Announcement

Harris Invictus Academy Croydon - Admissions Consultation Notice

The Governing body of Harris Invictus Academy Croydon are consulting on admission arrangements for students applying for places for the academic year beginning in September 2022.  We are required to consult on our admission arrangements when there are significant changes and/or at least every seven years.

We believe it is important for all stakeholders, including prospective parents and carers, to understand how our Academy manages the admission process. The Trust Board have developed a Trust wide template policy for use by all Harris academies to ensure consistency, clarity and compliance with the Admission Code. This may look different to previous policies, but we are simply setting out our existing criteria in a clearer way.

Proposed changes to the policy include a change of wording and clarification regarding definitions and an additional oversubscription criterion. They are as follows:-

Definition of a 'Parent'

A 'parent' includes a natural or adoptive parent of the child (regardless of whether they child lives with them, has contact with them, or they have parental responsibility for the child).  It also includes a person who is not a natural or adoptive parent of the child, but who has care of and/or parental responsibility for the child.

Definition of a Sibling

A 'sibling' is a full sibling (sharing both parents), a half sibling (sharing one parent), an adopted sibling, a long term foster sibling (i.e. not a temporary placement), a step sibling (one child's parent married to the other child's parent), a cohabitee child, or child of their parent's cohabiting partner.  In all cases, the sibling must live at the child's home address (as defined by this policy) as part of the same core family unit.  For the avoidance of doubt, a child of a friend or extended family member (e.g. cousin) will not be a 'sibling' for this purpose, even if they live at the same address as the applicant child. The sibling must still be attending the Academy at the time of application/application closing date, and at the time of the applicant child’s admission.

Definition of Children of Staff

A 'child' of a staff member is:

• their birth or adopted child, whether they live with the staff member or elsewhere; and/or
• their step-child or child of their cohabiting partner, who lives and sleeps with the staff member at their home address for more than 50% of their time from Sunday to Friday night during term time.
• For the avoidance of doubt, or a step-child or child of a cohabiting partner, who lives elsewhere, will not be eligible for a place under this category.

It is further proposed to add an additional criterion, 7.1.4, to the oversubscription criteria to give preference to:-

Changes to the oversubscription Criterion

Change to Tie Breaker (All Year Groups) Definition

The Tie Breaker definition in section 10 will change within each category as explained below:

Where there are more applications than places remaining in any of the oversubscription categories, the order in which places will be allocated will be determined by the distance between the child's home address (as defined by this policy) and the Academy, with those living nearest receiving highest priority.

(10.2) Distance will be measured using London Borough of Croydon’s computerised geographic information system (GIS) in a straight line from the child’s home address to the designated entrance of the Academy, using geographical reference points by the National Land  and Property Gazetteer (NLPG). 

Where the child lives in a multi-dwelling building (for example, an apartment block), distance will be measured from same point in the building so that the distance will be the same for all children living there. 

Where two or more children live an equal distance from the Academy (including where they live in the same multi-dwelling building), the order in which places are allocated will be determined by random allocation supervised by someone who is independent of the Academy.

The consultation will run over 8 weeks from 30^th November 2020 to 31^st January 2021. 

The full draft admissions arrangements for 2022-2023 can be found by clicking here along with associated forms.

Your questions

We are happy to answer any questions you may have.

Please contact us at Admissions@harrisinvictus.org.uk and we will respond to you. Please also provide your telephone number and use Admissions consultation in the subject of the email.

Your views

We would welcome your views on our consultation.

Please ensure you respond to our consultation by noon on Wednesday 20th January 2021, which is when our consultation period closes.

You can respond in two ways:

• By email: Clerk to Governors: Admissions@harrisinvictus.org.uk 
• In writing: correspondence should be sent to Admissions Officer, Harris Invictus Academy Croydon, 88 London Road, Croydon CR0 2TB.