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Admissions & Appeals

National Offer Day 1st March 2024 If your child is offered a place in September for Year 7 at Cockburn John Charles Academy:

On receipt of your offer letter/e-mail you should click the link below to complete our online acceptance form to secure your place. You will need to either accept or decline your place and provide some details about yourself and your child.

If you intend to accept the place offered for your child, please ensure that you complete the linked form as soon as possible to ensure that their place is secure. Please be aware that the form will take 10-15 minutes to complete in full.

CLICK THIS LINK TO ACCEPT OR DECLINE YOUR PLACE

A member of our Transition Team will visit your child at their primary school prior to our Transition Evening. You will be invited, by letter, to the Transition Evening on July 9th where you and your child will receive support and guidance to ensure you are prepared for the exciting step of joining Cockburn John Charles Academy in September. There will also be a new area on this website for transition that will go live in the summer term.

Info from Leeds City Council: https://www.leeds.gov.uk/schools-and-education/school-admissions/offer-day-and-what-happens-next


 

Cockburn John Charles Academy is part of the Cockburn Multi-academy Trust.

The Governing Body will act as the Admission Authority for the school as part of the coordinated scheme with Leeds Education Authority. Following due consultation in accordance with the national School Admissions Code the Governing Body has agreed the following Admissions Policy for the academic year 2024-25.

Parents and carers of children in Year 6 must apply for a place in the academy using the Common Preference Form which must be completed and returned as specified on the form. Alternatively, parents and carers may apply directly to Leeds Education Authority online. Only under exceptional circumstances will late applications be accepted – until 1st December. Applications received after this date will only be considered after those applications which have been submitted on time.

Parents and carers living within the boundaries of different education authorities may still choose Cockburn John Charles Academy as a preferred secondary school but must complete the preference form provided by their Local Authority which will then pass on the information to Leeds Education Authority.

There will be 240 places available for Year 7 in September 2024.

Children with an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) will be admitted to the school named in their plan.

Allocation of Places

If the number of applications does not exceed the number of places available, all applicants will be granted a place at the academy. If there are more applications than available places (over-subscription), the following over-subscription criteria will be used to allocate places:

Priority 1

Children in public care or fostered under an arrangement made by the local authority, special guardianship order or children who were previously looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted or become subject to a Child Arrangements Order or Special Guardianship Order (See Note 1)  

Priority 2

Children with brothers or sisters who will be at school at the start of the academic year and are living at the same address. (See Note 2)

Priority 3

Children who do not qualify under criteria 1 and 2 but for whom Cockburn John Charles Academy is the nearest high school. (See Notes 3, 4 and 5)

Priority 4

Any other children

Tie Break

Within each criterion, if there is over-subscription, remaining places available will be allocated according to distance. Children living closest to the school will, therefore, be allocated a place before those who live further away. (See Notes 4 and 5)

If two or more children of multiple birth (twins, triplets etc.) from the same family are tied for the final place, we will admit them all and exceed our PAN.

Notification and Acceptance of Places

In accordance with the coordinated Admissions Policy on 1st March Leeds Children’s Services will make the formal offer of a place to parents and carers on behalf of the Governing Body of the academy. Parents and carers must contact the academy to confirm acceptance of the offered place by the published date. This will in no way affect the rights of parents and carers to appeal for a place at another school.

Appeals procedure

Parents and carers who want to appeal against the governors’ decision not to offer their child a place at the school must appeal directly to the authority. Appeals should be addressed in writing to the authority within 20 days of receiving the decision letter from Leeds Children’s Services. The envelope should be clearly marked ‘Admission Appeal’. The appeal will be heard by an independent appeals panel. Parents and carers will receive notification of the date and time of their appeal hearing, which they can attend to explain their case. If they wish, parents and carers may be accompanied by an adviser or a friend. Following the appeal the Clerk to the Appeals Panel will write to parents and carers with the decision.

Waiting List for Incoming Year 7

Unsuccessful applicants will have the opportunity to ask for their child’s name to be added to the waiting list which will be compiled in accordance with the tie break arrangements. Any places which become available will be filled from the waiting list. Criteria for updating and applying the waiting list will be as outlined by Leeds Children’s Services in their booklet ‘Starting Secondary School in Leeds – a guide for parents and carers 2023-2024’. If a child has been placed on the waiting list, parents and carers will be informed in March 2023 and asked to confirm that they wish to leave their child’s name on the list, which will be retained until the end of the academic year 2023-24.

Details and Explanations

Note 1

Children who have been adopted from local authority care, children with a residency order and those with special guardianship immediately following being Looked After will all be included within the higher priority for looked-after children (Priority 1a).

Note 2

For these purposes, brothers and sisters must be living at the same address as your child. Sibling refers to a brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step brother or sister, foster brother or sister. The definition does not include cousins or other family members sharing a house.

Note 3

We use a national computer system to run our school admissions system. As part of this system there is a programme that measures the ‘straight-line’ distance from the centre of the main school building to your home address. The point we measure to at your home address is determined by the Royal Mail Postcode Address File. This information provides us with coordinates for every dwelling. If we are not able to match your address with the Postcode Address File then we will use the centre of your dwelling.

In the unlikely event there are insufficient places for two (or more) students living in the same building (e.g. flats) or otherwise equidistant from the school, then any final place will be allocated by the drawing of lots.

Note 4

If the school has to move to a temporary site for any reason, such as the building being damaged by fire, we will base our distance measurements on the school’s permanent site.

Note 5

For admission purposes, the home address is where the child usually lives with their parent or carer. You must not give the address of a child-minder or relative. We will investigate any queries about addresses and, depending upon what we find, we may withdraw the offer of a place for your child. When we make an offer, we assume your address will be the same in the following September as we have on record. If you plan to move house, you must still give your current address. If you move house after the deadline of 31 October 2020 for secondary places, you must tell us your new address as this may affect the offer of a place at Cockburn John Charles Academy.

Applications Outside the Normal Admission Round (In Year Applications)
All applications outside the normal admission round should be made directly on the Leeds City Council website.

https://www.leeds.gov.uk/schools-and-education/school-admissions/apply-for-a-secondary-school

If the academy is full you will be offered a right of appeal. Where an appeal is successful and no house move has taken place you will only be offered a place to start at the beginning of the next term. Waiting lists will be held in each year group for applications outside the normal admission round.

Fair Access Protocol

As part of the coordinated admission arrangements with Leeds Children’s Services the school may accept hard-to-place students onto the school roll from time to time in accordance with the In-Year Fair Access agreement

Appeals 2024

If the Governors have not been able to meet your preference for a place at this academy for Year 7 September 2024, you can appeal against the decision to an independent appeals panel.

You will need to put your appeal in writing and send this by 28th March 2024 to:
The Admissions Team, Floor 10 West, 110 Merrion Centre, Leeds LS2 8DT.

Appeals submitted by this date will be heard within 40 school days.

Appeals submitted after these dates will be heard within 40 school days from the date when the appeal is received by the Clerk where possible this may not be before the end of the academic year.

You will receive at least 10 school days’ notice of your appeal hearing.

The Governance Services Section of Leeds City Council are administering the appeals on our behalf. You must ensure any additional evidence you wish to submit in support of your appeal is received by the Governance Services Section, 4th Floor West Civic Hall Leeds LS1 1UR at least four working days before your appeal.

Appeals against a decision in any other year groups will be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being received by the Clerk.

Following the hearing, decision letters will be sent within five school days of the hearing.

School days are term time only and do not include school holidays. If an appeal is submitted in the holidays the school days deadline will not start until the beginning of the next term e.g. an appeal received in July after schools have closed will not be heard until the new academic term, ‘school days’ will start from when the school re-opens for the academic year 2024.

Please click here to download our 2024-25 admissions policy

Please click here to download our 2025-26 admissions policy