubscription criteria. 

Priority will not be given to children based on the date their application was received, nor when their name was added to the list. Looked after children or previously looked after children or those allocated a place at the school in accordance with a Fair Access Protocol must take precedence over those on a waiting list.