Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy

When there are more applications than places for 2027-28 (Year 7), places are offered in this order of priority. Meeting a higher criterion beats meeting a lower one.

1. 1Children in Care or previously looked after Children — A looked after child is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a academy. A previously looked after child means children who were adopted (or subject to child arrangements orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after and those children 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.
2. 2Sibling — Students whose sibling(s) currently attends the academy and will continue to do so at the time of entry. For this criterion brother or sister means children who live as brother and sister in the same house, including natural brothers or sisters, adopted siblings, step brothers or sisters, foster brothers or sisters. Children residing in the same households as part of an extended family, such as cousins, will not be treated as siblings. If siblings from multiple births apply and the academy would reach its PAN after admitting one or more, but before admitting all of those siblings, the academy will offer a place to each of the siblings, even if doing so takes the academy above its PAN.
3. 3Children of Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy Staff — The son or daughter of a member of staff who has been employed at the academy for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the academy is made, or who has been recruited to fill a vacant post at the academy for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
4. 4Health and Special Access Reasons — Medical and social reasons will be applied in accordance with the academy's legal obligations, in particular those under the Equality Act 2010. Priority will be given to those students whose medical or social reasons mean they have a demonstrable and significant need to attend Sir Geoffrey Leigh Academy. Such claims will need to be supported by written evidence from a suitably qualified medical or social worker, and submitted at the time of application.
5. 5Students of LAT Primary Academies — Applications will only be given priority in this category if the LAT secondary academy to which they are applying is closest to their home. If oversubscribed in this category, it will be the 40 closest to the academy that will be admitted. A maximum of 8 places will be offered in each band under this criterion if there are insufficient qualifying applications, remaining places will be offered to other students within the band. Inner and outer catchment areas have been defined and 70% of the remaining places will be offered to those in the inner catchment and 30% will be offered to those in the outer catchment.
6. 6The Remaining Places — The remaining places in each band will be offered by random selection to applicants until the inner: outer mix of 70:30 is achieved. If any places remain unfilled, the remaining places in each band will be offered by random selection to applicants living outside the catchment area, using straight-line distance measured via NLPG address point data.
7. 7Applicants who did not undertake the Fair Banding Test — Those applicants who did not undertake the Fair Banding Test will then be considered. Priority will be given using criteria 1-6.

If two applications tie: If the academy is oversubscribed and it is therefore necessary to use a tie-breaker to distinguish between two or more applications in any of the criteria 1-7 above a 'Remaining Places' criterion will be used as above in criterion 6. In the unlikely event that two or more students in all other ways have equal eligibility for the last available place at the academy, the names will be issued a number and drawn randomly to decide which child should be given the place, overseen by someone independent of the academy trust.

Before application of the oversubscription criteria, students with an EHCP naming the academy will be admitted and the PAN reduced accordingly. Fair Access Protocol placements take precedence over waiting lists.

Published by the admission authority. Meeting a criterion never guarantees a place — it sets the order places are offered in. Full detail, other entry points and previous years are on the Admissions tab.