The Governing Body of Archbishop Runcie C of E First School is consulting on changes to their admission arrangements for the academic year 2026/27. We are required to comply with the Department for Education’s School Admissions Code (Sept 2021). As part of this Code, we are required to ensure our Admissions Arrangements are fair, clear and objective. We have carefully considered the Admissions Policy to ensure it remains compliant with the Code and fair, clear and objective in light of the changing context for the school since the last time that the Admissions Criteria was reviewed.
Please find attached our draft amended Admissions Policy for 2026/27. The current policy can be viewed on the school website.
The key changes proposed are: -
a) Oversubscription criteria related to church attendance has been removed. This is because there have only been a very small minority of applications linked to these places in recent years and we want to ensure we reflect our local community context as a school for children of all faiths and none.
b) The distance criteria has been updated with the Local Authority method of measuring distance from home to school.
c) The new policy also includes the updated vision agreed by governors in May 2024.
The policy will be sent to all Newcastle schools and private feeder nurseries in Gosforth along with parents/carers and other relevant parties including PCCs. This consultation process provides an opportunity for stakeholders to comment on the proposed changes and we would welcome all feedback so that this can be taken into account before a final decision is made by the governors after the end of the consultation period.
The consultation process will run for six weeks starting on 19 December 2024 and closing on 30 January 2025. At the end of the consultation period, responses will be considered, and the final admission arrangements will be determined by the Governing Board. The admission arrangements must be determined by the 28th February 2025 and published by 15 March 2025.
To respond to the consultation please respond to: -
admin@archbishop.newcastle.sch.uk
FAO Mrs S Pickett (Chair of Governors)
The deadline for responses is 30 January 2025.