When applying for either Year 7 or Year R St Peter’s will not accept a change of address once the National Closing Date has passed. The National Closing Date for Year R is 15 January and 31 October for Secondary. This means, if your moving date is after 15 January/31 October, we will use your old address to categorise your application. You will need to tell us your new address, so we can update your child's record. If you move house after you have submitted your application but before the National Closing Date, the main allocation will be based on your address at the closing date, and the address will be updated on any waiting list from National Offer Day, should you not initially have been offered a place. The relevant date for the house move is (if purchasing) exchange of contracts occurring on or before the closing date; (if renting) signed tenancy agreement which commences on or before the closing date.

There is a different appeal process if your child has an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and your application is not successful. The School Appeals Service is unable to hear your appeal under current legislation. Please speak with the SEN team on 01202 456267 if you live in Bournemouth or Christchurch, or the Family Information Service on 01202 261999 if you live in Poole with regards to the appeal process.

If you child is currently being assessed for Special Educational Needs or an EHCP, you can lodge an appeal up until the point the EHCP is issued to your child.

As has happened over a number of previous years, St Peter’s School has received more applications than places available and some children have not been offered a place.

The School only has 240 spaces (for Secondary) and 60 spaces (for Primary) available to offer. It is also relevant which date you applied and which date you provided supporting religious documents. To be considered as applying on time you must have applied to Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council and provided both religious documents to the school by the relevant closing date (Secondary 31 October and Primary 15 January).

All applications and documents are examined by Governors and placed accordingly into one of the categories as listed on the published Admissions Policy. These details are sent to BCP Council which co-ordinates applications using similar lists provided by all other schools and other local Councils to determine which school place to offer to which child.

Full details are published on the Council Statistics Sheet sent to you detailing which category (and distance) each school reached in its offers and which category was the first refused. [For example in September 2023 St Peter’s offered all applicants down to Category 7 applicants with a sibling on roll]. You can check with the Council into which Category your child was placed in and what distance they used for your application and which Category and distance the school reached in its offers.

The Governors decide on the Admission Policy for the year in question having previously undertaken a consultation exercise. Regulations ensure that they must subsequently follow that policy when allocating a category to your child. The resultant list detailing the category allocated to each applicant who applied by the closing date is then sent to BCP Council as detailed above.

BCP council (School Admissions Department) can tell you more in depth about what happens when they receive the list from the school and how where you put St Peter’s School on your list of three preferences effects the school you are offered.

The Governors are bound by the regulations contained in the Admissions Code during the process of dealing with admissions into a school. The Code requires adherence to the closing dates for the receipt of supporting documents as detailed within the policy. If documents are delivered after the closing date, Governors cannot consider them as having arrived on time. There is a separate process in such circumstances, see Question 4 below.

The dates are determined by Bournemouth BCP Council and you can contact them and speak with the Admissions Service at the Town Hall to find out exactly when “late” or “very late” documents will be considered.

You can, if you wish, appeal against the decision not to offer your child a place at St Peter’ s School using the formal appeals process operated by CASAppeals (Year 7 and Reception entry) and BCP Council (IN-Year appeals) on behalf of the school.

After you submit your appeal:

•  BCP Appeals will send you confirmation that they have received your appeal;
• In due course, BCP will email you with a letter giving you at least 14 calendar days’ notice of the date/date range during which your appeal will be heard;
• BCP will send you a copy of the school’s written submission and a copy of the submission you presented to date that the Panel will consider;
• There will be an opportunity for all parents/carers to question the school’s case, the school to question each parent/carer’s case and the Independent Panel to question all cases;
• Once the Panel has all the information, a hearing will take place in line with the legislation set out in the Appeals Code.
• After the appeal hearing, BCP will send you a letter giving the Panel’s decision and detailing their reason for it.

After you submit your appeal:

•  CASAppeals will send you confirmation that they have received your appeal;
• In due course, CASAppeals will email you with a letter giving you at least 14 calendar days’ notice of the date/date range during which your appeal will be heard;
• CASAppeals will send you a copy of the school’s written submission and a copy of the submission you presented to date that the Panel will consider;
• There will be an opportunity for all parents/carers to question the school’s case, the school to question each parent/carer’s case and the Independent Panel to question all cases;
• Once the Panel has all the information, a hearing will take place in line with the legislation set out in the Appeals Code.
• After the appeal hearing, CASAppeals will send you a letter giving the Panel’s decision and detailing their reason for it.

Previous decisions on school admission appeals do not set precedents so no-one can predict whether your appeal will be successful or not.  In addition, school admission appeals are confidential, so you cannot ask to see copies of previous appeals or know why other appeals were successful.  Your appeal will be considered on your own individual circumstances.

If you have changed your mind and no longer wish to go ahead with your appeal, you will need to contact the relevant Appeals Service.

The Panel comprises three trained unpaid members of the public (one or two of whom who may have had experience in the area of education) but none of whom have any connection with the school or the Appeals service.

You are welcome to bring someone with you to the hearing and that person may speak on your behalf if that is your wish. We do not recommend that you bring any children with you to the appeal hearing.

Upon arrival, you will be directed to a waiting area, where the clerk will come and speak you before the hearing. They will invite you and the school representative into the hearing at the same time.

The Chair of the Appeal Panel will welcome you and the school representatives and introduce everyone present before explaining the process of the hearing.

The Panel will listen to your case that your child should be admitted into the School in addition to the full complement offered The Panel members alone decide upon the outcome.

If the appeal hearing is one of many for places at the same school, all the parents appealing will have been invited to be present for the first part of the hearing, to hear the admission authority representative present their case. All parents and the Appeal Panel will be able to ask questions.

The Panel may hear appeals from numerous applicants before deciding which, if any, are to be upheld and thus offered a place. Such a decision may well be made and communicated to you by the Clerk to the Appeals Service several days after your case has been considered. The proposed dates set aside to hear appeals for St Peter’s School are published on the school’s website on the Admission and Appeals webpage.

You can only make one application for appeal each academic year so the earliest opportunity to appeal again would in the following September.

All applicants refused are automatically put onto the waiting list for St Peter’s School. Please be aware however that each applicant must apply to rejoin the waiting list each subsequent academic year and information as to how to rejoin are published each July on the school website on the Admission and Appeal webpage.

You will need to complete and return a Waiting List form and where appropriate a Supplementary Information Form for each new academic year. If you have any questions about the waiting list or the relevant forms please speak with the Admissions Officer or email admissions@st-peters.bourmeouth.sch.uk.

Yes providing that you follow the guidance outlined above under the question My child is very upset — what can I do?

The Council will write to you at the date prescribed by them. Please refer to the previous response.

The Council provides the school with the distance measurement which is taken from your home to the school. For Primary applications the measurement is made to the Primary site at Iford and for Secondary applications to the Secondary site at St Catherine’s Road.

The Council use the same distance measurement tool for all applications and the distances are taken at the same point in time for every application. Please refer to BCP Council if you require more information on this tool.

Please see the answer to the first Question and be aware that The Bishop of Winchester Academy is another faith school in Bournemouth. St Peter’s School is the only Catholic faith secondary school in the entire area, and we also serve the Catholic community in other parts of Dorset and Hampshire.

No this is not appropriate as effectively your appeal is against the school decision and Admission Policy and as such is supported by all staff and Governors of the school.

It is hoped that either the information on our website or the staff at the relevant Appeals Service should be able to answer your queries about the appeal process. If you have concerns about the administration or interpretation of the Admissions Policy you can email the School Admissions Officer on admissions@st-peters.bournemouth.sch.uk who will be able to pass on those concerns on to the relevant person/department.

If your concerns are about the content of the Admission Policy, you should be aware that once the Admission Policy has been consulted, determined and published by the Governing Body it cannot be changed for that year.

If you wish to make comments for Governors to consider when formulating the Admission Policy for any future year, you are welcome to forward suggestions to Mrs Wallace-Abbott on swo@st-peters.bournemouth.sch.uk. Please mark your correspondence “Suggestions for Admission Policy for the attention of Governors”.

You can contact our Admissions Officer either by telephone 01202 421141, extension 2298 or email to admissions@st-peters.bournemouth.sch.uk to find out where your child is on the waiting list at any specific time. Please be aware that places on waiting lists do not remain static as positions may change if other children join the list and go into a higher position on the list than your child.

The PAN refers to the Published Admissions Number i.e. how many children will be admitted into the year group. The PAN for Primary is 60 and for Secondary is 240.

This is how the teaching and other areas within a school are measured against a National recognised system. This is a document that is provided at the appeal and the school will refer to in their case confirming they have no ‘extra’ room within the school to accommodate additional children other than the 240 secondary or 60 primary to whom the offer of a place has already been made.