ESSENTIAL LOCAL EDUCATION AUTHORITY (LEA)
INFORMATION FOR PARENTS
Secondary Education in Essex Academic Year 2010/2011
For more information go to: www.essexcc.gov.uk/admissions
Common Application Forms (CAFS) and Supplementary Information Forms (SIFs)
Parents living in Essex must apply to Essex County Council for their preferred secondary schools. The Essex Common Application Form (CAF) is the only way you can apply for a secondary school place for your child. The CAF can either be completed and submitted online at www.essexcc.gov.uk/admissions or you can complete and return the form in the centre of the LEA Secondary School Admission booklet. Please do not do both. Please contact School Admissions and Transport if you do not receive an acknowledgement (contact details are on page 78 of the LEA booklet).
Some schools will need extra information to rank your application against their admission criteria after you have made an application. These schools will ask you to complete a Supplementary Information Form (SIF). Most schools of a religious character will ask you to complete a SIF, as will those schools that have partial selection by aptitude or ability. If you are applying for a place at a selective school (grammar school) in Essex or Southend you must put that school as one of your choices on your CAF. The Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE) will require you to complete a SIF to register your child to take the 11+ test and give information related to this. Where a SIF is required, this is made clear in the school’s admissions policy in the LEA booklet (pages 27-75).
Please remember that completing a SIF on its own is not an application – you must complete the Common Application Form and send it to the LEA. The closing date for all applications whether online or paper is yet to be advised. Once the closing date is published, applications received after this closing date will normally be treated as late and will receive a lower priority (see page 14 of the LEA booklet).
For all community and voluntary controlled schools, for applications made in the normal admissions round, a relevant sibling is a child who has a brother, sister, stepbrother or stepsister living in the same family unit in the same family household and address who attends the preferred school in any year group excluding the final year. Biological siblings who attend the preferred school in any year group excluding the final year will also be treated as siblings irrespective of place of residence. Children residing in the same household as part of an extended family, such as cousins, will not be treated as siblings. Biological siblings who attend the preferred school will be treated as siblings irrespective of their place of residence. For 11-18 schools, a sibling link to a child in Year 11 or Year 12 at the time of application and determination will be taken to exist where there is a reasonable expectation that the child will be returning to the school for a post 16 course of study. Foundation and voluntary aided schools may have different definitions of a sibling. If you are in any doubt please contact the school.
NB Parents include guardians and carers
NB If you live in Essex you will pay your council tax to one of the following Borough Councils - Basildon, Braintree, Brentwood, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Colchester, Epping Forest, Harlow, Maldon, Rochford, Tendring or Uttlesford.
