Widening Access
At The Tiffin Girls’ School, we are committed to widening access, and in particular to giving students from disadvantaged backgrounds the best possible opportunity to gain a place at our school.
Our approach has three different areas of focus – Outreach, Admissions Arrangements, and Shaping Futures Programme.
Outreach
We have a long tradition of outreach, focusing on developing strong links with our local community, including primary and secondary schools. This is a key area of focus for our school, and one which brings benefits to both our students and the children and members of the local community with whom they interact. Our students develop their organisational, communication and leadership skills, and benefit from the opportunity to interact with people outside of our school community, and to learn from them. We hope that our students can support primary pupils’ learning, give them access to new opportunities, and help to boost their confidence and academic aspirations. Working with primary school pupils also helps them to prepare for their transition to secondary schools. Collaboration with secondary schools enables students from all schools to learn from each other, and to benefit from shared experiences.
In recent years our outreach work has included reading with primary school students, running debating and gardening clubs at local primary schools, hosting an annual Key Stage 3 debating competition, hosting primary and secondary Eco conferences for local schools, and hosting a Medics conference for students in Years 11 and 12. We also have a long tradition of visiting local care homes, and of fundraising for presents and cards for their residents. For further information, please visit our outreach page.
Admissions Arrangements
In terms of widening access, our Admissions Arrangements detail the provision for students who are or have been Looked After Children, or who are in receipt of Pupil Premium Funding.
After Stage One of our admissions process, a 10% leeway is applied to the marks of children who are or who have been Looked After Children, or who are in receipt of Pupil Premium Funding.
After Stage Two, a 10% leeway is applied to the marks of children who are or who have been Looked After Children, or who are in receipt of Pupil Premium Funding, before we apply the school’s selection criteria. Those selection criteria also support our commitment to widening access. The relevant sections of our Admissions Arrangements for Stage Two are detailed below:
- After Stage Two, a 10% leeway is applied to the standardised Stage Two test mark of students who are or who have been Looked After Children or who are in receipt of Pupil Premium funding.
- We then allocate places in line with our selection criteria, as follows:
1. To a girl who has an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) which names The Tiffin Girls’ School specifically on the EHCP and who has demonstrated her academic ability through the school’s test procedure.
Places will then be allocated on the basis of selection by ability as demonstrated in the school’s test procedure in rank order of the combined mark within the appropriate category listed below and in the following priority order:
2. Currently Looked after Children and previously Looked after Children whose combined mark is higher than or equal to the 350th ranked mark of all applicants who sat the Stage Two Test.
3. Up to 60 girls whose combined mark is higher than or equal to the 350th ranked mark of all applicants who sat the Stage Two Test in the following order of priority:
a) Girls whose permanent place of residence is within the Inner Area or Designated Area and who qualify for receipt of Pupil Premium Funding on the closing date to register for the Stage One Test.
b) Girls whose permanent place of residence is within the Inner Area.
4. The remaining places after this initial allocation on National Offer Day will all be allocated from applicants who sat the Stage Two Test in rank order of the combined mark according to the order of priority detailed in our Admissions Arrangements.
You can find more information here. Please look at the Summary Guidance and the Admissions Policy for the relevant year.
Shaping Futures Programme with Skyward Kids
As part of our commitment to widening access, we launched our ‘Shaping Futures’ programme in 2023. Our aim is to encourage equal opportunity regardless of a child’s background. We work with local primary schools, who nominate high attaining children in Years 4 and 5 to take part, with a particular focus on Pupil Premium children. Children attend a series of sessions at our school, during which they take part in a range of exciting activities and work on their English and Maths, supported by our Year 12 mentors. We are collaborating with Skyward Kids, who provide us with access to English and Maths materials that the children can access at home as well as in their sessions at our school. Through the programme, we hope to support children’s transition to secondary school, increase their confidence in English and Maths, and also to encourage families to consider whether they would like to register for the admissions process at a local grammar school.
