Dear parents and carers,

Thank you to all who responded to our consultation regarding the proposal to create the Education Admissions Policy. The Consultation Report has now been published on the Engage Platform. Should you wish to view the report, this can be found here - https://engage.stirling.gov.uk/en-GB/projects/education-admissions-consultation

Kind regards,

Bryony Monaghan, Head of Education

I have summarised the recommendations that will be made affecting St Modan's High School below. 

Placing requests to attend St Modan’s High School

Pupils resident within the catchment area for St Modan’s High School who are baptised Roman Catholic (RC) can automatically enrol to St Modan’s as they meet the catchment criteria. In line with legislation and policy, those not baptised are required to submit a placing request as they do not meet the criteria for direct enrolment. As stated in Section 8 of this report, as a result of this consultation, Stirling Council has amended the Education Admissions Policy to state that pupils who are not baptised but attend an associated RC primary school within the catchment area will receive an element of priority when placing request decisions are being made. This update will be communicated to church representatives.

The current Placing Request Policy states that in the event that demand for places at any school exceeds the number of places available, final allocation will be made based upon prioritising pupils residing on the shortest route from their ordinary residence to the requested school. Feedback received as part of the consultation suggested that pupils from within the catchment area applying to attend St Modan’s High School, who are not baptised Roman Catholic but have attended a Roman Catholic primary school within the catchment, should receive priority over distance when allocating places.

This has been considered by Schools, Learning and Education, and as a result of this feedback, the Placing Request section of the proposed Education Admissions Policy will be updated to reflect this suggestion.

As the catchment area for St Modan’s High School extends beyond Stirling into Clackmannanshire and a proportion of Falkirk, distance would still be used to allocate spaces once all other criteria had been considered. Therefore, the criteria for reaching decisions on placing request applications will be updated as follows (bold text):

Placing requests are split into 2 groups:

Group A: Pupils resident within the Stirling Council Area; or pupils resident outwith the Stirling Council area with a sibling attending the same establishment for the session the application is being made.

Group B: All other pupils resident outwith the Stirling Council Area.

All applications within Group A are considered prior to looking at Group B.

Children from within the Stirling Council area will receive priority over all applications from out with the Stirling Council Area.

The following criteria are then used in order to prioritise each group of applications:

1. Medical/ASN grounds relating to the child making the application, such that the chosen school is the only school that could provide for the child. These must be supported by documentary evidence from the family doctor and a local health practitioner. The Service Manager with responsibility for ASN will assess all applications seeking to receive recognition under this category.

2. An older brother or sister will be attending the same establishment for the session the application is being made.

3. For Placing Requests to St Modan’s High School only, the child named in the application is not baptised Roman Catholic however has attended an associated Roman Catholic primary school within the catchment area of St Modan’s High School.

4. The child is from a family that has exceptional family circumstances or is from a lone parent family. You may be asked to support this by suitable documentation.

Please note that Schools, Learning and Education cannot accept childcare, transport to or from school or parental work arrangements under this category.

Under this category the individual circumstances of each application will be considered and a judgement reached by Officers of Schools, Learning and Education.

Where it is not possible to accommodate all requests and 2 or more applications have equal criteria the final allocation will be by the distance from the child’s ordinary residence to the requested school, the nearest getting priority. Distance is measured by the shortest available route and not the shortest distance geographically.

Please click on link below for a list of our Practical Music Exam timetable for S4/S5/6.

The dates are Monday 23rd, Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th February - 50% of our course will be completed on these dates.

Best wishes,

The Music Dept. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1auQOJCqPmakVj5szQ6NvLJM46lzCfRCpy8T-3hGtfjs/edit?usp=sharing

As you may be aware travelling by bus is now free for 5-22 year olds around Scotland.  So if you haven’t already applied for your child’s card why not do it today in time for the summer holidays and obtain Young Scot discounts & Rewards  www.youngscot.org/discounts-and-rewards

You can apply now or check out the below links for more information. 

• How to apply for Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel on behalf of your child:  https://youtu.be/EYiz87G0MSE

• How to apply for Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel on behalf of your child under 16 who already has a card: https://youtu.be/A3sKTzZVpiA

• How to apply for Young Persons Free Bus Travel if you’re over 16: https://youtu.be/CLWDKSzfCqA