Admissions criteria for entry September 2020

ANTRIM GRAMMAR SCHOOL Controlled Grammar School

Steeple Road (Non-denominational)
Antrim BT41 1AF
Telephone: Antrim (028) 9446 4091 Age Range of pupils: 11-18
E-Mail:info@antrimgrammar.antrim.ni.sch.uk
Website: www.antrimgrammar.org Admissions No: 112
Principal: Mrs J Lendrum, BA(Hons), MEd, PQH(NI)
Chairman of the Board of Governors: Mr Roger McCune, MBE Enrolment No: 740

Open Day:
The School will be open for visits by pupils and prospective parents on
Saturday, 11th January 2020, 9.00 a.m. to 12.15 p.m.
Principal’s Address: 9.15 a.m. and 11.00 a.m.

ADMISSIONS CRITERIA FOR ENTRY INTO YEAR 8

To Parents/Guardians naming Antrim Grammar School as a preference on your child’s Transfer Form.
Entrance Test Results
Antrim Grammar School will consider the outcome of a pupil’s performance in either the AQE assessment or
the GL assessment. On the Transfer Form parents should provide details of the candidate number issued to
their child by AQE and/or GLA when they were registered for the assessment.
Parents should attach the original AQE results form or a copy of the GLA results form (or both where an
applicant has sat both assessments) to the Transfer Form.
Special Circumstances and/or Special Provisions
If you are making a claim for your child to be considered under Special Circumstances or Special Provisions
please note that you are required to provide documentation, as described in the Admissions Criteria below,
and attach it to the Transfer Form.
It is the responsibility of parents and guardians to ensure that all relevant information to an application for
Special Circumstances or Special Provision is included in the appropriate claim form for AQE and/or GL
Assessment and attached to the Transfer Form.
Respective functions of the Board of Governors and Principal in relation to Admissions to the School
Antrim Grammar School (the School) is a co-educational, interdenominational school with an Enrolment Number
of 740 and an Admissions Number of 112.
In the event of the School being oversubscribed the Board of Governors has approved the criteria described below
and has delegated the task of applying these criteria to the Admissions Sub Committee. Decisions in respect of
“Special Circumstances” and “Special Provisions” are taken by the Admissions Sub Committee to whom decision-
making powers have been delegated by the full Board of Governors of the School. Further reference, therefore, to
the Board of Governors may imply the Admissions Sub Committee.
Admissions Criteria to be applied to all applications
For the academic year 2020 - 2021 Antrim Grammar School will continue to use academic criteria in the first instance to
select pupils. The School will consider applications from children who have taken the entrance assessments anywhere in
Northern Ireland provided by the Association for Quality Education (AQE) or GL Assessment (GLA), subject only to the
consideration of those children claiming “Special Provisions”, as defined below.
Consideration will also be given to those children claiming “Special Circumstances”, as defined below, in respect of
medical or other problems which may have affected performance in the AQE or GLA entrance assessments.
Antrim Grammar School will not use as a criterion the position of preference given to the school on the Transfer
Form; for example, a child who has chosen the School as a second preference school will be considered in the same
way as all first preference applications.
1. Applicants will be allocated to a Band in the order stated below: all applicants allocated to Band I will be admitted
before those allocated to Band II, Band II before Band III and so forth. There is no requirement that an applicant
should sit both the AQE and GL entrance assessments. However, in the case of an applicant who sits both
assessments, the School will consider whichever outcome places the applicant in the higher Band.

AQE will provide parents with an age adjusted Standardised Score for each applicant who has taken that
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Admissions criteria for entry September 2020

assessment in Northern Ireland in 2019. The School will use this Standardised Score as set out in the Table
below, and allocate pupils to a Band accordingly.
AQE Standardised Score
Band I 106 or above
Band II 103 – 105
Band III 99 – 102
Band IV 94 – 98
Band V 88 – 93
Band VI 87 or below
GLA will provide the results of the entrance assessment to parents as a Standardised Age Score, a Grade and a Cohort
Percentile. The School will use the Cohort Percentile to allocate pupils to a Band as outlined below.
GL Cohort Percentile
Band I 60 or above
Band II 50 - 59
Band III 40 - 49
Band IV 30 - 39
Band V 20 - 29
Band VI 19 or below
2. In the event of there being more applicants within any of the above bands than places available, or should any
further places remain to be filled, the criteria outlined below will apply in the order stated:-
(i) Children who have a sibling¹ currently attending the school;
(ii) Children who are the eldest/only² child of the family;
(iii) Applicant attends a Primary School which is a recognised feeder school to Antrim Grammar School (see
note 2)
(iv) Children whose home address, as indicated at the commencement of the Transfer Application Form, is
within the Antrim/Newtownabbey Borough Council area; (see note 1)
(v) Applicant is entitled to Free School Meals. The definition of Free School Meals (FSM) is a child who is listed on
the Education Authority register as entitled to FSM at the date on which their parent/guardian signs the
Transfer Form or at any date prior to and including 24th April 2020 (not later than 4pm).
(vi) In the unlikely event of a tiebreaker being applied, a final random selection will be used. Each application
at this stage will be allocated a random number electronically generated with Microsoft Excel. The
applications will then be ranked in order, with the higher numbers having preference.
¹ Where applicable “sibling” is defined as another child of the family [Article 2(2) of the Domestic
proceedings (NI) Order 1980] to include, for example, half-brothers and sisters, together with children
who are adopted or fostered.
² Twins and other multiples who are eldest in the family are treated as joint eldest children. Eldest child to
apply to a mainstream school.
Special Circumstances and Special Provisions - General Information (see note 1)

The purpose of a claim for Special Circumstances and/or Special Provisions is so that a child can be assigned a score and
hence placed into the appropriate band equivalent to that which the child would have obtained in the AQE or GL
assessments under normal conditions.

Consideration of a claim for Special Circumstances and/or Special Provisions consists of two parts: the first requires the
consideration of whether there is sufficient evidence to permit a child to be considered as having Special Circumstances
or attracting Special Provisions, or both. If a child is permitted to be considered as having Special Circumstances or as
attracting Special Provisions or both, the second part of the consideration requires an educational judgement to be made
on the totality of the material presented to the School so that a score and hence placed into the appropriate band
equivalent to that which the child would have obtained in the AQE or GL assessments under normal conditions can be
awarded.

It is for parents/guardians to present all such material as they consider will assist the school in performing both
parts of the consideration described above. All such material should be attached to the Transfer Form. It should be
noted by parents/guardians that both parts of the consideration referred to involve an exercise in judgement and
not precise calculation.

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Admissions criteria for entry September 2020

Where the problem is a medical one of short term duration which affected the applicant only at the time of the
AQE/GL, the School will give greater weight to evidence that the applicant was examined by a medical practitioner
in relation to the illness at the time of the assessment.

Where the problem is of a non-medical nature the parents should append appropriate evidence.

Educational Evidence to be provided in support of a claim for Special Circumstances and/or Special Provisions

In reaching the educational judgement needed to award the mark that the child would have obtained in the AQE
or GL assessments under normal circumstances, the Admissions Sub Committee will consider any material
presented by parents/guardians (and attached to the Transfer Form) in support of the application. This material
may include any or all of the following:

(i) The score achieved in the AQE or GL assessments;

(ii) The results for the child of any standardised tests conducted in Year 5, Year 6 and Year 7 and the results in
any end of year tests, conducted in Years 5 and 6, in English and Mathematics;
(iii) Comparative information from the Primary School, including the results, without names, for other children
in the child’s Year 7 class of any standardised tests conducted in Year 5, Year 6 and Year 7 and the results in
any end of year tests, conducted in Years 5 and 6, in English and Mathematics and where available, the
respective AQE or GLA score awarded;
(iv) Any other relevant material.
Parents/Guardians are free to provide any other educational evidence for consideration by the Admissions Sub
Committee by attaching it to the Transfer Form and Form SC19. The Admissions Sub Committee will consider all
evidence provided in exercising its judgement in order to award a score to the applicant, and hence place them into
the appropriate band.
It is the responsibility of the parents to provide the educational evidence. Where such information is unavailable,
for good reason, the Governors reserve the right to make a decision based on the information available and may
use historical and comparative data collected from other schools.
It should be noted that in all cases independent evidence will carry greater weight.
Special Circumstances (see note 1)
The School has academic performance as its first criterion, subject only to the consideration of medical or other
problems which may have affected performance in the AQE or GL assessments and which are supported by
documentary evidence of a medical or other appropriate nature. These ‘medical or other problems’ are commonly
referred to as ‘special circumstances'.
Please note:
 if a claim for the consideration of Special Circumstances is made in respect of matters for which Special Access
arrangements were granted for a child, the School will take into account the fact that the child was granted
Special Access arrangements for those matters.
Parents/Guardians who wish to apply to the School under Special Circumstances should complete the relevant
forms, stating the precise reason why they believe the child should be considered for Special Circumstances and
attach it with appropriate evidence to the Transfer Form.
Details of Medical or Other Problems
Where it is claimed that a child’s performance in the AQE or GL assessments has been affected by a medical or other
problem, it is the responsibility of the parents/guardians to set out in the relevant form precise details of the
problem and append evidence to corroborate its existence.
Where the problem is a medical one of short term duration which affected the child only at the time of the
assessments, parents/guardians should be aware that the school will attach greater weight to evidence indicating that
the child was examined by a medical practitioner in relation to the illness at the time of the assessments.

Where the problem is of a non-medical nature the parents/guardians should set out in the relevant form precise
details of the problem and append appropriate evidence.

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Admissions criteria for entry September 2020

It should be noted that in all cases independent evidence will carry greater weight.

The Admissions Sub Committee will consider the application for Special Circumstances. Where Special
Circumstances are accepted, the Admissions Sub Committee will determine, on the basis of the information
available, an appropriate AQE or GL score for the child and hence placed into the appropriate band. Such children
will then be considered with all other children who have received an AQE or GL score and put into the appropriate
band and the Admissions Criteria applied.

Special Provisions (see note 1)

Special Provisions will apply for:

(a) children whose parents/guardians wish them to transfer from schools outside Northern Ireland;
or
(b) children who have received more than half their primary education outside Northern Ireland; or

(c) children, entered for assessment, who because of unforeseen and serious medical or other problems which
are supported by appropriate independent documentary evidence, were unable to participate in any of the
assessments.

Parents/Guardians who wish to apply to the School under Special Provisions should contact the school as soon as
possible. In addition, they should complete the necessary AQE or GL form, stating the precise reason why they
believe the child is eligible for consideration under Special Provisions and attach it with appropriate independent
documentary evidence to the Transfer Form.

The Admissions Sub Committee of the Board of Governors will consider the application for Special Provisions.
Where Special Provisions are accepted, the Admissions Sub Committee will determine, on the basis of the
information available, the appropriate score for the child and hence placed into the appropriate band and the
Admissions criteria applied.

Admissions to Year 8 following completion of the Transfer Procedure

Should the Board of Governors determine that a child who has arrived in Northern Ireland after the Transfer Process has
been concluded is suitable for admission, and the Schools Admissions Number has been reached, it will seek approval
from the Department of Education to admit the child through the allocation of an additional place.

Parents/Guardians who wish to have their child considered for admission in the event of a place arising after the
Transfer Procedure concludes at the end of May should write to the Principal stating this. An acknowledgement will
be issued. If any place(s) subsequently become available and there are more applicants than places available, then
decisions will be made on application of the Year 8 Admissions Criteria to those children seeking admission at the
time the place(s) become available.

Note 1: Verification of Information

As the School has a duty to verify information please note that applicants may be required to produce evidence
confirming the accuracy of the information contained within the application. This includes information related to
the Criteria for Admissions and for any claim in relation to Special Circumstances or Special Provision.

The provision of false or incorrect information or the failure to provide verifying documents according to the
required deadline may result in either the withdrawal of a place or the School being unable to offer a place.

Note 2: Feeder Primary Schools

Feeder schools will be ranked according to the average number of pupils who have transferred from each
contributory school to Antrim Grammar School over the preceding three years, those with higher numbers having
precedence. The table below is not an exclusive list of feeder primary schools but shows the main primary schools
from which pupils were admitted during the preceding three-year period.

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Admissions criteria for entry September 2020

The schools listed below are the main primary schools which sent pupils to Antrim Grammar School in the
previous three years, ranked in accordance with the actual number of pupils so sent, but so that a pupil from the
school named at paragraph 2.1(iii).1 will be admitted before a pupil from the school named at paragraph 2.1(iii).2,
and so on.
Rank Feeder School Name
2.1 (iii).1 Antrim Primary School
2.1 (iii).2 St Comgall’s Primary School
2.1 (iii).3 Loanends Primary School
2.1 (iii).4= Round Tower Integrated Primary School
2.1 (iii).4= Templepatrick Primary School
2.1 (iii).6 St Joseph’s Primary School, Crumlin
2.1 (iii).7 Crumlin Integrated Primary School
2.1 (iii).8 St Joseph’s Primary School, Antrim
2.1 (iii).9 Parkhall Primary School
2.1 (iii).10 Ballycraigy Primary School
2.1 (iii).11 Greystone Primary School
2.1 (iii).12 Creavery Primary School
2.1 (iii) 13= Randalstown Central Primary School
2.1 (iii) 13= Sixmile Integrated Primary School
2.1 (iii) 15= Groggan Primary School
2.1 (iii) 15= Parkgate Primary School
2.1 (iii) 17= Ashgrove Primary School
2.1 (iii) 17= Ballyhenry Primary School
2.1 (iii) 17= Mossgrove Primary School
2.1 (iii) 20= Ballycarrickmaddy Primary School
2.1 (iii) 20= Glengormley Integrated Primary School
2.1 (iii) 20= McKinney Primary School
2.1 (iii) 23= Ballymacrickett Primary School
2.1 (iii) 23= Carnmoney Primary School
2.1 (iii) 23= Doagh Primary School
2.1 (iii) 23= Kells and Connor Primary School
2.1 (iii) 23= King’s Park Primary School
2.1 (iii) 23= Mossley Primary School
2.1 (iii) 23= Straidhavern Primary School
2.1 (iii) 30= Longstone Primary School
2.1 (iii) 30= Maine Integrated Primary School
2.1 (iii) 30= Moira Primary School
2.1 (iii) 30= Moorfields Primary School
2.1 (iii) 30= St Brigid’s Primary School
2.1 (iii) 30= St Mary’s on the Hill Primary School
2.1 (iii) 30= St Patrick’s Primary School
2.1 (iii) 30= Seaview Primary School
2.1 (iii) 30= The Thompson Primary School
2.1 (iii) 30= Whitehead Primary School
2.1 (iii) 30= Woods Primary School
When considering which children should be selected for admission, the Board of Governors will only take into
account information which is detailed on or attached to the Transfer Form. Parents/Guardians should therefore
ensure that all information pertaining to their child and relevant to the school’s Admissions Criteria is stated on
the Transfer Form or attached to it.

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Admissions criteria for entry September 2020

Number of Applications and Admissions

Total Applications
Year Admissions No. Total Admissions
All Preferences
2017/18 112 159 112
2018/19 112 164 113
2019/20 136 197 138
This table does not include children who were admitted to the school with a statement of special educational needs.
Details in relation to scores/grades accepted are available in the School prospectus.

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Admissions criteria for entry September 2020

ADMISSION TO YEAR 9-12

INTRODUCTION
Antrim Grammar School (the School) is a co-educational, inter-denominational school with an Enrolment Number of 740
and an Admissions Number of 112.
The Board of Governors has approved the criteria described below and has delegated the task of applying these criteria to
the Principal. Further reference, therefore, to the Board of Governors may imply the Admissions Sub Committee or the
Principal.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Applications should be made, in writing, to the School using Annex B form as appropriate. All those seeking Admission will
be required to sit a Cognitive Ability Test and to provide the most recent reports from their present school.
Following receipt of an application, the School will advise parents as to the next steps to be taken and will notify them,
within ten working days of the applicant sitting the admissions test, of any decision to admit the child or otherwise. It should
be noted that those who have made an application, but have failed to obtain a place in the School, will be placed on a
reserve list until 1st May following their application, at which time their application is deemed to have lapsed.

ADMISSIONS CRITERIA TO BE APPLIED TO ALL APPLICATIONS

In the event that a place becomes available, all applications on the reserve list will be considered.
Applications will only be considered if places are available within the School Enrolment Number of 740. The maximum
number of places per year, other than in exceptional circumstances, is 115 places, subject to an overall enrolment number
of 740. Applications to Years 11 and 12 are also conditional upon places being available within classes to support the child’s
subject choices.
If the number of applications is greater than can be admitted within the School Enrolment Number the following criteria will
be applied progressively in the order set down below:-
1. Children who have sat a Cognitive Ability Test, as directed by Antrim Grammar School, and been awarded a mean
SAS score in Quantitative and Verbal greater than or equal to 105 will be considered before other children
2. Children whose most recent reports from their present school (and previous schools, if applicable) satisfy the Principal
on past school record and achievement, including attendance, behaviour and punctuality, will be considered before
other children. (A satisfactory attendance rate would be 95% or higher). In the case of children whose attendance
may have been affected by clearly documented medical or other problems, the Principal is empowered, in exceptional
circumstances, to consider this. Each case will be carefully assessed by the Principal and will necessarily take into
account appropriate documentary evidence, medical or otherwise. In such a case the decision of the Principal will be
final;
3. Children who have become resident in the Antrim and Newtownabbey Council area within three months of the date
of consideration of their application will be considered before other children;
4. If after all the criteria above have been exhausted it becomes necessary to make a final selection, priority will be
given to a child whose home is closer to the School. Distance will be measured in a straight line using an Ordnance
Survey web distance measurement tool from the pupil’s home to the front entrance of the School.

ADMISSIONS FOLLOWING 1st SEPTEMBER of any academic year

Should the Board of Governors determine that a child who has moved into the Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council
area after the Admissions process has been concluded, and for whom a suitable curriculum can be provided with existing
resources, is suitable for admission, and that our Enrolment Number has been reached, it will seek approval from the
Department of Education to admit the child through allocation of an additional place.

Updated November 2019 www.eani.org.uk/admissions