Admission to secondary school letter
This letter contains important information for parents and carers of pupils currently in Year 6 of primary school.
If your child is due to transfer from a primary school to Year 7 at a secondary school in September 2021, you must complete an application. You are able to apply online.
If you have already signed up to My Account on the Bridgend County Borough Council website, you will need to log in and you can then complete an online application for a secondary school place.
If you have not already signed up to My Account, you can create your account from the Bridgend County Borough Council website. All you need is an email address.
It is quick and easy to apply for a Year 7 secondary school place through My Account and you can have peace of mind knowing that your application has been received because once you have submitted the application, this will be indicated in your My Account summary information.
The online application works equally as well across computer, tablet or mobile. Before you complete an application, please read the guidance on the schools admissions webpage.
The application is also available as a hardcopy form upon request, either from your local school
or from Bridgend County Borough Council on telephone number 01656 643643.
The online application will be available through My Account from Monday, 19 October 2020 at 10am.
Please note that the deadline date for completed applications is Friday, 22 January 2021 at 4pm. Failure to submit an application by this date and time may result in your child being refused a place at the school of your choice.
All parents/carers have the right to express a preference for the school they wish their child to attend. In most cases, parents/carers are happy to choose their nearest suitable school, also known as the catchment school.
However, if you are successful in applying for a place at a school that is not your catchment school, the Council will not normally provide free transport, irrespective of the distance from home to the school. Home-to-school/college Transport Policy.
Where a school is oversubscribed, ie the demand for places is greater than the number of places available, the Council will apply its oversubscription criteria to allocate the places available.
It is strongly recommended that you select another school as your second preference school. This can be the catchment school for your child or another non-catchment school. Limiting your choice to just one school does not improve your prospects of gaining a place for your child in that school.
Please note that there is no automatic right for pupils with siblings in a school to be allocated a place at that school. The Council’s School Admissions Policy 2021-2022 identifies the full list of oversubscription criteria that will be applied when allocating school places.
The governing body of Archbishop McGrath Catholic High School is the admission authority with responsibility for all admission arrangements for that school.
Therefore, if you wish to apply for a place at that school, you will need to contact the school directly. The admission criteria for Archbishop McGrath Catholic High School are different from the criteria for the other secondary schools in Bridgend.
A copy of the Council’s ‘Starting School’ booklet 2021 to 2022 (.PDF 684KB), which outlines the admissions policy and provides other information in relation to the services provided for children and parents/carers, is available on the schools admissions webpage. Please telephone 01656 643643 to request a hardcopy.
If you should require further, specific information in relation to the admissions process, please email pupilservices@bridgend.gov.uk