Admissions consultation (2025-26)

In line with statutory regulations around school admissions, in a fixed period we are required to consult all stakeholders on the way in which young people gain a place at Stepney All Saints School. For entry in the academic year 2025-26 our admissions policy is to be found below.

If you have any comments to make about our admissions arrangements, please email neil.jones@stepneyallsaints.school no later than Friday 22nd December 2023 (this is a period of 6 weeks from the publication date of Monday 13th November 2023).

Stepney All Saints CofE School – Admissions Policy 2025-26

Admissions Procedure

• The Admissions Authority is the Governing Body of Stepney All Saints Church of England School.
• The number of students admitted annually to Year 7 is 208.
• Parents must complete the eAdmissions application available for all schools. The Local Authority closing date for applications for September places in Year 7 is 31^st October each year.
• In-Year admissions are considered under the same criteria as those for all new Year 7 students. Applications are made via the Local Authority.
• All applicants are requested to complete the school’s Supplementary Form. This is available on the school website.
• Places for September places in Year 7 are offered on the National Offer Day 1^st
• All unsuccessful applicants for places in Year 7 are placed on the waiting list from the time the decisions are announced until it is discarded on 31^st Places that become available are offered in accordance with the over-subscription criteria. If parents wish for their child to remain on the Year 7 waiting list after December, they must complete an In-Year Application via the local authority.
• Foundation places are offered to students whose families are faithful and regular worshippers in a recognized Christian Church. This must be a Church which is a member of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and/or the Evangelical Alliance. Regular worship must be at least twice a month for the past 2 years. In the event that during the period specified for attendance at worship the church has been closed for public worship and has not provided alternative premises for that worship, the requirements of these admissions arrangements in relation to attendance will only apply to the period when the or alternative premises have been available for public worship.

Admissions Criteria

Stepney All Saints CofE School offers 208 places to Year 7.

These places are allocated as follows:

• 40 Foundation
• 152 Open
• 16 Language Aptitude places

52 students from each of four ability bands will be accepted. The school has adopted the Local Authority’s policy of banding to ensure that it takes an even balance of children in different ability ranges. The available 208 places are divided equally across the four bands of ability. Therefore 52 children from each band will be admitted according to the criteria set out below.

Foundation Places.
40 places (10 per band) are offered each year to students whose families are faithful and regular worshippers in a recognized Christian Church (see appendix 1 below). Written evidence of applicant’s commitment to their place of worship (in the form of a clerical reference) will be required at the time of application.

If there are more than 40 applicants, places will be allocated according to the following criteria. These are stated in order of priority:

• Children looked after by the local authority ^[2], previously looked after children who left care and became subject to adoption, a special guardianship order or a child arrangements order. This includes those who appear [to the admission authority] to have been in state care ^[2] outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
• Children with a strong medical or social reason to attend the school. This can include the parents’, carers’ or other family members’ medical conditions and the family’s social needs. Written supporting evidence required. ^[3]
• Children who live in one of the listed parishes (see appendix below) or attend any church anywhere in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
• Children whose sibling i.e. older brother or sister already attends the school and will still be at the school at the time of attendance. (For this purpose, “sibling” means a whole, half or stepbrother or stepsister resident at the same address. ^[4])

Children who live nearest the school, measured along the shortest, safe walking route to the school’s gate on Stepney Way, using the local authority’s computerised map.^[5]

Open Places.
152 places (38 per band) as open places, are offered to students who do not qualify for a specialist language or foundation place or whose parents have chosen the school for the type of education it provides.

If there are more than 152 applicants, places will be allocated according to the following criteria. These are stated in order of priority:

• Children looked after by the local authority ^[2], previously looked after children who left care and became subject to adoption, a special guardianship order or a child arrangements order. This includes those who appear [to the admission authority] to have been in state care ^[2] outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
• Children with a strong medical or social reason to attend the school. This can include the parents’, carers’ or other family members’ medical conditions and the family’s social needs. Written supporting evidence required. ^[3]
• Children whose sibling i.e., older brother or sister already attends the school and will still be at the school at the time of attendance. (For this purpose, “sibling” means a whole, half or stepbrother or stepsister resident at the same address).^[4]
• Children whose parent is a member of staff who has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time of application and/or children of a member of staff who has been recruited to fill a vacancy for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage . ^[5]
• Children who live nearest the school, measured along the shortest, safe walking route to the school’s gate on Stepney Way, using the local authority’s computerised map.^[6]

Aptitude in Modern Foreign Languages

16 places will be offered to students who demonstrate an aptitude for Modern Foreign Languages having completed the school’s aptitude test. The four highest scoring students in each band will be offered places. In the event that two or more applicants have equal rights to a place under this criterion, the Governing Body will accept the applicant who lives nearest to the school, measured along the shortest safe walking route to the school’s gate on Stepney Way. If fewer than 4 children qualify to be admitted in any band the unused places will be filled by Modern Foreign Language applicants in adjacent bands. If fewer than 16 children qualify for the Modern Foreign Language places, the number of places under the Open Places admission criteria will be increased in each band accordingly.

Student Ability Banding

Banding is a method for a school to achieve an admission intake that reflects the full range of abilities of all children in the local authority. Banding is used only when a school is oversubscribed.

Banding helps to reduce segregation and enables schools to achieve comprehensive intakes with a broader ability range and a wider social mix than would otherwise be the case.

We use the banding system of Tower Hamlets. The results of the assessment are used to place a child in one of four bands: Band A, B, C and D. D is the highest scoring band.

Tower Hamlets uses banding at the point when children transfer from primary to secondary school. Each secondary school’s intake is divided equally across the four bands, designed to be representative of the range of ability of children in the local area.

Banding Assignment 

All children in Tower Hamlets primary schools are tested on their numeracy and literacy in the summer term of Year 5. The test scores are then submitted to the Local Authority. The Local Authority uses this information to determine the range of ability for children in the local area. The children whose test scores place them in the top quartile (25%) are assigned to Band D and the children whose test score places them in the lowest quartile (25%) are assigned to Band A. The second quartile of children is assigned to Band C and the third quartile assigned to Band B. Here is an example of the Banding model:

• 25% of children score between 85%-100% (Band D)
• 25% of children score between 63%-84% (Band C)
• 25% of children score between 45%-62% (Band B)
• 25% of children score between 0%-44% (Band A)

Banding is intended for the purpose of ensuring that a school achieves a balanced intake when it is oversubscribed. It is designed to be fair to all children, whatever their ability.

Parents are notified of the band their child has been assigned at the beginning of the school year when their child reaches Year 6 and well before they are required to submit their application for secondary school transfer.

Our school admits 208 students to Year 7 each September i.e. 52 per band. If there are fewer than 52 applications to our school in a particular band then all the students applying within that band will be admitted. The unfilled places in the band would then be allocated to an adjacent band to ensure that all 208 places are filled.

Children with Educational Health and Care Plans (EHCP) and Special Educational Needs

A child with EHCP needs naming Stepney All Saints School will be offered a place. The place will be provided in the appropriate band of ability (See above).

Appendix
1. The 20 parishes of Tower Hamlets Deanery within the Church of England and the following parishes:

The following website can be used to check whether an applicant lives in one of the listed parishes -www.achurchnearyou.com

It must be a Church which is a member of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and/or the Evangelical Alliance. Regular worship must be at least twice a month for the past 2 years.

In the event that during the period specified for attendance at worship the church has been closed for public worship and has not provided alternative premises for that worship, the requirements of these admissions arrangements in relation to attendance will only apply to the period when the or alternative premises have been available for public worship.

2. 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). State care is defined as being in the care of public authorities, religious authorities or other organisations that act in the public benefit and could encompass a wide range of institutions.

3. Applications under this category are considered by the Admissions Sub-Committee of the school’s Governing Body who will decide whether the application should be given priority under this category.

4. Sibling refers to brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step brother or sister, or the child of the parent/carer’s partner, and in every case, the child should be living in the same family unit at the same address. The address used should be the one that the child usually lives at and attends school from.

5. Priority will be limited to three places per year. The staff applicant must complete the relevant section on the application form and attach documentation supporting admission on these grounds. It is the staff applicant’s sole responsibility to provide this information. Without the provision of the relevant documents, the child will not be considered on these grounds.

6. Where two or more distances are the same the decision will be made using random allocation.

7. We follow the DfE requirements regarding the admission of children of UK Service Personnel and Crown Servants. Families of Crown Servants or UK Service Personnel returning from overseas must provide an official letter or an official posting notice with a relocation date, UK base address and UK home address when making an application for a school place.