Admissions

Procedures for Admission into Year 7 – 2026

The admissions authority for George Salter Academy is Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT) who delegate their responsibilities to the governing body. OAT will comply with the national coordinated admissions scheme for Sandwell which requires all parents to complete a preference form provided by the LA. In completing this form, George Salter Academy must be chosen as one of the 6 preferences on the LA form.

To apply for George Salter Academy, parents of prospective students will be required to complete the online Sandwell Common Application Form (CAF). Parents/carers wishing for their child to be considered for a place based on aptitude for Performing Arts must also complete a separate Aptitude Registration Form, available from the Sandwell LA website and the GSA admissions office. If the application is not successful based on Performing Arts aptitude, the application will then be automatically considered using the remaining criteria. Parents/carers should be aware that the Aptitude Registration Form must be returned to George Salter Academy, Davey Road, West Bromwich, West Midlands, B70 9UW by Friday 3rd October 2025. The audition will take place on Saturday 11th October 2025.

The academy will liaise with Sandwell Local Authority and other neighbouring Local Authorities in line with the national coordinated admissions arrangements during the process. Where fewer than 250 applications are received, George Salter Academy will offer places to all those who applied.

Where the number of applications for admission is greater than the published number, applications will be considered against the Oversubscription Criteria below.

If you have any queries regarding Admissions please contact the Academy on 0121 533 4665 ext 5289.

For more detailed information on our admission procedures please see our latest Admissions Policy on our Policies page.

Please see Sandwell LA Admissions website for further information:

https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/school-admissions

If the academy is oversubscribed, after the admission of pupils with a Statement of Special Educational Needs or Education, Health and Care Plan where the academy is named in the Statement or Plan, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in order:

1) A Looked After Child is either a child who is in the care of a local authority, or being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions
(definition used is in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989); or, those children who appear to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. Previously Looked After Children are those who were previously looked after but immediately after being looked after were adopted or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order.

2) Children with a sibling attending the academy at the time the new entrant would start at George Salter. Sibling is defined in these arrangements as children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers or sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters and foster brothers and sisters.

3) Children of staff employed at the Academy or appointed to commence employment at the Academy:
a) Where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made;
b) And/or the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skills shortage.

4) Other children by distance from the academy, with priority for admission given to children who live nearest to the school as measured by using Ordnance Survey data to plot an address in this system. Distances are measured from the main entrance of the child’s home to the main entrance of the academy (Davey Road entrance) as specified in the academy information pack.

Random allocation will be used as a tie-break in category ‘4’ above to decide who has highest priority for admission if the distance between two children’s homes and the academy is the same. This process will be independently verified by an officer of the Local Authority.

If the number of applications is less than the number of spaces, then all children will be offered places.

Annual appeals commence from early May through to the end of July each year. You will be given 10 days’ notice of an appeal hearing date and time. You will be made aware of the decision within five school days unless there is a good reason why the decision has been delayed.

Applications for in-year admissions are considered in the same way as those made at the beginning of the academic year and are dealt with in accordance with the Local Authority’s Mid-Year Admissions Protocol. In-Year admission forms can be can be obtained from the academy or the Local Authority. Applications for young people who are vulnerable or hard to place may be made through the Local Authority’s Fair Access Protocol. Students included in the Fair Access Protocol will take precedence over those held on the waiting list. Once a student has been identified for admission to the academy under the Fair Access Protocol, the academy will notify the Local Authority within seven calendar days of the decision to accept or refuse the student’s admission.

If the academy refuses entry, the Local Authority may request a direction from the Education Funding Agency (on behalf of the Secretary of State). The academy will set out its reasons for refusal in writing to the Local Authority within 15 calendar days (for CLA, this is reduced to seven calendar days). The decision of the Secretary of State will be binding upon the academy.

The Local Authority will, on behalf of the academy, inform the child’s parent if a decision has been made to refuse their child a place at the academy for which they have applied, this will include the reason why admission was refused, information about the right to appeal, deadlines and contact details.

A child is allowed to be on the academy waiting list while lodging an appeal and the appeal will not affect their position on the list. The decision of the appeals panel is binding on the academy.

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