Sixth Form Admissions

Application, course choice and guidance process

Wilmslow High School is committed to developing as wide a range of courses and opportunities as practically possible, whilst avoiding undue replication of courses already available locally and to liaise with other providers to encourage young people throughout the local area to take up the opportunities on offer.

The School Admissions Code requires any school that sets out to admit external candidates to its sixth form to have a published a minimum admission number. Our minimum admission number for external Year 12 students is 50.

It is necessary for students already attending Wilmslow High School to apply formally for places in Year 12. They will be offered a place subject to achieving the minimum entry requirements.

Applications from all students will be considered in three phases:

1. those received by 30 November.
2. those received between 1 December and 30 June.
3. those received thereafter.

Minimum Entry Requirements

In order to ensure that students enrol on courses that they will be able to complete, and in which they will gain success, we set the following minimum entry requirements.

To access Level 3 courses (A Level or BTEC) at Wilmslow High School students must achieve a minimum of five GCSEs (or equivalent) with grades 4-9 (A*-C). This must include at least four full course GCSEs. Within the new 1-9 grading system for reformed GCSE qualifications, a grade 4 will be counted as the equivalent of a C grade.

Where a student is seeking to study at Level 3 (A Level or BTEC) a subject previously studied at Level 2 (GCSE or equivalent) then it is necessary to have attained at least GCSE grade 4 (or equivalent) in the subject they wish to study at Level 3.

In addition, each individual subject area sets out specific minimum course entry requirements. In those cases where there is statistically a greater risk of failure with only a grade 4 or C at GCSE, or where the school offers an alternative qualification pathway, then the minimum GCSE grade requirements may be higher.

Any student entering the sixth form without GCSE grade 4 in English and Mathematics will be required to continue studying these subjects alongside their Level 3 courses in order to reach this standard of attainment.

Whilst every effort is made, admission into Year 12 does not guarantee entry to the courses offered in the prospectus since, in the event of low student take-up of a course the school may be required to withdraw it from the curriculum offer. In such cases alternative courses will be offered.

See below for more information about our courses and entry requirements for each course:

Oversubscription Criteria

In the event that the number of eligible applicants exceeds the number of places available, the oversubscription criteria to be applied are:

1. Eligible ‘cared for children’ and children who were previously ‘cared for’.

A ‘cared for child’ is a child who is in the care of a local authority or provided with accommodation by that local authority (as defined in section 22 of the Children Act 1989).

Children previously ‘cared for’ are children who were ‘cared for’ as defined above, but immediately after being ‘cared for’ became subject to an adoption, child arrangements order (formerly residence order), or special guardianship order. A child arrangements order is as an order settling the arrangements to be made as to the person with whom the child is to live under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 amended by Children and Families Act 2014. Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).

2. Eligible pupils’ resident within the designated catchment area of the school.

Pupils will be classed within this criterion if they and their parents are resident within the area served by the school.

3. Eligible pupils living nearest to the school measured using an Ordnance Survey address point system which measures straight line distances in miles from the address point of the school to the address point of the place of residence.

NOTE: An ‘eligible’ pupil is a pupil who has met the academic entry requirements.

Admission Appeals

Information about the right of appeal against a sixth form admission decision can be found on this link.

Please note that since all places in the sixth form are conditional on the GCSE results achieved by students, there can be no appeal hearings until after the GCSE results day.