LAGAN COLLEGE

44 MANSE ROAD

LISNABREENY

BELFAST BT8 6SA

Telephone No: 028 90401810

Email: info@lagancollege.belfast.ni.sch.uk

Website: www.lagancollege.com

Principal: Mrs A McNamee, MBE, BA, PGCE, MEd, PQH(NI)

Chairman Board of Governors: Mr Francis Martin, CBE, FCA BSSc. Dip Acc. MBA FIMC

GRANT MAINTAINED INTEGRATED SCHOOL

AGE RANGE: 11-18

ADMISSIONS NO: 220

ENROLMENT NO: 1300

Lagan College is an integrated, all-ability, co-educational school. In response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, it has an all-ability entry for 2022.

OPEN DAY INFORMATION AND PROSPECTUS In line with Government guidance, we are unable to hold our annual Open Morning as normal. Instead, P7 students and their families should refer to our school website from 17 January 2022 to access a virtual copy of our school prospectus and welcome material. 

Parents/carers are also welcome to telephone the school office for any further enquiries.

Important Parent(s)/Carer(s) Information

Prior to the two Covid disrupted school years, Lagan College used the outcome of AQE or GL Assessment as part of our Admissions Policy, Stage I Grammar entry, representing 35% of our annual intake of children each year. The continued Covid 19 pandemic has had a major impact on all our lives, including all P7 children, who were absent from school between January 2021 and April 2021, with continued disruption at present to some P7 students.

In response to these exceptional circumstances, Lagan College’s Board of Governors has decided for a further exceptional year, not to accept any form of academic selection as part of its Transfer Process 2022.

Therefore, the school will be using its All-Ability Entry Criteria for 100% of the admissions criteria for entry into Year 8 in September 2022.

We wish to assure all parent(s)/carer(s) that as an all ability school, we will continue to care for and meet the needs of children of all abilities, at a learning pace that is appropriate to help each individual child flourish and achieve their potential. On entry into the College students will be streamed using information supplied by their parent(s)/carer(s) and Primary School.

RESPECTIVE FUNCTIONS OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS AND PRINCIPAL IN RELATION TO ADMISSIONS TO THE COLLEGE

Lagan College’s Board of Governors has drawn up the Admissions Criteria and Policy and delegates to an Admissions Sub-Committee, which includes the Principal and at least two Governors and Administration Staff, the responsibility for applying the Admissions criteria to any Transfer applications received. Any reference herein to the term the Board of Governors includes any Committee or Sub-Committee appointed by the Board of Governors for the purposes of applying the Admissions criteria set out herein, which is finally ratified by the full Board of Governors.

Admissions Policy

In the event of the College receiving more applications than can be accommodated within the admissions number, determined by the Department of Education, the following policy and admissions criteria will be applied.

The aim of the Admissions Policy is to achieve as even a balance as possible in the all ability intake with regard to religious denomination.

Lagan College is a grant maintained integrated school as defined by the Education Reform (NI) Order 1989 and the Board of Governors is required to ensure that 'the management, control and ethos of the school are such as are likely to attract reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic students’. The Board of Governors of Lagan College considers that this is the pre-eminent feature which distinguishes an integrated school from all other schools and will operate the criteria as outlined below in such a way as to effect an intake which is as close as possible to a ratio of 50% Catholic and 50% Protestant. The College will also admit a proportion of students from other or no religious backgrounds. The proportion of such students will not exceed 20% of the total enrolment in any year.

Therefore, in the application of the criteria set out below, the Board of Governors will seek to reflect in the total number admitted an overall balance between religious affiliations. The criteria for the All Ability Entry of the admissions procedure set out below will be applied first to 'Other' or no religious affiliations in the order set down and a maximum of 20% of the available places will be awarded to this group. The meaning of 'Other' below includes both those whose religious affiliation is to a religious group which is other than Roman Catholic or Protestant and also those who have no religious affiliation.

The remaining places will be divided equally between Protestant and Roman Catholic applicants. In the event of less than 20% of places being awarded to applicants of 'Other' religious affiliations or none, the balance will be divided equally between Protestant and Roman Catholic applicants. In the event of an odd number of places remaining in this division, an additional place will be allocated to either the Protestant or Roman Catholic group, whichever having the greater number of applicants.

The criteria set out below will then be applied separately to the Protestant group and Roman Catholic group of applicants. In the event of there being fewer applicants from either group than there are places available for it, then the balance of places will be allocated to the other (Protestant or Roman Catholic) group.

Religious affiliation will be determined by information supplied on the Official Transfer Application. It is the responsibility of parents/carers to designate students using the wording ‘Catholic’, ‘Protestant’ or ‘Other’ to categorise their child’s religion.

Religious Affiliation is Required on the Transfer Application

The onus is on a parent or carer to make clear under which religious category they wish their child’s application to be considered. This will be determined by the following in the order given:

A. (1) Religious affiliation stated on the electronic transfer form, by the parent(s)/carer(s).

(2) In the absence of (1 above) the type of primary school which the student attended (ie controlled or maintained) will be used to determine the religious affiliation; The Board of Governors will regard pupils attending a Catholic Maintained School as ‘Catholic’ pupils and pupils attending a Controlled school as 'Protestant'.

(3) In the absence of (1 and 2 above) in the case of students transferring from a controlled integrated primary school, grant maintained integrated primary school, Irish Medium School and/or the preparatory department of a voluntary grammar school, the school will be asked to supply such information concerning the religious affiliation of the pupil. If the school is unable to or unwilling to supply the information, the Board of Governors will consider the pupil’s religious affiliation category to be ‘Other’.

B. The College seeks to preserve its co-educational nature. To that end, applications are welcomed equally from girls and boys.

C. The College will also apply its admissions criteria in such a way as to preserve its all-ability nature and achieve a distribution of academic ability. To that end, applications will be considered as follows:

All-Ability Entry (100% of the intake, selected with no reference to the GL Assessment or AQE Assessment for entry 2022 as an exceptional response to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic which has significantly disrupted the Key Stage 2 in-school learning of all students in P7).

ADMISSIONS CRITERIA

ALL-ABILITY ENTRY

(Selection with reference to Religious Affiliation only)

The onus is on a parent or carer to make clear under which religious category they wish their child’s application to be considered.

All Applications will be considered under the All-Ability entry this year with no reference to either of the unregulated tests. As an all ability school, students will continue to be streamed on entry and placed in an appropriate learning paced class to meet their needs ie above average, average or below average.

Applicants will be given priority within the three perceived religious affiliation groups (Catholic, Protestant and Other religious affiliation or none) and considered in the order listed:

1 (a) applicants who have a brother(s) or sister(s) or half-brother or half-sister enrolled in the College by 1st February 2022, or formerly enrolled in the College;

(b) applicants who are the only or eldest child in their family to transfer to a mainstream Post-Primary School. This must be verified by an accompanying Primary School letter. In the case of multiple births, if one child meets the criteria sufficiently to be allocated a place, the other child/children will be considered as having a sibling at the College, ie criterion 1A. In the event of one child being displaced and the other child/children being admitted the Board of Governors reserve the right to apply the 1A category to all children of multiple birth in that family to ensure that all are admitted. In the case of a newly formed integrated primary school, the Admissions Sub-Committee will also consider under this category the first child in the family to have been able to reach P7 since the school opened i.e. the eldest eligible child; (if this is not clearly stated on the transfer application, Lagan College’s Board of Governors will presume that your child is “not the only child or eldest child in their family”).

(c) applicants enrolled at a grant maintained integrated primary school or controlled integrated primary school on 1st February 2022;

(d) all other applicants.

NB All information relevant to the above must be clearly stated by parents on the transfer application.

In the event of a tie occurring at any of the Stages 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, in the order set down, priority will be determined according to the following sub-criteria in the order set down:-

I. Applicants who have placed Lagan College first on the transfer application.

II. Applicants enrolled at a grant maintained integrated primary school or controlled integrated primary school on 1st February 2022.

III. Applicants enrolled at the closest grant maintained integrated primary school or closest controlled integrated primary school to Lagan College on 1st February 2022. The distance between the applicant’s grant maintained integrated or controlled integrated primary school and Lagan College will be determined using the measurement calculated using the Ordnance Survey Digital Distance and Area Measurement Tool (Map Console).

IV. Applicants with a parent or older brother or sister in the permanent employment of the Board of Governors of Lagan College, ie. not less than ten hours per week, on 1st February 2022, or an applicant whose parent is a member of the Board of Governors on 1st February 2022.

V. Applicants enrolled at the closest primary school. The distance between the applicant’s primary school and Lagan College on 1st February 2022, will be determined using the measurement calculated using the Ordnance Survey Digital Distance and Area Measurement Tool (Map Console).

VI. If, after applying the previous criteria, in the order set down, there are more applications than spaces available, the unique random computerised number* (which was allocated on receipt of applications) will be assigned and used to allocate places in ascending order.

* Any reference in the criteria to the unique random computerised number refers to a list of unique random computerised numbers in the range of 1-1000, which is generated by a computerised programme “Randomizer.org” and verified by the College’s Board of Governors before the Transfer 2022 Process begins.

Relevant Information

It is the responsibility of parents/carers to ensure that all accurate and relevant information is received by the Education Authority on the electronic transfer form. Failure to include all accurate and relevant information may prejudice the chance of a student being admitted.

Duty to Verify

The Board of Governors Admissions Sub-Committee reserves the right to require such supplementary evidence as it may determine to support or verify information on any applicant’s transfer application.

If the requested evidence is not provided to the Board of Governors Admissions Sub-Committee by 31st August 2022, this will result in the withdrawal of an offer of a place. Similarly, if information is supplied which appears to be false or misleading in any material way, the offer of a place will be withdrawn.

Year 8 Waiting List Policy

Education Authority Transfer Process – 31 August 2022

Any student that has initially not gained a place will remain on the Education Authority transfer list and in the event of a vacancy the above criteria will continue to be applied up until 31 August 2022.

Lagan College’s Waiting List Policy - 1 September 2022:

On receipt of your child’s post-primary school placement letter, parent(s)/carer(s) can contact Lagan College and ask for their child to be placed on the school’s waiting list which operates from 1 September 2022.

Email Requests to be placed on the waiting list should be sent to info@lagancollege.belfast.ni.sch.uk but will only be processed if they are date and time stamped from Monday 23 May 2022 8.30 am onwards, following the EA notification of outcome of application received on Saturday 21 May 2022.

Emails received prior to this date/time or hand-delivered letters will not be accepted.

Should a vacancy arise from 1 September 2022 onwards, applications will be considered in order of receipt and in agreement with parent(s)/carer(s) with the learning paced class position available. Parents/carers will then be invited to the College for an Admissions Meeting with the Head of Junior School.

APPLICATIONS AND ADMISSIONS

 

Academic Year    2019/20

Approved Admissions No    220

Total Applications ie. All preferences     554

Total Admissions    222*

Academic Year    2020/21

Approved Admissions No    211

Total Applications ie. All preferences     518

Total Admissions    213*

Academic Year    2021/22

Approved Admissions No    211

Total Applications ie. All preferences     442

Total Admissions    212*

* Additional DENI Approved Admissions

Criteria for entry into Year 9 onwards

Available on request from the school and published on our school website.