Priority areas for community single-sex secondary schools...

Each community single-sex secondary school has a Priority Area, made up of a number of so-called ‘towns’, ‘parishes’ and ‘unparished areas’. After Rules 1-3 have been applied, places are allocated to every parish/unparished area/town, within the Priority Area. The number of places allocated will be in proportion to the number of applications made (if there are not enough applications, the number of places allocated could theoretically be ‘zero’). If there are more applications than there are places available, within a particular town/parish/unparished area, then Rule 4 will be applied (followed by Rule 5 if there are any places left). Any remaining places will allocated to children outside the Priority Area, via a lottery (Rule 6).

The parish proportions for single-sex schools are calculated at the start of the admissions process, based on the number of original applicants in each parish in proportion to the total number of applicants.

The parish proportion is then used to work out the number of places available to each parish at each allocation stage. The result of this calculation can include a fractional value; remaining places are distributed among parishes according to this fractional value.

If there are additional places to be distributed (for example where a parish has been allocated places but no longer has any applicants because they have been allocated a higher preference school), then these places are distributed among parishes still requiring places, in the order of least allocated parishes.