Admissions Criteria

Wootton Park School Sixth Form continues the school’s ethos of high aspirations, high expectations and academic excellence.

All applicants must be aged 16 on 31st August in the year of application.

The deadline is 27 January 2024, 4pm.

Our admissions arrangements are based on the following advice from the Department for Education (DfE):

• School Admissions Code
• School Admission Appeals Code

The school is required to comply with these codes, and with the law relating to admissions as set out in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. As an academy, the school is required by its funding agreement to comply with these codes, and with the law relating to admissions as set out in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. This policy complies with our funding agreement and articles of association.

Published admission number: 120 (Includes Internal & External).  External Learners' PAN is 20. If spaces remain available on some courses, this number may be increased.   

Academic admissions criteria:

Wootton Park School Sixth Form is selective. Internal and External applicants must meet the same academic admissions criteria in order to be admitted to our Sixth Form.

Entry Requirements:

Each course and subject in the Sixth Form has specific entry requirements. The minimum general requirements for Sixth Form entry are a minimum of 5 GCSE Grade 4s including English and Maths. In addition, learners will need to meet the specified entry requirements for each individual subject/course as detailed on our website and sixth form prospectus. Most subjects studied at A Level will require at least grade 6 at GCSE in the same subject, or in the case of subjects not previously studied, in a related discipline. BTEC courses will require a minimum of five grades at 4. The entry criteria apply equally to internal and external applications.

Learners with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) will be offered a place, where the school – after consultation with the Local Authority – has been named on the statement as the appropriate post-16 provision. He/she will still need to meet the minimum entry and subject specific academic requirements.

Internal Applications: Learners in Year 11 at Wootton Park School are entitled to a place provided they meet the minimum entry and subject specific academic requirements. All applicants, both internal and external, must complete a Sixth Form application form. This will determine the number of spaces available on each course for external applicants.

External Applications: All external applicants meeting the minimum entry and subject specific academic requirements and completing a Sixth Form application form will be offered a place unless the number applying is more than the admissions number. In the event of oversubscription, the following criteria will be used for course allocation to determine how places are offered.

Oversubscription Criteria: (for external applications only)

1.       Looked after children or children who were previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became the subject to adoption, a child arrangements order, or a special guardianship order. A looked after child is a child who is a) in the care of the local authority or b) being provided with accommodation by the local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989).  He/she will still need to meet the minimum entry and subject specific academic requirements.

2.       Children of Wootton Park School staff

• Where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or
• The member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

He/she will still need to meet the minimum entry and subject specific academic requirements.

3.       After places have been allocated under the first three criteria, remaining places will be offered to other learners. Where the number of applicants in this category exceeds the number of places, offers will be determined by random allocation. Applicants will still need to meet the minimum entry and subject specific academic requirements.

Tiebreaker –If the admission number is exceeded within criteria 1-3, priority will be given to those children who live closest to the school. Distances are measured from the address point of the home address to the address point of the school on a straight line basis. Should two distances be the same, a process of random allocation will be used.

Random allocation

This is done by allocating places in a statistically random order generated by computer. Wootton Park School uses an outside independent witness to verify the randomisation process ensuring that Wootton Park School has acted in accordance with Section 1.35 of the School’s Admissions Code 2014. The independent person signs and dates a declaration to that effect.

Offer of a place

All offers are conditional upon GCSE results, full details can be found within the conditional offer letter.

If an applicant fails to meet the minimum course requirements, they may be given the option of pursuing alternative courses for which they do meet the minimum academic requirements.

Learners who have not achieved a minimum of GCSE grade 4 in English Language and Mathematics will be required to continue studying one or both subjects.

Appeals for a place in Year 12

Information about the right to appeal,  the deadline for lodging an appeal and the contact details will be sent to any learner not offered a place.