Harris City Academy Crystal Palace

Academy Admissions

Applications for places will be made in accordance with Local Authority admission arrangements and will be online via the eAdmissions website www.eadmissions.org.uk administered by the Local Authority. The Academy will work to the common admissions timetable agreed by Croydon Local Authority.

The Harris City Academy Crystal Palace supplementary information form can be found on our website. The form must be completed if you require a concession (for example EAL, SEN, Medical Need or your child requires an interpreter). The form will then need to be returned directly to us at Harris City Academy Crystal Palace, along with medical or professional evidence and proof of residence by 31st October. Completion of a supplementary information form for Harris City Academy Crystal Palace does not constitute an application to the Academy. You must complete the Local Authority Common Application Form as well. If your child does not have a concession as listed above, you are not required to submit a Supplementary Information form.

The Harris City Academy Crystal Palace will admit 180 students each year.

Open Evening

Our Open Evening for new students will be held at our Academy in Maberley road on Thursday 14th September . Starting at 5pm until 8.00pm (the last admission at 7.30pm). Please note, you do not need to book to attend this event.

Due to the high number of visitors expected, a Traffic Management Order will be in place with road closures and a one way system between 4.30pm and 8.30pm in the surrounding area. The Harris City Academy Crystal Palace car park will be closed to visitors.

Please only walk to the Academy or use the ‘park and ride’ system which we have provided to and from Canada Gate Car Park in Crystal Palace Park. It will transport visitors to and from Harris City Academy Crystal Palace at frequent intervals between 4.30pm and 7.15pm. From 7.30pm until 8.15pm the shuttle buses will still be in operation but only to take visitors back to the car park at Crystal Palace.

We hope by visitors following this it will relieve congestion in the area significantly.

Year 6 testing days, December

Our Year 6 primary school testing sessions will be held on Friday 8th December .

Your child will be allocated a fixed test session. Parents need to ensure that their child is available to attend the allocated Fixed Test Session. There will be no other opportunity to sit the test if you are late or miss the allocated session. We receive over 2000 applications each year and due to this very large number we will be unable to swap your allocated test session (details of which will be sent to all applicants in early December).

We are announcing our testing day sessions at this early point in the year to enable parents to ensure that their child is available to attend their allocated test session.

If you have applied to any other Harris academies you will only need to sit the test at Harris City Academy Crystal Palace.

Parking: Please note that parking in the roads near the Academy will be impossible because of the very large number of visitors so please help us by walking, using public transportation or using the roads a little further away. Please allow a lot of extra time to drop your child off to sit the tests; if your child is late to the tests they will not be able to enter the exam room. Our car park will be closed to visitors.

The application process

All applications for places need to be made via your Local Authority at the latest by the 31st October.

The Harris City Academy Crystal Palace Year 7 admissions supplementary information form can be found on our website and will need to be returned directly to us at Harris City Academy Crystal Palace along with proof of residence by 31st October. Please only complete this form if you require a concession (for example SEN/Medical Need or your child requires an interpreter).

NB completion of a supplementary information form for Harris City Academy does not constitute an application to the Academy. You must also apply online via the eAdmissions website www.eadmissions.org.uk administered by the Local Authority as well, and list us as one of the choices.

The Local Authority will then inform us of everyone that has put us as a choice on the common application form and from that list our Academy admissions officer will be sending out letters the first week of December, inviting your child to sit the test during the week commencing 4th December.

Our “simple” guide to our admissions process for Year 7

This is not part of the admissions arrangements but is an explanation of how they operate to help parents to understand it. Please read our full admissions policy on our website (downloadable below).

• Parents should apply online via the eAdmissions website administered by the Local Authority and name this Academy as one of their preferences.
• If you require a concession (for example EAL, DSEN or Medical Needs or your child requires an interpreter), you must complete a supplementary information form to help us to arrange tests as set out below. Please return the form along with medical or professional evidence and a proof of residence.
• The tests are taken on fixed days in December and if you have applied to any other Harris academies you will only need to sit the test at Harris City Academy Crystal Palace.
• We have two tests. One is a non-verbal reasoning test, which will allow us to allocate the child to an ability band; and the other tests aptitude for technology subjects.
• If a child doesn’t sit the tests or applies late he/she will not be considered for a place unless there are spare places after all children who applied on time and sat the test have been offered places (exceptions are made for Looked After Children only). In that situation, the priority order below will apply to determine to whom the place should be offered.
• We have 180 places and these are allocated as follows:
  • 10% (ie 18) of the places are allocated to the children who score most highly on the technology aptitude tests; if we have more than one child tying for the 18th place we determine who gets the place by a random allocation draw;
  • The remaining places are then allocated to ability bands mirroring the national distribution of abilities – there are nine bands, 1 is high and 9 is low and as with the distribution of abilities nationally there are many more places in the middle bands than in the bands at the top and bottom of the ability range.
  • The priority to determine who gets a place, which is applied within each band, taking each individually, is in the order as below:
    • Any children with Educational Health and Care Plans which name the Academy; then
    • Looked after and previously looked after children; then
    • Those who have older brothers or sisters who will still be in Year 11 or below when the child joins the school in September; then
    • Children of staff who have been employed by the Academy for two years or more or who were recruited to fill a shortage subject;
    • Then of the remaining places, 90% are allocated to the area up to 2 miles from the academy Zone A (all applicants within the two mile zone are considered to be as close to the Academy as one another) and
    • 10% are allocated to the area outside two miles Zone B (all applicants outside of the two mile zone are considered to be as close to the Academy as one another)
    • If there are no applicants from a zone left and still spare places then places would be allocated to the applicants from the other zone who are in that ability band. If a band had spare places and all applicants in that band had been offered places then offers would be made to children in the immediate bands above and below.
    • We do not give priority to students enroled at a particular primary school.

At Each of The Stages Followed Above, if There Are More Applicants than Places Left Then the Successful Applicants Will Be Decided by Random Allocation Draw – Observed by Someone Independent of The Academy. This Can Happen at The Stage of Allocating Siblings, or Children of Staff, or The Geographical Zones at 5). and 6). Above.

• The offers of places will be made by the Local Authority in the first few days of March. Parents not offered a place for their child are told of that decision at the same time and will not hear directly from the Academy.
• Any parents of applicants not offered a place have a right to appeal that decision. You can find information on how to do that below.
• We will operate a waiting list up until 31st December after the September of admission. If a vacancy occurs we fill it with a child waiting who is in the same band as the child who has left – using the criteria and methods set out in para 6 above. BUT we have to reorder the list if anyone asks to join it and can only use that criteria. We are not allowed to give preference to those who have been on the waiting list longest.

The appeal procedure for Harris City Academy Crystal Palace

Parent(s) wishing to appeal against the Academy’s decision should complete an Appeal Form stating the reason for the appeal based on the published Admissions Criteria.

If you wish to appeal for a place at the Academy for your child, you will need to request in writing for an appeal pack, and all forms must be completed and submitted to the Academy by 28th March at 4pm.

Completed forms should be sent to the Clerk to the Appeal Panel, at Harris City Academy Crystal Palace, Maberley Road, London, SE19 2JH. Please Note: The Academy does not provide help with appeals.

The appeals will be heard in private by an Independent Appeal Panel. The Clerk to the Appeal Panel will make an appointment within a reasonable time; the provisional dates have been booked to be during 29th April to Friday 3rd May.

• Appeals may be made in English or the parents’/carers’ first language.
• Only one appeal per application is allowed.
• Appeals are conducted in person, and you may bring a friend.
• Appeals must be made by 28th March .

School Admission Appeals Timetable 

Appeals resulting from applications which are turned down for admission in September will be heard according to the following secondary admissions timetable:

• Secondary online outcomes published during the evening: 1st March 
• Appeals lodged by 28th March at 4pm
• Appeals for Harris Academies will be heard in two stages.

The dates for the appeal hearings for Harris City Academy Crystal Palace have been provisional booked to be during 29th April to Friday 3rd May .

Appeals lodged after these dates will be heard within 40 days of the appeal deadline or 30 school days of being lodged, whichever is the later date.

Appellants will be sent notification of their appeal hearing at least 10 clear school days in advance of the hearing.Appellants will be sent a copy of the school's case at least seven clear working days in advance of the hearing.

Additional supporting information

If an appellant wishes to submit further evidence, which was not included with their initial appeal, they should ensure this is received at least seven clear working days (not counting the day of postage or the hearing) in advance of your appeal.

Only a short document, such as a doctor’s letter not previously available, will be accepted up to five clear working days prior to the hearing. Any additional evidence or information received after this deadline will not be circulated and may not be considered at the hearing.

In-year admissions

In-year applications need to be made directly to the Academy by completing an in-year application form, which can be downloaded below. This needs to be returned to the Academy in order for the process to commence for your child to be put on our in-year waiting list until the end of current academic year. The Academy is receiving and deciding in-year applications from 1st September each year.