Admission criteria for entry September 2025

 

 

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

The Board of Governors draws up the admissions criteria and delegates to the Principal the responsibility for applying these criteria.

Admissions criteria for Year 8 pupils for September 2025

During the admissions procedure when applying the criteria punctual applications will be considered before late applications are considered. The application procedure opens on 28^th January 2025 at 12 noon (GMT) and an application submitted by the closing date of 20^th February 2025 at 12 noon (GMT) will be treated as a punctual application. An application received after 12 noon (GMT) on 20^th February 2025 and up to 4pm on 25^th February 2025 will be treated as a late application.

If the school is oversubscribed, the Principal will consider applications subject to the following ranked criteria. If after the application of the criteria in order, there comes a point where there are more pupils who meet a particular criterion than there are places available, then a tie-breaker will be applied. The tie-breaker is described below.

 

Admissions Criteria

 

1.       Pupils who have a child of the family enrolled at the school. *

2.       Pupils whose parents are permanent employees in the school (includes anyone who has worked in the school for a minimum of 6 months).

3.       Pupils who attend any one of the school’s traditional feeder primary schools from Group A below.

4.       Pupils who attend any one of the school’s traditional feeder primary schools from Group B below.

5.       Applicants residing in catchment areas BT19, BT20, BT21 and BT23 for whom the school is the nearest controlled all ability school.

6.       Other Pupils.

 

Tie-Breaker:

The tie breaker is in two stages:

 

If, after the application of the criteria in order, there comes a point where there are more pupils who meet a particular criterion than there are places available, then a tie breaker will be applied. The tie breaker is described below.

Stage 1

Pupils who place Bangor Academy as either first or second preference on the transfer application will be given priority.

If there remain more applicants at Stage 1 than places available, then Stage 2 will be applied. It will be initially applied to all applicants who meet the Stage 1 criteria before moving to other applications.

Stage 2

Final Selection will be on the basis of initial letter of the surname as identified in the randomly devised set of letters outlined below and the application of those letters thereafter. If applicants have the same surname, then the Christian names will be used in the order they appear on the birth certificate.

E  U  V  L  M  C  P  K  S  B  W  X  H  J  Z  A  N  D  O  Y  I  F  T  G  Q  R

It is the responsibility of the parent to inform the Board of Governors, on the transfer application, of any information which will help when making a decision. Assumptions cannot and will not be made.

 

Contributory Primary Schools Group A

 

Ballyholme PS	Clandeboye Road PS	Kilcooley PS	St Comgall’s PS
Ballymagee PS	Crawfordsburn PS	Kilmaine PS	St Malachy’s PS
Ballyvester PS	Donaghadee PS	Loughries IPS	St Finian’s PS
Bangor Central IPS	Glencraig IPS	Millisle PS	Towerview PS
Bloomfield Road PS	Grange Park PS	Rathmore PS

 

Contributory Primary Schools Group B

 

Abbey PS	Castle Gardens PS	Newtownards Model PS	Victoria PS, N’Ards
Carrowdore PS	Londonderry PS	Regent House Prep	West Winds PS

 

Please note: neither the primary schools nor the catchment areas are in rank order.

* The criterion “child of the family” will be, defined in relation to the parties to a marriage or parties living together in the same household, interpreted in accordance with Annex 2 paragraphs 3-5 of The Procedure for Transfer from Primary to Post-Primary Education: “Child of the family” means a child of both of them, and any other child who has been treated by both of those parties as a “child of their family”. The Department of Education has been advised that this definition of a child of the family covers: a child born to a married couple; a child born to a co-habiting couple; a child of either of those people by a previous marriage or relationship; a child living with same- sex partners whether there is a civil partnership under the Civil Partnership Act 2004 or not; an adopted or fostered child; a situation where, for example, an orphaned cousin is being brought up with the family.

The name and date of birth of the child of the family must be included on the application.

Duty to Verify

The Board of Governors reserves the right to require such supplementary evidence as it may determine to support or verify information on any application form/Transfer Application e.g. Birth Certificate.

The provision of false or incorrect information or the failure to provide information within the deadlines set by postprimary schools can result in the withdrawal of a place and the inability to offer a place on the part of any school nominated on the applicant’s transfer application.

Waiting List Policy

Applications received after schools have been allocated to pupils will be placed, in order of receipt, at the end of the waiting list of those children not selected during the admissions process.

After the commencement of the 2025 school year, the above criteria will be used for entry into Y8 should admission become possible.

APPLICATIONS AND ADMISSIONS

Year	Admissions No	Total Applications All preferences	Total Admissions
2022/23	282	347	309*
2023/24	272	333	291*
2024/25	263	321	292*

*Includes children admitted with a statement of SEN and Temporary Variation approved by DE

Applications for a place in Years 9-12 will only be considered if there are places available.

 

In the first instance, requests should be made to the Principal’s Secretary who will provide up to date admissions details and an application form.

 

Following receipt of the school application form, the Principal will contact applicants (If there are places available) with the aim of starting as soon as possible. If there are no places available throughout the year, applicants will be contacted in May with the aim of starting the following academic year if places are available.

 

Applicants will be selected for each year group if there are places available using the following criteria:

 

1.       Originally applied to Bangor Academy as either a first or second choice and was unsuccessful.

2.       Has moved to the area and is currently without a school

3.       Currently at a school in Northern Ireland but would like us to consider a transfer for pastoral reasons.

4.       Any other reason.

Bangor Academy does not admit students transferring from other schools into Year 12 unless there are special circumstances. *

 

Bangor Academy does not admit students transferring from other schools into Year 11 after the start of the academic year unless there are special circumstances. *

 

*Special circumstance applications will be considered by a sub-committee delegated by the Board of Governors. This sub-committee will include the Principal and at least one member of the governing body.