Hampshire County Council is the admission authority for Swanmore College. The admission arrangements are determined by the County Council, after statutory consultation.

This policy will be used during 2025/26 for allocating places in the main admission round for entry to Year 7 in September 2026. It will also apply to in-year admissions during 2026/27.

Published Admission Number (PAN)

Each school has a published admission number (PAN)¹ for entry to Year 7. The school will admit this number if there are enough applications. Where fewer applications than the published admission number are received, places will be offered to all those who have applied.

The PAN for Swanmore College for 2026-2027 is 270.

Admissions Process

The County Council will consider first all those applications received by the published deadline of midnight on 31 October 2025. Notifications to parents offering a secondary school place will be sent by the County Council on 2 March 2026.

Applications made after the deadline will be considered after all on-time applications have been fully processed unless exceptional circumstances merit consideration alongside on-time applications.

For the normal admission round, all preferences will be considered simultaneously and ranked in accordance with the admission criteria.

Pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

Any child with an EHCP naming Swanmore College will be admitted. Where possible such children will be admitted within the PAN.

Oversubscription criteria

When Swanmore College is oversubscribed, after the admission of pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan naming the school, priority for admission will be given to children in the following order:
 

1. Looked after children or children who were previously looked after (see definition i).
2. Children or families with an exceptional medical and/or social need. Each application wishing to be considered under this criterion must include supporting evidence from an independent professional such as a doctor and/or consultant for medical needs or a social worker, health visitor, housing officer, the police or probation officer for social needs. This evidence must confirm the child or family’s medical or social needs and be clear why those needs can only be met Swanmore College, rather than any other (see definition ii). Applicants will only be considered under this criterion if on the application form (online or paper) they have ticked the appropriate box explicitly indicating that they wish for their application to be considered under medical / social need and appropriate supporting evidence is submitted with the application.
3. Children of staff (see definition iii) who have,
   1. been employed at Swanmore College for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, or
   2. have been recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
4. Children living in the catchment area (see definition iv) of Swanmore College who at the time of application have a sibling (see definition v) on the roll of the school who will still be on roll at the time of admission. [See 6 for additional children who may be considered under this criterion.]
5. Other children living in the catchment area of Swanmore College.
6. Children living out of the catchment area who at the time of application have a sibling (see definition v) on the roll of Swanmore College who will still be on roll at the time of admission. [Where a sibling was allocated a place at Swanmore College in the normal admission round in a previous year because the child was displaced (see definition vi) from the catchment school for their address, the application will be considered under 4, above, subject to the siblings still living in the catchment area for the school from which they were displaced. In future normal admissions rounds a younger sibling will be considered to have been displaced where they were allocated a place at the school under this criterion because of their elder sibling’s displacement and are still living in the catchment area for the school from which they were displaced].
7. Children living out of the catchment area who at the time of application are on the roll of a linked junior or primary school: Bishop's Waltham Junior School, Curdridge Primary School, Droxford Junior School, Hambledon Primary School [school specific criterion], St John the Baptist CofE Primary School, Swanmore CE Aided Primary School or Wickham CE Primary School.
8. Other children.

Definitions

(i) Looked after children

are defined as those who are

• (a) in the care of a local authority, or
• (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see the definition in section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989).

Previously looked after children are those who were looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption order, child arrangements order or special guardianship order.

An adoption order is an order under section 46 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 or section 12 of the Adoption Act 1976.

Child arrangements orders are defined in section 8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by section 12 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order.

Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).

Previously looked after children also includes those who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society.

(ii) Providing evidence does not guarantee that a child will be given priority at the school, and applicants are encouraged to consider whether the evidence does support consideration under this criterion prior to submission.

In each case a decision will be made by the school and a panel of Local Authority senior officers based on the merits of the case and whether the evidence demonstrates that a placement should be made at this school above any other.

‘Medical need’ does not include common medical conditions supported in mainstream schools, such as asthma or allergies.

‘Social need’ does not include a parent’s wish that a child attends the school because of a child’s aptitude or ability or because their friends attend the school or because of routine childminding arrangements. The professional evidence must confirm the circumstances of the case and why the child should only attend this school and why no other school could meet the child’s needs.

Priority will be given to those children whose evidence establishes that they have a demonstrable and significant need that makes it essential to attend this school. Equally, priority will be given to children whose evidence establishes that a family member’s physical or mental health or social needs establishes that they have a demonstrable and significant need that makes it essential the child attends this school.

(iii) ‘Staff’ includes all those on the payroll of Swanmore College who (specific to clause (1)) have been an employee continuously for two years at the time of application.

‘Children of staff’ refers to situations where the staff member is the natural parent, the legal guardian or a resident step parent.

(iv) The catchment area is a geographical area from which children may be afforded priority for admission to a particular school.

A map of the school’s catchment area can be viewed on the school’s details page on the Hampshire County Council website: www.hants.gov.uk/educationandlearning/findaschool.

(v) ‘Sibling’ refers to brother or sister, half-brother or half-sister, adoptive brother or adoptive sister, foster brother or foster sister, stepbrother or stepsister living as one family unit at the same address.

It will also be applied to situations where a full, half or adoptive brother or sister are living at separate addresses. Criteria 4 and 6 include children who at the time of application have a sibling for whom the offer of a place at Swanmore College has been accepted, even if the sibling is not yet attending.

(vi) ‘Displaced’ refers to a child who was refused a place at the catchment school in the normal admission round having named it on the application and was not offered a higher named preference school.

To identify the child’s catchment school please use https://maps.hants.gov.uk/SchoolCatchmentAreaFinder. Note that some addresses are in catchment for more than one school and in this case, ‘displaced’ refers to a child who was refused a place at any of their catchment schools.

Distance Measurement

In the event of any of the above criteria being oversubscribed, straight-line distance will be used to prioritise applications; applicants living nearer the school have priority. Distances will be measured from the Ordnance Survey home address point to the school address point using Hampshire County Council’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This method of prioritising admissions will also apply to any ‘school specific’ criterion unless otherwise stated in the school's brochure.

Tiebreaker

Where two or more applicants are equidistant, random allocation will be used to allocate the place. An explanation of the random allocation procedure is available on the County website: Hampshire schools’ admission arrangements | Education and learning | Hampshire County Council.

Additional Information

Permanent Address

The child’s permanent residence is where they live, normally including weekends and during school holidays as well as during the week and should be used for the application. The permanent residence of children who spend part of their week with one parent and part with the other, at different addresses, will be the address at which they spend most of their time. Where a child’s time is evenly divided between the parents, parents must agree which address they would like to be considered for the purposes of the application. In the event of a dispute, in the absence of a relevant court order, the admission authority will make a judgement about which address applies, taking into account the address registered with the child’s current school, nursery, preschool or childminder, the address registered for child benefit and the address registered with the child’s GP.

Multiple births

Where a twin or child from a multiple birth is offered the last place available within the PAN, any further twin or child of the same multiple birth will also be offered a place, if the parents so wish, even though this may raise the number in the year group above the school’s PAN.

Waiting lists

Waiting lists will be established for each year group where more applications are received than places available. For main round admissions to Year 7, the waiting list will be maintained centrally by the local authority until 31 August 2026. At all other times, and for other year groups, waiting lists will be operated by schools on behalf of the local authority.

Any places that become available will be offered to the child at the top of the list on the day the place became available. The waiting list is ordered according to the criteria of the admission policy with no account being taken of the length of time on the waiting list or any priority order expressed as part of the main admission round. Fair Access admissions and school closure arrangements will take priority over the waiting list.
The waiting list will be reviewed and ranked again in line with the published oversubscription criteria –

• each time a child is added to, or removed from, the waiting list;
• when a child’s changed circumstances affect their priority

For entry to Year 7, the waiting list will remain open until 31 August 2027, at which point all names will be removed. For all other year groups, waiting lists will remain open until 31 August of each year. Parents who want their child to be considered for a place at the school in the following school year must submit a new in-year application in the August preceding the new school year. Schools will send a decision letter within the first 10 days of the new term.

Appeals

All applicants refused a place have a right of appeal to an independent appeal panel constituted and operated in accordance with the School Admission Appeals Code.

For information about the appeal process, including how to lodge an appeal, please visit:
https://www.hants.gov.uk/educationandlearning/admissions/guidance/appeals.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

Parents may request that their child is admitted outside their normal age group. To do so, parents should include a request with their application, specifying why admission outside the normal age group is being requested and which year group they wish their child to be admitted. Decisions will be made based on the circumstances of the case and in the best interests of the child.

School specific criteria

Governing bodies may apply to the Director of Children’s Services to include in their school policy a criterion which they regard as essential if children are to be treated fairly in relation to clearly defined local conditions. The application will cover both the substance of the criterion and its position in the order of priorities. In the event of such applications, the Director of Children’s Services will consult the Admission Forum and the criterion will then be determined by the Executive Lead Member for Children’s Services. Any changes after such determination will be authorised by the Director of Children’s Services in consultation with the Executive Lead Member. Any criterion agreed under this category must be published in the school prospectus with its position within the admission priorities clearly indicated. It must be made clear that the criterion is school-specific.

Swanmore College has a school specific criterion within criterion 7: out-catchment children attending Hambledon Primary School have linked school priority. (N.B. Hambledon Primary does not share any of its catchment area with Swanmore College. For home to school transport purposes therefore, children living in the catchment area for Hambledon Primary School will not qualify for assistance with transport to Swanmore College.)

Legislation

This policy takes account of all Equalities legislation, together with all relevant regulations and the School Admissions Code (published by the DfE in 2021).

Footnotes

¹ The PAN applies to the relevant year* only. For other year groups at the school, different admission limits may be applied. Please ask the school or local authority for details. (Click here to return to the relevant point in the page)

* The relevant year is the age group at which pupils are or will normally be admitted to the school i.e. reception, year 3, year 7 and year 12 where the school admits external applicants to the sixth form (Section 142 of the SSFA 1998).