Admissions Policy 2022 St Philomena's Catholic High School for Girls
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St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls
Admissions Policy 2022
St Philomena’s Catholic
High School for Girls
St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls,
Pound Street, Carshalton, Surrey, SM5 3PS, Great Britain
Headteacher Ms M. Noone BSc (Hons) MBA
Telephone: 020 8642 2025 Fax: 020 8643 7925
email: enquiries@stphils.org.uk
www.stphils.org.uk
1St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls
Admissions Policy for 2022 Entry
History and Ethos
St. Philomena's Catholic High School for Girls is a Voluntary Aided school in the Archdiocese of
Southwark. It is in the trusteeship of the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark and was founded by the
religious order of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Cross of Liège. The school is conducted by
its governing body in accordance with its Trust Deed and Instrument of Government and seeks at all
times to be a witness to Jesus Christ. The school is run in accordance with the Code of Canon Law
promulgated by the Apostolic See and the official teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. The
school makes regular use of the Catholic Liturgy and practices during the school year. We ask all
parents and students applying for a place here to respect this ethos and its importance to the school
community.
Admissions
The school has a total of 234 places available in Year 7, which includes pupils with an Education,
Health and Care (EHC) Plan. When over subscription occurs, the first 204 places will be allocated
according to the priorities in Section A. An additional 30 places will be allocated as set out in section B.
Pupils with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan
The admissions of pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan are dealt with by a completely
separate procedure. The procedure is integral to the making and maintaining of EHC Plans by the
pupil’s home Local Authority. Details of this separate procedure are set out in the SEND code of
practice. Pupils with an EHC Plan naming the school will be admitted if the school deems their needs
can be accommodated.
The Governing Body, acting through its Admissions and Ethos Committee, will admit 234 girls each
year at age 11 without regard to aptitude or ability. This includes girls who have an EHC Plan which
names the school; those girls will be admitted if their needs can be accommodated, and the number of
places available will reduce accordingly. The school exists primarily to serve the Catholic community
and Catholic children always have priority of admission. The Governing Body welcomes all
applications, including those from other denominations and faiths who support the religious ethos of
the school, but in recent years we have been oversubscribed by Catholic children in Year 7. However,
for applications to Year 12 we have been able to offer places to non-Catholic candidates each year,
who are supportive of our Catholic ethos.
In this policy 'Candidate' means the girl for whom a place at St. Philomena's is being sought; 'Applicant'
means the parent(s) or carer(s) of the Candidate; 'Baptised' means baptised in accordance with the rite
of the Roman Catholic Church or in accordance with the rite of another Church that is in full communion
with the See of Rome (see Appendix 5). 'Catholic' means the Roman Catholic Church or another Church
that is in full Communion with the See of Rome (see Appendix 5).
Applications outside Chronological Age Group
Please see Appendix 7
Common Application Form (CAF)
St. Philomena's is part of the Pan London Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme for secondary
admissions. Applicants must complete their Home Local Authority (LA) Common Application Form
(CAF) and return it to the Home LA by the national closing date for Secondary Admissions (31st
October). Sutton's CAF is available in Sutton's Transfer from Primary to Secondary School booklet or
online at www.sutton.gov.uk/schooladmissions. Applicants resident within the London Borough of
Sutton must complete and return the Common Application Form, which will be available and able to be
submitted on-line, to Sutton Local Authority by 31st October. However, the London Borough of Sutton
will publish information which encourages Applicants to submit their application before this deadline to
allow sufficient time to process and check all applications before the mandatory date when
2St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls
data must be sent to the Pan-London Register. If an Applicant wishes to apply for a place, St.
Philomena's must be named as one of the preferences on the CAF.
Supplementary Information Form (SIF)
If Applicants wish to be considered under the faith criteria, they should complete the St Philomena’s
Supplementary Information Form (SIF) to enable the Governors to apply the Admissions Policy. The
SIF is available from the School and should be returned directly to the School. The deadline for the
return of the Supplementary Information Form to the School is 31st October. The Supplementary
Information Form will also be available on the School website, www.stphils.org.uk and on the London
Borough of Sutton website, www.sutton.gov.uk/schooladmissions. If an Applicant completes the
Supplementary Information Form (SIF), but does not name the school on the CAF it will not be treated
as a valid application.
There is an opportunity on the Supplementary Information Form to explain any factors which may have
affected a Candidate’s First Holy Communion or frequency of Mass attendance.
A. Oversubscription Criteria for the first 204 places
Where applications exceed the number of places available, priority will be given in the following
order:-
1. Looked After Catholic girls or Looked After girls in the care of Catholic families and previously
Looked After Catholic girls who have been adopted or who have become the subject of a
residence order, child arrangements order, or guardianship order. (see Appendix 1)
2. Catholic girls who have been baptised and who have made their First Holy Communion and
who attend weekly Mass for 3 years or more and have a sibling who will be in the school in the
academic year starting September 2022. (See Appendix 2)
3. Baptised Catholic girls who have made their First Holy Communion. (See Appendix 4)
Girls in this category will then be placed within one of the following sub-categories as shown in
Table 1:
Table 1
Mass Attendance (Appendix 4)
a Weekly Mass for 3 years or more
b Occasional Mass attendance, i.e., once or twice a month for 3 years or more
c Irregular Mass attendance, i.e., less than once a month for 3 years or more.
d Mass attendance for less than 3 years
e Candidate not known to priest
4. Other Baptised Catholic girls
5. Other Looked After girls and other previously Looked After girls who have been adopted or who
have become the subject of a residence order, child arrangements order, or guardianship order.
6. Girls from other Christian denominations including Eastern Orthodox, whose membership is
supported by their Religious Leader.
7. Girls of other faiths whose membership is supported by their Religious Leader.
8. Other Girls.
B. 30 Additional Places
These additional 30 places are for Baptised Catholic girls who have made their First Holy Communion,
who have not gained a place under Category ‘A’ above, and are resident in the Sutton Catholic Deanery
(see Appendix 3 for list of Sutton Catholic Deanery parishes). If oversubscribed they will be ranked in
accordance with Table 1 above.
If there are insufficient Baptised Catholic girls who have made their First Holy Communion to fill the 30
places, remaining places will be filled from remaining Category ‘A’ girls.
3St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls
Further Information Relating to Categories A and B
Applications received after the closing date will be dealt with in accordance with the above over-
subscription criteria and with the London Borough of Sutton Co-ordinated Scheme.
Where more than one Candidate has the same Category of ranking under the above criteria, those
Candidates will be further ranked in the following order:
(i) Where there are medical, pastoral or social reasons why the Candidate should be admitted
to the School and not to any other school for which the Candidate may be eligible. Supporting
written evidence from a doctor, priest, social worker or educational welfare officer must be
supplied at the time of application or subsequently, but before the closing date for applications.
Although the Admissions Committee may, at its discretion, make enquiries to satisfy itself as to
the matters referred to in the material supplied, it will not be required to make any independent
investigation and it will be entitled to rely entirely on the material supplied by the Applicant.
(ii) Proximity to the School from the Candidate's home address, the distance measured in a
straight line from the School entrance at the junction of Shorts Road and Alma Road by the
London Borough of Sutton using a Geographical Computerised Information System (see
Appendix 6).
(iii) Where two or more Candidates share priority for a place, e.g. where two Candidates live
equidistant from the School, the Candidate to be ranked with the higher priority will be selected
by the drawing of lots.
Withdrawal of Offer
The Admissions and Ethos Committee reserves the right to verify any information supplied and to require
further evidence. Where fraudulent or deliberately misleading or incorrect information has been supplied
and that information has led to a place being offered which would not otherwise have been offered, the
Admissions and Ethos Committee reserves the right to withdraw the offer.
Right of Appeal
Parents whose applications for places are unsuccessful may appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel
set up in accordance with section 85(3) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Appeals must
be made in writing and must set out the reasons on which the appeal is made. Appeals should be made
to the Admissions Appeal Clerk at the school address. Parents/Carers have the right to make oral
representations to the Appeal Panel.
Waiting List
Where the School has refused a Candidate a place and they have not been offered a higher preference
school, a waiting list of such Candidates will be kept, ranked in descending order according to the criteria
listed above. If a place subsequently becomes available, that place will be offered to the Candidate at
the top of the waiting list. The address to be used to rank waiting lists, after the initial allocation, will
default to the Candidate's current address, and not the address that the Candidate was living at on the
closing date for application, because they may have since moved. Waiting lists will be maintained until
31st December. In the Autumn term applicants will be written to and asked whether they wish their
daughters’ name to remain on the waiting list.
Please note:
Those applying for admission outside the normal admissions cycle - for example, those moving into the
area in the course of the year - will be considered under the same criteria as those applying for entry at
the usual time and will be managed in accordance with Sutton's protocol for Mid-Term Admissions.
Fair Access Protocol
The school participates in the Local Authority’s (LA) Fair Access Protocol to allocate places to vulnerable
and other children in accordance with the School Admission Code 2014. Admitting pupils under the
4St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls
protocol may require the school to admit above the planned admission number for a relevant year group
and ahead of any waiting list.
Admission to the Sixth Form
The Sixth Form at St. Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls is single-sex and the overall size is
340 students. Candidates for the Sixth Form may be in Year 11 at St. Philomena's Catholic High
School for Girls or following appropriate courses at other schools. All Candidates both internal and
external will be invited to discuss course options in the Sixth Form. For acceptance on a particular
course Candidates will be required to meet the minimum entry requirements for the course (see
separate Sixth Form course entry guide). For some courses there is a limit on the number of students
that can be accepted.
If there are insufficient numbers for a particular course, it may not be viable to run. A decision may be
made as late as August following the publication of examination results.
A minimum of 25 places will be available for external Candidates: more places may be available
depending on the take-up of places by internal Candidates. In the case of oversubscription by Applicants
who meet the minimum course requirements, the same oversubscription criteria as for entry to Year 7
will apply. Applicants have a statutory right of appeal if a place is not offered. A Candidate of sixth-form
age can make her own application and appeal for a place. An appeals form is available from the school’s
Admissions Officer.
In recent years we have been able to offer places to Catholic and non-Catholic young women who are
in support of our Catholic ethos in the Sixth Form.
Please refer to the school website for additional entry requirements to study specific courses post 16.
5St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls
APPENDICES AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
APPENDIX 1
Looked After Children are those in the care of a Local Authority.
This category also includes:
(a) A Looked After Child who is in the care of a Local Authority
(b) A Looked After Child being provided with accommodation by a Local Authority in the
exercise of their social services functions (see definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act
1989)
Previously Looked After Children who were Looked After, but immediately after being Looked
After became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order1
including those 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.
Children subject to a child arrangements order (in accordance with Section 8 of the Children
Act 1989 as amended by Section 14 of the Children and Families Act 2014.)
Children subject to a special guardianship order (in accordance with Section 14A of the
Children Act 1989).
1
An adoption order is an order under the Adoption Act 1976 and children who were adopted in accordance with Section 46
of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. A ‘child arrangements order’ is an order settling the arrangements to be made as to
the person with whom the child is to live. A ‘special guardianship order’ is defined as an order appointing one or more
individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).
Where an application is not accepted under this criterion by the Local Authority, the supporting
documents received by the Local Authority will be sent to the School for consideration under the
exceptional medical and or social criterion. [See page 4: ‘Further Information Relating to Categories A
and B’ (i)].
APPENDIX 2
A sibling is defined as a sister, half-sister, adopted sister or step-sister of the Candidate, or child of the
Applicant’s partner, and in every case, who is living as part of the same family unit at the same address,
Monday to Friday, as the Candidate, and is on roll at St. Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls at
the time of admission. It would not include other relatives, e.g. cousins. Where siblings are in Years 11
or 12 at the time of application, they will normally be deemed as being in the school at the time of
admission unless the Applicant has specifically expressed that they will not be continuing the following
year.
APPENDIX 3
Sutton Catholic Deanery Parishes
Holy Cross Catholic Church, North Street, Carshalton, Surrey SM5 2JD
St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church, Fir Tree Grove, Carshalton Beeches, Surrey SM5 4NG
Holy Family Catholic Church, Sorrento Road, Sutton, Surrey SM1 1QT
Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, St. Barnabas Road, Sutton, Surrey SM1 4NL
St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church, 101 Stonecot Hill, Sutton, Surrey SM3 9HP
St. Elphege’s Catholic Church, Stafford Road, Wallington, Surrey SM6 9AY
St. Christopher’s Catholic Church, Dallas Road, Cheam, Surrey SM3 8RU
St. Matthias Catholic Church, 201 Cheam Common Road, Worcester Park, Surrey KT4 8SX
APPENDIX 4: Canon Law
Extracts from the current Code of Canon Law.
In the Catholic Church Canon Law is a system of laws and legal principles made by the Church
leadership to order and direct the activities of Catholics towards the mission of the Church.
6St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls
MASS ATTENDANCE
‘Mass attendance’ means frequency of Mass attendance on a Saturday evening or a Sunday during
the past three years as shown on the Supplementary Information Form and verified in writing by a
Catholic Priest.
Canon 1247
On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass.
Explanatory note:
Catholic practice refers to the Candidate’s attendance at Mass on either Saturday evening or on Sunday.
The Governors will seek evidence of Mass attendance for the previous three years by way of the Priest
Reference Form.
Where a Candidate regularly attends Mass at more than one parish it is important that this is confirmed
by the Priests of each parish in order that the application can be correctly prioritised.
Variation to Admissions Arrangements due to COVID19:
St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls Admission Arrangements for Transfer to Secondary School 2022:
We ask that parents/carers applying for a place at St Philomena’s School for the Academic Year 2022-2023 please
note the following variation to the Admission arrangements, approved by the Office of the Schools’ Adjudicator on
16th October 2020, in relation to the Mass Attendance oversubscription criterion (see Table 1 of the Admissions
Policy 2022).
On the advice of the Education Commission of the Archdiocese of Southwark, the governing body of St Philomena's
Catholic High School for Girls has agreed the following statement in order to clarify how its faith-based
oversubscription criteria will be interpreted whilst churches are closed or attendance at church is not possible due
to COVID19. This statement has been shared widely with parishes in order to ensure that determinations made by
parish priests concerning regular practice of the faith are being made on a consistent basis.
The suspension of the obligation to attend Sunday Mass was announced on 18th March 2020 by Bishops'
Conference of England and Wales. If a parent/carer/candidate attended Mass at a certain frequency at a particular
parish (or parishes) prior to 18th March 2020 then they will be considered to have attended Mass in that parish (or
parishes) at the same frequency since that time. This will remain the case until the Sunday obligation is reintroduced
by the Bishops.
FIRST HOLY COMMUNION
Canon 914
It is primarily the duty of parents and those who take their place, as it is the duty of the parish priest, to
ensure that children who have reached the canonical age of reason (7th birthday) are properly prepared
and, having made their sacramental confession, are nourished by the divine food as soon as possible.
APPENDIX 5
Catholic Candidates – In the context of school admissions, Catholic children are defined as children
who are baptised or received into the Catholic Church, children baptised or received into the Eastern
Churches in union with Rome and children of members of the Ordinariate.
CHURCHES IN COMMUNION WITH THE SEE OF ROME
ALEXANDRIAN: Coptic Ethiopian
ANTIOCH: Malankrese, Maronite, Syrian
ARMENIAN CONSTANTINOPLE: Albanian, Byelorussian, Bulgarian, Greek, Melchite, Italo‐Albanian,
Romanian, Russian Ruthenian, Slovakian Ukrainian, Hungarian
CHALDEAN: Malabar.
Eastern Orthodox Churches, including the Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox
Churches are not in communion with the See of Rome.
7St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls
Personal Ordinariate
Baptised children of parents who are members of the Ordinariate established under The Apostolic
Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus of November 4th 2009 are to be given equal preference to that
offered to children baptised in a Catholic church. It is important to note that these children may have
been baptised in the Church of England.
APPENDIX 6
Home Address
The home address is where the Candidate normally lives.
Shared Parental Responsibility
Where the Candidate lives with parents with shared parental responsibility, each for part of a week, the
address where the Candidate lives is determined using a joint declaration from the parents stating the
pattern of residence. If the Candidate’s residence is split equally between both parents, then parents
will be asked to determine which residential address should be used for the purpose of admission to
school. If no joint declaration is received and the residence is split equally by the closing date for
applications, the home address will be determined to be the address where the Candidate is registered
with the doctor. However, all evidence will be taken into account. If the residence is not split equally
between both parents, then the address used will be the address where the Candidate spends the
majority of the school week.
Address Checks
All school admission applications for school places are subject to address checks to ensure school
places are allocated fairly and in accordance with published admission arrangements. These checks
will be conducted by the home Local Authority; where a fraudulent address or an address of
convenience are found to have been used, the application and any subsequent offer may be
withdrawn.
Applicants Living Outside of England
Applicants living outside of England may only submit an application if they have a linked address within
the Local Authority area, and documentary evidence must be supplied to show they will return to the
address prior to the September in the year of entry; this address must not be an address of
convenience.
Change of Address
Changes of address may be considered in accordance with the Pan London coordinated scheme
published on the London Borough of Sutton website if there are exceptional reasons behind the
change, such as if a family has just moved in to the area, or has returned from abroad.
If parents/carers wish to discuss their circumstances prior to making their application, they should
contact their home Local Authority.
APPENDIX 7
Applications outside Chronological Age Group
The Governors will make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best
interests of the child concerned. This will include taking account of the parents’/carers’ views;
information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development; where relevant, their
medical history and the views of a medical professional; whether they have previously been educated
out of their normal age group; and whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it
were not for being born prematurely. They will also take into account the views of the Headteacher of
St. Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls. When informing a parent of their decision on the year
group the child should be admitted to, the Governors will set out clearly the reasons for their decision.
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