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Determined Sixth Form Admission Policy and Oversubscription Criteria 2026-2027
ADMISSIONS INFORMATION and application process
Determined Admission Arrangements for 2026/27
Entry Criteria
St. Clement Danes School Sixth Form encourages applications from students currently at St. Clement Danes School as well as students from other institutions. All existing St. Clement Danes Year 11 students who apply for a place in the Sixth Form are eligible for a place if they achieve the following minimum criteria. Students in Year 11 at other local schools wishing to enter our Sixth Form will need to fulfil the same criteria. To be eligible for entry into Year 12 students must, as a minimum:
• Attain at least a grade 5 in English Language or English Literature GCSE
• Attain at least a grade 5 in Mathematics GCSE.
• Attain grade 5 or above in at least three other subjects at GCSE.
• Attain the subject specific grade requirements and relevant GCSE Best 9 average point score to access their 3 chosen Level 3 courses; the specific subject and pathway entry requirements for each qualification are published on pages 4-6 of this booklet.
Admissions Numbers
i. All students in Year 11 at St. Clement Danes School who apply for a place in the Sixth Form and who meet the academic entry criteria are entitled to a place in the St. Clement Danes Sixth Form. ii. The minimum number of external applicants to be admitted is 25. The upper limit of successful
Year 12 external applicants will be based, not on total Year 12 numbers projected for the following academic year, but on the planned capacity in a given subject or course.
Offers and Admissions Process:
i. A Sixth Form Open Afternoon for external applicants will be held on the afternoon of Saturday 27th September 2025 and an Open Evening for internal applicants in November 2025. These dates will be confirmed in the local press and on the school website.
ii. External applicants must complete their Sixth Form Application by following the link on the Sixth Form Admissions page of the St Clement Danes website. External applicants will need to provide an appropriate current school email address which we will use to request predicted grades. Internal applicants will be emailed a link to the application form through their school email address. The deadline for all applications is Friday 6th February 2026.
iii. Internal applicants will receive guidance meetings on subjects and pathways prior to completing their Sixth Form application. Where internal applicants’ predicted grades do not meet our admissions requirements, additional guidance and support will be given on alternative post-16 options. Where internal applicants do meet our Sixth Form admissions requirements, they will be offered places, subject to their gaining these requirements when GCSE results are published. iv. If an external applicant’s predicted GCSE grades and predicted Best 9 GCSE average point score, as reported by their current school, meet the entry requirements, they will be eligible for
consideration for a conditional offer of a place, subject to the Oversubscription Criteria stated below. If an external applicant’s predicted grades, as reported by their current school, do not meet the entry requirements, they will not be given a conditional offer of a place but they will be welcome to re-apply to St. Clement Danes Sixth Form after GCSE results are published should there be any available spaces, subject to the Oversubscription Criteria stated below.
v.External candidates whose applications meet the entry requirements may be invited for a meeting with a member of staff in the Spring Term 2026 after receipt of their application to discuss the suitability of their chosen courses.
vi. External applicants whose school’s predicted grades meet the entry criteria at this stage will be sent a conditional offer of a place by the end of April 2026; a formal written acceptance of the offer will be required by the date indicated in the offer. Should a student fail to accept the offer by this date the school may withdraw the conditional offer of a place in the Sixth Form. vii: Both internal and external applicants holding a conditional offer will be invited to attend our Sixth Form Taster Day. The provisional date for this is 23rd June 2026; this date will be confirmed later in the year as it is subject to examination window changes.
viii. When GCSE results have been received in August 2026, all internal and external applicants with Sixth Form offers who have met the entry criteria, will be invited to confirm their GCSE results by 3pm on GCSE Results Day. External applicants must submit their results via the online admissions system. Should a student fail to meet this deadline, the school may withdraw the offer of a place in the Sixth Form.
ix. Should St. Clement Danes Sixth Form have additional spaces available, this fact will be advertised on the school website on the day after GCSE Results Day, and any student meeting the entry criteria will be welcome to apply, subject to the Oversubscription Criteria stated below. Allocation of Places and Oversubscription Criteria for external applicants
In recent years, St. Clement Danes School Sixth Form has been oversubscribed. In the event that there are more qualified external applicants than the minimum number of places available for external admissions, conditional offers will be awarded in the following order of priority. In all cases applicants must meet the Sixth Form entry requirements:
i. Looked After Children/ Previously Looked After Children
Looked after children will be prioritised under this criterion. Priority will also be given to children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted, or became subject to a child arrangement order or a special guardianship order. Children who were not “looked after” immediately before being adopted, or made the subject of a child arrangement order or special guardianship order, will not be prioritised under this criterion.
Children previously looked after from abroad who were cared for by the state because he or she would not otherwise have been cared for adequately and subsequently adopted. Applications for children who have been adopted but were previously looked after abroad (not by an English or Welsh local authority) will be considered under this rule and accepted if the child’s previously looked after status and adoption is confirmed.
The St Clement Danes definition is that given within Section 4 “Educational achievement in England” of The Children & Social Work Act 2017 for “relevant children”: (a) to have been in state care in a place outside England and Wales because he or she would not otherwise have been cared for adequately, and (b) to have ceased to be in that state care as a result of being adopted. A child is in “state care” if he or she is in the care of, or accommodated by: (a) a public authority, (b) a religious organisation, or (c) any other organisation the sole or main purpose of which is to benefit society.
All applications are considered individually but a successful application should include evidence that the child was previously cared for by the state abroad because he or she would not otherwise have been cared for adequately and has been subsequently adopted.
ii.Children of staff employed by the Trustees of Danes Educational Trust at St Clement Danes School (excluding Central Services Staff) will be allocated a place if either or all of the following conditions are met:
a)Where a member of staff has been employed by the Trustees of Danes Educational Trust at St Clement Danes School (excluding Central Services Staff) under a contract of employment for a continuous period of two or more years at the time the application is made.
b)Where the Governors can demonstrate that the member of staff has been recruited to fill a vacant position for which there is a demonstrable skills shortage.
In addition to either (a) or (b) the child must live at the same permanent address as the member of staff.
iv. Places will then be allocated to applicants in distance order between the family’s normal home address and the school. In the event of two applicants living an equal distance from the school (e.g. in a block of flats) the applicants will be ranked numerically by house door number, the lower number taking priority. If the applicants live at equal distances, but in different locations, the place will be allocated by independently verified random allocation.
All applications to St Clement Danes' Sixth Form are made through the “Applicaa” online enrolment platform into which all applicants are required to enter their home address and postcode. Home-school distance is measured using Applicaa’s Distance Calculation feature. This calculates the distance between an applicant’s home and St Clement Danes’ school transparently and accurately. This calculation is based on the latitude and longitude of the position of our school gates and the latitude and longitude of a student’s home address using the official coordinates provided by the Royal Mail’s address database. The “Applicaa” system uses the Haversine calculation which produces an ‘as-the-crow-flies’ calculation which takes into account the curvature of the earth when calculating distances. For more information on the formulae used, you can visit this website:https://www.rubydoc.info/github/alexreisner/geocoder/Geocoder%2FCalculations:distance _between
The Governors will meet their legal obligation to allocate a place to an applicant who has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) that names St Clement Danes School. These children will be admitted as part of the schools published admissions number before the oversubscription criteria are used.
Places will be offered using the oversubscription criteria until planned capacity in a given subject or course is reached and the school reserves the right to refuse access to subjects when planned classes are full.
Closing Dates
Internal applications received by the closing date will be considered before all subsequent external applications. There will be no formal offer letter to internal students as all St Clement Danes Year 11 students are entitled to a place in the Sixth Form as long as the entry requirements are achieved.
Sixth Form applications should be submitted by Friday 6th February 2026. All post-application communication, including any queries after GCSE Results Day, must be made by email to sixthformadmissions@scd.herts.sch.uk. Please note that applications from students wishing to repeat Year 12 will not be considered. Please also note that it is the Governors’ policy that students will be taught within their normal age group. Applications from students outside their normal age group will only be considered if a valid statement explaining extenuating personal circumstances is submitted with the application.
For external students who are given conditional offers of entry to our Sixth Form for Autumn 2025, the Governors of the school may withdraw an offer of a place if an applicant has failed to confirm their GCSE results and their uptake of a place by 3pm on GCSE Results Day. Similarly, the Governors will withdraw a place that has been offered on the basis of a fraudulent or intentionally misleading
application from a parent or student. If an application is refused, there is a statutory right of appeal. Further details of the appeal procedure will be provided with the letter explaining why the application has been refused. Appeals against non-admissions may be lodged by the parent or the student.
Governors’ Admissions Committee St Clement Danes School - January 2025