Admissions Policy – Grow Your Potential

GROW YOUR POTENTIAL

Admissions Policy

ADMISSIONS ARRANGEMENTS 2023/2024

General

Grow Your Potential CIC is a publicly funded, co-educational, independent education provision. It has 30 places available per week for learners aged 11-16.

Grow Your Potential CIC seeks to help some of the most educationally disengaged learners in Bedfordshire, offering them a chance to progress in their education and secure a better future for themselves and their families.

Grow Your Potential CIC welcome all learners who have the potential to benefit from our provision, and will work with them to address their circumstances and overcome any barriers to progression.

Responsibility for the admission of learner’s rests with Grow Your Potential CIC SLT Team. All referrals and applications for places at the Grow Your Potential CIC provision will be considered in accordance with the arrangements set out below.

Admission Process

Grow Your Potential CIC is not a regular school. It is an alternative form of education for learners who have disengaged with mainstream schooling and need a different environment and curriculum to help them attain. This means that the provision is not suitable for every learner. As such, the admissions process for Grow Your Potential CIC for learners is different from that of a mainstream school.

The Local Authority, or local schools, must refer learners to Grow Your Potential CIC through a process called ‘commissioning’. This ensures the safety of our cohort by ensuring that risk assessments are accurate for each learner and a support plan is in place to meet individual needs.

In exceptional circumstances Grow Your Potential CIC may accept referrals directly from Parents and other local services such as; Social Care, Virtual Schools, Early Help. If this was to occur Grow Your Potential CIC will inform the local authority and relevant agencies.

Commissioning Process

There are two routes by which learners can be referred to Grow Your Potential CIC provision. These are set out below:

ACE

Through this process, ACE will consider the best pathway for the learner following a decision by the LA commissioning under its duties under section 19 of the Education Act 1996, and place them with An Alternative Provider.
ACE and Grow Your Potential CIC will review the best pathway for the learner. This will then be discussed with the parents and learner at an admission meeting before the referral is complete.
If Grow Your Potential CIC is deemed appropriate, the learner will come on to the Grow Your Potential CIC roll, with Grow Your Potential CIC becoming a part time education provision for the learner.
Financial arrangements will be made between Grow Your Potential CIC and ACE

School as Commissioner

Schools can commission Grow Your Potential CIC to provide alternative provision on a part time basis for those learners they deem need an alternative environment and curriculum to succeed.
The school and Grow Your Potential CIC will review the best pathway for the learner. This will then be discussed with the parents and learner at an admission meeting before the referral is complete.
Where necessary the schools will work with ACE to make financial arrangements.
The learner may remain on the school’s roll, or may be designated as ‘dual registered’. This will be agreed between the school, Grow Your Potential CIC and where necessary with ACE on a case by case basis and all such decisions will comply with the requirements of section 434 of the Education Act 1996.

Where an initial discussion has taken place, either through the ACE partnership or with a school, and there has been no further contact from the referrer in respect to the Learner taking up the provision place, the parent or referrer has 7 working days from the date of the initial discussion to inform Grow Your Potential CIC as to their decision. After 7 working days with no contact, Grow Your Potential CIC will assume that the provisional place is no longer required for that learner and may offer that place to another learner.

Ensuring learners are registered and information is shared

Grow Your Potential CIC will ensure that learners are appropriately registered. In the case of a fixed period exclusion or an off- site direction, the excluded learner should remain on the register of the excluding school as they are expected to return when the exclusion period is completed and should also be registered with the alternative provision (dual registered). In the case of a permanent exclusion, the excluded learner should be removed from the excluding school’s register and be referred to ACE

As far as is reasonably practicable, in agreeing contractual arrangements with Commissioners Grow Your Potential CIC will request appropriate information on the needs and prior attainment of learners who will attend the alternative provision. Such information will include prior grades and attainment, additional support required and exclusions information as a minimum.

Grow Your Potential CIC will provide regular feedback to a Commissioner (and in any event when requested by the Commissioner to do so) on progress made by the learner, the learner’s needs and attainment.

Over Subscription Criteria

There will be a fair, transparent and objective process for considering whether the education provided will be appropriate for prospective learners. There will be meeting with the learner, parent, school and Grow Your Potential CIC to agree the most appropriate education programme. This will be documented in a standard Grow Your Potential CIC form to which all parties will have the opportunity to input and review.

If there are more requests for referrals than there are places at any particular time, and after the admission of learners with a statement of special education needs where Grow Your Potential CIC is named on the statement, places will be allocated as follow

Children in public care (children looked after by a local authority under section 22 of the Children Act 1989). As per the standard admissions process prior to oversubscription, the school and Grow Your Potential CIC will review the best pathway for the learner. This will then be discussed with the parents and learner at an admission meeting before the referral is complete.
A detailed review of each request will be made by the Senior Leadership Team at Grow Your Potential CIC looking at a number of factors to determine the best fit. This review will be documented and submitted to the Directors with a recommendation.

Waiting list

In addition to the right to appeal, unsuccessful applicants will be offered an opportunity to be placed on the Waiting List. The order of the Waiting List will be determined in accordance with the over-subscription criteria above.

Appeal Procedures

If a parent, carer, commissioning school or commissioning body is not satisfied with the decision on whether to admit a learner to Grow Your Potential CIC, they should write to the Directors setting out the reasons why they are not satisfied within 21 days of the decision being made. The Directors will review the matter and respond in writing within 21 days from receipt of the letter.

Should the party still not be satisfied, Grow Your Potential CIC will make provision for an Independent Appeal Panel to be established to hear the appeal.

Accommodating learners with special / additional educational needs, disabilities and / or English as an additional language.

Grow Your Potential CIC will, subject to its right of appeal to the Secretary of State in relation to a named learner, admit all learners with a statement of special educational needs naming the alternative provision Academy.

Where learners are admitted to Grow Your Potential CIC with existing statements of special educational need, we will work closely with other agencies where necessary / specified to fulfil the learner’s potential, in line with their statement.

As stated in our SEN Policy, Grow Your Potential CIC is committed to providing a suitably tailored and progressive programme for all learners. Particulars of the Grow Your Potential CIC SEN and Disabilities and Inclusion Policy are available from request from Grow Your Potential CIC.

Where there may be mobility or accessibility requirements we ask that referring schools / agencies contact Grow Your Potential CIC well in advance to discuss solutions to fulfilling those requirements.

Grow Your Potential