We do not arrange tours or visits outside of the Open Day sessions.

You must complete the Common Application Form (CAF) and return it to your Local Authority by Friday 23rd October 2009. You may also complete this on-line. You must also complete the school’s own Supplementary Form. This is available with the brochure at the Open Session and also from the school website (www.sacredhearthighschool.org.uk). Return Section A of the form to Sacred Heart High School by 3pm on Friday 23rd October 2009.

Once you have completed Section B (the self assessment), you must take or send Sections B and C of the supplementary information form to the priest or priests named on the form. If you regularly worship in another parish or have recently moved parishes, please provide a further copy of Sections B and C for the Priest who you also want to complete this form.

Your Parish Priest will keep Part B. Ask your Parish Priest to complete Part C (the Priest’s reference) and to return it to the school by Friday 20th November 2009 at the latest. Please ensure that you provide your priest with an envelope addressed to the school which has sufficient postage on it for the size and weight of envelope.

If you do not complete and return the school’s own supplementary form, then it will not be possible to apply the oversubscription criteria and your application will be unsuccessful.

A full list of required documentation is provided on page 5 of the supplementary application form. This includes a Baptismal Certificate for your daughter and for the Catholic parent. Original copies of all documentation should be submitted to the school by Friday 20th November 2009. We will photocopy and return originals to you. Please provide a stamped addressed envelope if you are posting certificates to us.

Advice on how to obtain a Baptismal certificate and what to do if the Church has been destroyed is in the brochure. Alternatives such as a certificate of Confirmation or proof of marriage in the Catholic Church are acceptable.

No. The Admissions policy refers to the Catholic parent or parents.

No. However, the Primary Head may well be able to advise and help you over admissions.

Most parishes will be able to give you your priest’s new address or have alternative arrangements in place. As far as possible you should send the forms to your priest’s new parish, together with a stamped envelope addressed to the school for him to use.

No. There are often very good reasons which prevent a baptism from taking place within the six month period. You should note that the Admissions Policy states: The governing body will presume that the requirements of the relevant canons have been fulfilled when the baptism takes place within six months of birth. Where baptism takes place after a longer period, applicants will need to produce evidence to demonstrate that they complied with those requirements, that those requirements did not apply to them or that they were prevented from complying with them by a legitimate cause. As far as possible you should provide a full explanation on Section A of the Supplementary Form and provide documentary evidence to support this.

The Supplementary form is clear what documentation is essential. You may submit any further documentation in support of your daughter’s application where it is relevant to the admissions criteria. Do not omit anything that you might subsequently rely on as part of an appeal. It will be too late then.

Distance is used only as a tie break in the event of oversubscription and to rank applications within the admissions criteria. It is impossible to say how far away is too far and the distance of the last successful candidate in each band may well be different. It will in any case differ from year to year. If your application is unsuccessful on distance alone, you may subsequently gain a place from the waiting list, though, of course, this cannot be guaranteed. You should also be aware that a vacancy may arise at any time throughout the period from March to September. This year, the last offer of a place was made the day before the start of the new school year.

We hope this doesn’t happen! However, if it does, the Admissions policy states: If a parent applies for entry into the same year group for more than one child and there is only one place available, this will be determined by the drawing of lots in the presence of an independent witness. The name(s) of the remaining sister(s) will be added to the waiting list in accordance with criterion 2.

Your primary school should advise you. Your Local Authority will consult with Hammersmith & Fulham which will then consult with the Governors of this school, to consider what reasonable steps the school would have to take to meet your daughter’s needs. Hammersmith & Fulham will consider the Governors’ response and decide whether or not to recommend that the school should be named in the statement.

No. In common with all schools, we operate an equal preference system, and will not know where you have ranked us. Nor will we know which other schools you have named. Where more than one school is able to make you an offer, you will be given a place at the school you have ranked highest.

We recommend that you use all six and that you are realistic in naming and ranking schools. If you name only the most popular schools, then you may not get a place at any of them. You should avoid naming only one school, even if you have a sibling present at it.

No. No member of staff or Governor of this school is able to tell you this. We do not know how many applications we will receive or how many will be from baptized Catholics. You need to use the admissions policy to work out for yourself how likely it is that your application will be successful.

No. Schools are not allowed to interview for the purposes of admission. However, if your application is successful, you and your daughter will be invited into school to meet with a member of staff so that we can make transition to secondary school as straightforward as possible.

The test will take place on Saturday, 14th November. Shortly after the closing date for applications, we will write to you to give you the time of the test. You will be asked to bring a copy of that letter with you, with an attached photograph of your daughter as proof of identity.

Your daughter should attend to take the test at the school ranked highest on the CAF or nearest to her home. Tell both schools. In the past we have simply shared results and placed the child in the appropriate band. We expect to do the same this year.

In order to achieve a balanced intake, 25% of pupils will be admitted from Bands 1 and 3 and 50% will be admitted from Band 2. Once allocated to a band, the Governors will then apply their oversubscription criteria if there are more girls than there are places available in any band. In past years, there has been oversubscription in all bands and the Governors have had, finally, to make use of distance as a tie breaker. Last year, there was very little difference in the distance of the last successful applicant in each band.

Absolutely not. The governors will not have this information. The test has no further purpose after it has been used for allocating children to ability bands. It will not subsequently be used for deciding which set your daughter is placed in, since we will make use of CATs tests for that.

Not at all. However, you should be aware that if an independent school offers you a place, it will do so before your Local Authority contacts you with a single offer. You will be asked to accept the place and to submit a non refundable deposit of half a term’s fees (c. £2,400). If you intend to apply for an independent school as insurance against not getting a place here, then be aware that it is expensive, though balanced against a minimum outlay of c. £14,500 per annum (not including text books) and more than £75,000 for 5 years, it is reasonable. The choice is entirely yours and we will not know.

Yes. However, you should be aware that the school is very oversubscribed by baptized and practising Catholics and therefore it is highly unlikely that you will get a place. The Admissions policy gives information about previous applications. You will note that this states that no application from a non Catholic family was successful last year. This has been the case for many years.

No. See highlighted extract from the Code of Practice on Admissions below.

2.46
It is unlawful under section 49 of the Equality Act 2006 for maintained, non maintained or independent schools to discriminate against a child on the grounds of the child’s religion or belief in the terms on which it offers to admit him as a pupil or by refusing to accept an application for a place at the school. However, those schools designated by the Secretary of State as having a religious character (faith schools) are exempt and are permitted to use faith based oversubscription criteria in order to give higher priority in admissions to children who are members of, or who practise, their faith or denomination. This only applies if a school is oversubscribed.

If the school is oversubscribed by baptized Catholics, then the Governors are obliged to offer places to these pupils first. Though there is a very close relationship between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, there is not yet ‘full communion’ between the two. For a list of those Churches and Rites in full communion with Rome, follow the link: www.rcdow.org.uk/education. Click on the link for admissions and go to Annex 7 of Guidance for Governing Bodies. The admissions policy sets out the order in which members of other Churches and faiths will be admitted, should the school be under subscribed by baptized Catholics. This is very unlikely to happen.

Your Local Authority will write to you on or about 1st March 2010 with a single offer. If the offer is for this school, we will write very soon after that to confirm this. We will ask you to confirm to us within 5 working days whether or not you intend to take up the place. Places not accepted within that time frame will be offered to the next person within that ability band.