Admissions arrangements
Determined Admissions Arrangements 2024-2025 Determined Admissions Arrangements 2023-2024 Determined Admissions Arrangements 2022-2023
E-ACT-Supplementary Information Form 2024 E-ACT-Supplementary Information Form 2023
Department for Education Number: 330/6905
Unique Reference Number: 135907
UK Provider Refernece Number: 10028140
Published Admission Number: 150
Number on roll (all ages): 821
How to apply for Year 7 in September
An application must be made online at www.birmingham.gov.uk/schooladmissions or by using a Local Authority Preference Form.
Previous admission pattern at the time of offer of places for Year 7
Over the last 5+ years, Heartlands Academy has received more applications than there were places available.
| Year | Admissions number | Preferences received | Furthest distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 180 | 1,040 | 1,499 meters |
| 2022 | 150 | 1,726 | 1,243 meters |
| 2021 | 150 | 1,288 | 1,236 meters |
| 2020 | 150 | 1,205 | 1,000 meters |
Timetable for secondary education admissions
| Stage of process | Date |
|---|---|
| Application period starts | 1 September |
| Heartlands Academy open day | Usually held in September |
| Closing date for applications | 31 October |
| National Offer Day | 1 March |
| Deadline for accepting the offer | 16 March |
| Deadline for submitting appeals | 30 March |
| Appeal hearings for appeals submitted on time | Throughout May and June |
| Induction day at secondary school | Usually held in July |
| Term starts | September |
Admission criteria
Any child with a statement of special educational needs is required to be admitted to the school that is named in the statement. This gives such children overall priority for admission to the named school. This is not an oversubscription criterion. Once places have been allocated to children with an Educational and Health Care Plan, if there are more applicants than places as set out in the stated Published Admissions Number (PAN), then the following oversubscription criteria for admissions will be used, in the following order:
- 1. A ‘looked after child’ or a child who was previously ‘looked after’ but immediately after being ‘looked after’, became the subject of an adoption, residence order or special guardianship order.
- 2. Exceptional and Compelling Medical, Psychological, Social or Special Access Reasons which can only be met at the academy.
*Please note that a Supplementary Information Form (SIF) must be completed for an application under this criterion within the timescales for the point of entry required. - 3. Siblings of students currently on the roll at the academy at the time of application for the proposed admission of the applicant.
- 4. Children currently on roll at the time of application at a Designated Feeder School.
*In the case of the academy this is defined as E-ACT Nechells Academy. - 5. Children who at the time of the application are eligible for the Pupil Premium or the Service Pupil Premium.
*Please note that a SIF form must be completed for an application under this criterion within the timescales for the point of entry required. - 6. Children whose parent/carer is a member of staff who has either been continuously employed at the academy for two (2) or more years at the time of application for a place or has been recruited to fill a vacancy for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
*Please note that a SIF form must be completed for an application under this criterion within the timescales for the point of entry required. - 7. Any other applications of which priority of placement will be given to children who live nearest to the academy (including if this address is with a parent/carer with shared responsibility for the child or not). The child’s home address will be the child’s permanent place of residency and must not be a business address, or the address of a relative or carer, unless they have legal custody of the child. Applications must only be made from a single address.
Tiebraker
Once the above rules have been applied, and if there were to be a tie within any of the above rules, then any further places will be offered in distance order – Home to school distances will be measured in a direct line from a point on the home address as held by Birmingham City Council, defined in the Local Land and Property Gazetteer, (or similar property database) the school front gate on Great Francis Street using Birmingham City Council’s computerised mapping system.
Where two or more applicants have a home address at the same distance from academy and it is necessary to decide which child will be admitted, random allocation will be used. The random allocation process will be independently supervised.
Multiple births
For application into any year group, in the case where there is one place left and the next pupil due to be admitted is one of a twin, triplet or other multiple birth group, both twins may be admitted, or all students in the case of multiple births, even if this goes above the capacity for the academy.
*We have adopted the Local Authority’s definitions for: ‘children with a statement of special educational needs’, ‘looked after or previously looked after children’, ‘distance’, ‘sibling’, ‘shared responsibility’ and ‘separating “final qualifier” applications (blocks of flats etc)’.
Waiting lists
If any vacancies arise between National Offer Day and 31 December (the next working day if this falls on a weekend) of the same year for year 7, priority will be given to those on the waiting list managed by the academy.
If places become available during this period, or for the beginning of the following academic year, admissions will be handled in accordance with the in-year procedure.
Any places will be allocated from the waiting list using the oversubscription criteria set out above and not by the date that a child joined the waiting list. If parents decline an offer of a place, they may subsequently re-join the waiting list. The child’s name will be added onto the end of the waiting list as extant at the time the request to re-join is made.
Each child added to the waiting list will require the overall waiting list for the Academy to be ranked again in line with the oversubscription criteria. Priority will not be given to children based on the date their application was received or their name was added to the list.
Looked after children, previously looked after children, and those allocated a place at the school in accordance with the Fair Access Protocol, will take precedence over those on a waiting list.
The academy’s waiting lists are only maintained for an academic year, so one will need to apply again for the next academic year.
Appeals
Parents whose children have not been offered their preferred school will be informed of their right of appeal.
Appeals are administered by the Local Authority for this academy. Parents who wish to appeal against the decision to refuse their child admission should visit www.birmingham.gov.uk/schooladmissions to complete an online appeal form. Appeals will be heard by an independent panel.
The Department for Education appeals code
For the Department for Education’s admissions appeals code click here.
Information about recent changes to the appeals process can be found here.
Fair access protocol
The academy complies with Birmingham local authority’s Fair Access Protocol (FAP) to ensure that outside the normal admissions round that unplaced, vulnerable and those who are unable to secure a school place in-year (including Child in Need/Child Protection Plan, children in refuge, children in formal kinship care arrangements, children who have been out of education for four or more weeks and previously looked after children for whom the local authority has been unable to promptly secure a school place), are found and offered a place quickly, so that the amount of time any child is out of school is kept to a minimum.
Admission number
- From September 2023: 180
- From September 2020 to September 2022: 150
- September 2018 & 2019: 180
- Until September 2018: 150