Admissions Criteria

Capital Fee

As Friends’ is a Voluntary Grammar School, a Capital Fee of £140 per annum is charged to all parents.

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 Education Committee the responsibility for applying these criteria. Any reference below to the Board of Governors includes any committee or sub- committee appointed by the Board of Governors for the purpose of applying the admissions criteria. The Principal is a member of the Board of Governors.

Admissions Criteria for Pupils at the Normal Transfer Stage (Year 8)

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

The School will initially consider at transfer stage only those pupils who have taken the Entrance Assessment provided by the Schools’ Entrance Assessment Group (SEAG) and who have been awarded a mark in the form of a standardised score1 or have been assigned to a Group (see below) after determination of an application for Special Provisions or Special Circumstances. Information on the Entrance Assessment is available from the School or on the SEAG website (www.seagni.co.uk).

 

It should be noted that children resident in Northern Ireland at the time of their proposed admission must be admitted before children who are not resident.

The process for admissions, should the School have more applications than places available, is as set out below. The information to be provided in the event of a claim that Special Provisions should apply, or that Special Circumstances exist, is detailed in Appendix 1.

It should be noted that the Board of Governors will not take into account the position of preference given to the School by the applicant on the Transfer Application. For example, an application received from a pupil who has placed Friends’ second in order of preference on the Transfer Application and who has not been offered a place by the school placed first in order of preference will be considered in the same way as all first preference applicants to Friends’ School.

When considering which children should be selected for admission, the Board of Governors will only consider information detailed on, or uploaded with,
the Transfer Application. Please note therefore that it is the responsibility of the parents of the applicant to ensure that all information relevant to the criteria is provided on the Transfer Application or uploaded with it.

Entrance Tests Results

A readable copy of the original notification of the score received from SEAG should be uploaded with the Transfer Application.

Admissions

The Board of Governors will consider initially those pupils who have taken the SEAG Entrance Assessment and who have been awarded a score or have been assigned to a Group after determination of an application for Special Provisions or Special Circumstances.

Applicants claiming that Special Provisions and/or Special Circumstances apply will be considered first. Once a decision has been made for each pupil for these special cases, the applicant will be considered along with all pupils of the same Group for the purposes of applying the admissions criteria.

The Total Standardised Age Scores of all applicants in the SEAG Entrance Assessment will be placed in rank order and grouped within ranges of 3 marks. Higher scores will precede lower scores. To determine which pupils will be accepted into Year 8 the following criteria will be applied:

 

• Preference will be given to those in Group 1 before Group 2, Group 2 before Group 3, Group 3 before Group 4, and so on.
• If the School is oversubscribed, there will come a point where a group contains more applicants than there are places available. Within that group, the remaining places will be allocated in accordance with the following sub-criteria:(a) applicants who are children of Members or Attenders of the Religious Society of Friends(b) applicants enrolled in the Preparatory Department of Friends’ School Lisburn from 1 September 2024;(c) applicants who have a brother or sister enrolled in Years 8-14 at Friends’ School Lisburn at the date of transfer, including applicants who have a twin, or triplet, sibling already admitted;(d) applicants who are transferring from schools which have contributed pupils to Friends’ School Lisburn within the last 5 years (a list of these is on the following page);(e) applicants to whom (a) to (d) above do not apply.

Under each of these criteria, applicants who are entitled to Free School Meals3 will be given preference over others who meet this criterion. If, following the application of the above sub-criteria in order, there comes a point where there are more pupils who meet a particular criterion than there are places available then the Board of Governors shall decide which of these pupils are to be admitted on the basis of computerised random selection.

Special Provisions

It is expected that all those seeking admission should sit the SEAG Entrance Assessment, except for those pupils who take up residence in Northern Ireland after 20 September 2024.

Special Provisions will apply for:

1. Children whose parents wish them to transfer to grammar schools from schools outside Northern Ireland.
2. Children who have received more than half their primary education outside Northern Ireland as from 1 September 2024.
3. Children who, because of serious medical, personal or other problems which are supported by appropriate documentary evidence, were either unable to take the Entrance Assessment, or have received an estimated standardised score because they were able to sit only one of the Entrance Assessment papers.

It should be noted that if a claim for the consideration of Special Provisions is made in respect of matters for which Access Arrangements were granted for a pupil, the School will take into account the fact that the pupil was granted Access Arrangements for those matters.

Application for Special Provisions

Parents who wish to apply to the School under Special Provisions must complete the SP Form obtainable from the school website, and upload it with appropriate documentary evidence, as detailed below, with the Transfer Application.

Parents must provide the precise reason why they believe the pupil is eligible for consideration under Special Provisions and append educational evidence* as detailed below.

Special Circumstances

The Board of Governors will consider medical or other circumstances which may have affected a child’s performance in the Entrance Assessment and which are supported by contemporaneous documentary evidence. The Board of Governors will then decide whether the score awarded in the Entrance Assessment should be adjusted. It should be noted that if a claim for the consideration of Special Circumstances is made in respect of matters for which Access Arrangements were granted for a pupil, the School will take into account the fact that the pupil was granted Access Arrangements for those matters.

Application for Special Circumstances

Parents who wish to apply to the School under Special Circumstances must complete the SC Form obtainable from the school website, and upload it with appropriate documentary and educational evidence*, as detailed below, with the Transfer Application.

Documentary Evidence

When it is claimed that an applicant’s performance in the Entrance Assessment has been affected by medical or other problems, independent evidence of the existence of the problem must be provided with the claim. Where the problem is a medical one of short-term duration, the Board of Governors will require the production of evidence that the applicant was examined contemporaneously by a medical practitioner in relation to the illness. Where the difficulty or problem is of longer-term duration, the Board of Governors will still require medical evidence. In both cases the medical practitioner providing the evidence must be independent, i.e. not related to the applicant.

Where the problem is of a non-medical nature, the parents of the applicant must also set out with the claim precise details of the problem and append appropriate contemporaneous evidence to corroborate its existence.

*Educational Evidence

When applications are made under Special Provisions or Special Circumstances, it is the responsibility of the parent to provide sufficient educational evidence as detailed in the SP/SC Form. This should include (where they exist):

• In cases where, because of illness or other unforeseen circumstances, a child has sat only one test, a readable copy of the original notification from SEAG of the estimated standardised score.
• Objective documentary evidence including, where they exist, the results for the pupil of any standardised tests in English and Maths (such as PTE/ PTM) conducted in Year 5, Year 6, and Year 7.
• Additional comparative information in respect of standardised test scores relating to the other pupils in the applicant’s Primary 7 class from the Primary School as set out in the SP/SC Form.

It should be noted that if a claim for the consideration of Special Provisions is made in respect of matters for which Access Arrangements were granted for a pupil, the School will take into account the fact that the pupil was granted Access Arrangements for those matters.

Where an application for Special Provisions is made for a child who was unable to sit the Entrance Assessment the School may choose to arrange for an assessment to be taken on an agreed date. A report on the assessment outcomes will be provided to parents and may be shared with other schools listed on the post-primary Transfer Application.

Educational evidence provided for Special Provisions and Special Circumstances will be considered in conjunction with the standardised SEAG score, where applicable, and adjustments will be made only if there is clear evidence that the circumstances outlined have resulted in underperformance. A panel of Governors will determine, on the basis of the information available, a Group for the applicant, who will then be considered with all other applicants who have received a SEAG score, and the admissions criteria will then be applied.

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 the Transfer Application.

Please note that Department of Education guidance states that the provisions of false or incorrect information, or the failure to provide information within the deadlines set by post-primary 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 and Admissions Criteria after the commencement of the school year 2025/2026

A waiting list will be drawn up of those applicants who had initially been refused a place during the transfer procedure, and the admissions criteria listed above will determine the order in which applicants are placed on this list. Should vacancies arise within the admissions number for the year 2025/2026, applicants will be contacted in the order in which they have been placed on the waiting list.

Applications and Admissions

Admission of pupils to Years 9 – 11

External applicants may be admitted to Years 9 to 11 if there are places available within the School’s approved Enrolment Number and within the relevant year group. Pupils shall be admitted on the basis of academic ability and shall be required to provide the most recent school report from the school currently attended. In addition, pupils shall be asked to take a test set by
the School.

Pupils shall be admitted on the basis of their performance in the test and evidence of a good record of progress and behaviour at their current school. The format of the test will include English and Maths and will be determined by the proposed year of entry. It should be noted that applicants to Year 11 must have a viable course of study at GCSE level.

Should two or more applicants to the same year group have the same academic profile, the decision to admit will be taken by applying the sub- criteria (a) to (c) below:

(a) applicants who are children of Members or Attenders of the Religious Society of Friends

(b) applicants who have a brother or sister enrolled at Friends’ School Lisburn;

(c) applicants to whom (a) to (b) above do not apply.

Under each of these criteria, applicants who are entitled to Free School Meals5 will be given preference over others who meet this criterion. If, following the application of the above sub-criteria in order, there comes a point where there are more pupils who meet a particular criterion than there are places available, then the Board of Governors shall decide which of these pupils are to be admitted on the basis of computerised random selection.

Footnotes:

1. Throughout the admissions criteria, ‘the score’ refers to the Total Standardised Age Score as awarded by SEAG.
2. Parents will be required to provide details of the Meeting with which they are associated so that this information can be verified.
3. “Entitled to Free School Meals” will mean applicants who are listed on the Education Authority register as entitled to Free School Meals at the date on which their parent or guardian has submitted their post-primary Transfer Application, or at any date up to and including 4pm on 25 February 2025.
4. “Entitled to Free School Meals” will mean applicants who are listed on the Education Authority register as entitled to Free School Meals at the date on which their parent or guardian has submitted their Application Form.

“I wasn’t sure which school would be right for me after primary school, but seeing all the activities on Open Morning and going around the school buildings,
I realised that FSL was the school for me!”
Jacob – Year 9