Worthington Primary School Worthington Road, Sale, Cheshire, M33 2JJ Tel: 0161 973 3504 Fax: 0161 976 3210 Headteacher: Mr C N Searle [email protected] “We Only Reach for The Highest” ___________________________________________________________________________________ Monday 20th April 2020 Dear Parents / Carers of Pupils Currently in Year 5 At this time of the year, I normally invite parents and carers of our Year 5 pupils to school, so that I can run through the procedure regarding Secondary School Application – which is fast approaching for you all. As we have no idea yet when school will reopen, I thought it prudent to write to you now so that the information you require does not arrive late. There is quite a lot of information I am afraid, but please do read it carefully and pay particular note of dates. The 2021 Secondary Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme printed below is taken from Trafford Schools Admissions website (Google ‘Trafford Secondary Schools Admissions 2021’). The information from any particular school can be found on each of their websites. Please keep looking at these, as details may change because of what is going on in the country right now. A few crucial things to note: 1) Information (along with a Common Application Form) will be sent to you by 12 September 2020 and you will be asked to submit your application by 31 October 2020. Therefore, your home Authority needs to know your address. If you are about to change address, please notify school as soon as you do move. Late applications get put to the bottom of the pile and are dealt with once all the in-time applications have been dealt with. In other words, don’t be late applying. 2) The above information is sent to you by your home Authority – if you live in Trafford, then Trafford will send it to you. If you live in Manchester, then Manchester sends it to you. Wherever you live, you apply back to your home Authority. If you live in Trafford, you can apply for schools in Trafford and any other Authority. If you live in Manchester, you can apply for schools in Manchester and any other Authority, but your application form always goes back to your home Authority. 3) If you are applying to High Schools and/or Grammar Schools, you apply for them via this Common Application Form sent to you by your home Authority. However, if you wish your child to be considered for a local grammar school, they must first sit an entrance examination. High schools have no such requirement. 4) If you have a daughter, they only need to sit one examination to be considered for a place at Sale Grammar, Stretford Grammar, Urmston Grammar and Altrincham Grammar for Girls. You apply to Sale Grammar to sit the examination there, and on their form, you tick all the schools you would like your daughter to be considered for. These schools have formed a consortium so that children 1 do not have to sit the examination more than once. 5) If you have a son, they would need to sit one examination to be considered for a place at Sale Grammar, Stretford Grammar and Urmston Grammar. You apply to Sale Grammar to sit the examination there, and on their form, you tick all the schools you would like your son to be considered for. However, if you would like your son to be considered for a place at Altrincham Grammar for Boys, then he will need to sit the entrance examination for that school, and you will need to additionally apply to that school to sit the examination. 6) You apply for the grammar school examinations via the school website of your choice. In previous years, all our children who take an entrance examination have taken it at Sale Grammar School and additionally some boys have also taken the examination for Altrincham Grammar at that school. 7) If you wish your child to sit the entrance examination at Sale Grammar in order to be considered for Sale Grammar, Stretford Grammar, Urmston Grammar and Altrincham Grammar for Girls, then please visit for the most up to date information available: https://www.salegrammar.co.uk/159/school-admissions Sale Grammar states on its website: “At this stage the entrance examination will proceed as expected and therefore we would encourage both parents and children to continue as best they can with their preparations. We realise that the extraordinary circumstances in which we now find ourselves will cause anxiety and uncertainty. Please rest assured we will do our very best to keep you informed and would advise you to regularly check our admission pages which we will update once we have the information. Please do not contact us with specific queries as we will not respond to these.” In addition it adds: “All information with regard to admission to Year 7 for September 2021 will be available on the school website from Monday 1st June 2020 and you will be able to apply online from this time for your child to sit the entrance test. The entrance test will take place on Monday 14th September 2020 and the closing date for application is 12.00 noon on Friday 26th June 2020. Please note if you have not completed the online application form or you have not followed up the procedure regarding ‘confirmation emails’ by 12 noon on Friday 26th June 2020 a later test will not be initiated until after 1st March 2021. The Open Evening for Year 5 parents and children will take place on Thursday 25th June 2020 from 5pm until 8.30pm. Booking is not required.” 8) If you wish your son to additionally sit the entrance examination for Altrincham Grammar for Boys, the please visit their website for the most up to dater information available: https://www.agsb.co.uk/admissions/entrance-exam/ 2 Like Sale Grammar, there is a great deal of information contained within their website pertaining to applications. They add: “ENTRY INTO YEAR 7 SEPTEMBER 2021 (please note Application period closes on Wednesday 1st July 2020) Applicants must have a date of birth between 1st September 2009 and 31st August 2010 ENTRANCE EXAMINATION DATE: FRIDAY 11TH SEPTEMBER 2020 Our examination providers are GL Assessment. 9) Our local high schools are Sale High https://salehighschool.org.uk/about/join-us/year-admissions and Altrincham College https://www.altrinchamcollege.com/admissions Their respective web addresses will direct you to the relevant admissions arrangements for September 2021 and in time will notify you of when the Open Events are being held. 10) Mums, dads and carers, this is when your work begins. Please try to visit each school you and your child might be interested in visiting. Try to do so in the same family group each time you visit a school so that it feels the same for you and your child. Enjoy the experience – it is great fun visiting a school. Ask questions of the staff in these schools if you wish to – don’t leave a visit thinking “I wish I’d asked that.” 11) Remember that we are still here to help and so if you require any further information, please do not hesitate to ask me. Yours sincerely Mr Searle 2021 SECONDARY CO-ORDINATED ADMISSIONS SCHEME This Scheme is formulated in accordance with the School Admissions Code which came into force on 19th December 2014. Trafford LA has formulated this Scheme in relation to each school in the Trafford area. The Governing Bodies/Trusts of the following schools/academies are the admission authorities for the secondary schools to which this scheme applies: Altrincham College; Altrincham Grammar School for Boys; Altrincham Grammar School for Girls; Ashton-on-Mersey School; Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College; Broadoak School; Flixton Girls’ School; Loreto Grammar School; North Cestrian School; Sale High School; Sale Grammar School; Stretford Grammar School; Stretford High School; St Ambrose College; St Antony's Catholic College; Urmston Grammar School; Wellacre Academy and Wellington School. 3 Trafford LA is the admission authority for Lostock High School. NORMAL ADMISSION ROUND (transfer from primary to secondary school) SEPTEMBER 2021 1. APPLICATION PROCEDURE i) In the autumn term of the offer year all parents of Year 6 children will be invited to submit an application. Information on how to apply will be sent to all parents of pupils resident in Trafford, at their home address. ii) An advertisement will be placed in the local press inviting parents who are resident in Trafford whose children may not currently be attending a Trafford primary school to submit an application. iii) Information will be sent to all parents by 12 September in the offer year and they will be asked to submit their application by 31 October, thereby ensuring that all parents have the statutory 6 week period in which to express their preferences. iv) Parents can submit up to 5 preferences. v) Parents will be invited to name their preferred schools, ranked in order of preference. It will be made clear that parents should express a preference for all schools, wherever they are located, where they wish their child to be considered for a place. 2. EXCHANGE OF DATA WITH OTHER AUTHORITIES i) The Admission Team will process applications and, by 19 November, lists will be sent to all LAs informing them of parents who have expressed a preference for a school in their area. ii) On 29 November lists will be sent to all academies, foundation and voluntary aided schools informing them of parents who have expressed a preference. The order of preferences will not be included in the lists sent to these schools.