School Admissions Guidance - Bath and North East Somerset · School Admissions Guidance: Completing an Online Application Form for Primary and Secondary Schools in Bath & North East

School Admissions Guidance: Completing an Online Application Form for Primary and Secondary Schools in Bath & North East Somerset

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School Admissions Guidance Completing an Online Application Form for Primary

and Secondary Schools in Bath & North East Somerset

Bath and North East Somerset – The place to live, work and visit


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Online School Admissions Guidance

To apply online please visit our website: Admissions to Schools . You will be able to access the online application system from this page.

This guidance has been created to help guide you through completing an online admissions application form to junior, primary and secondary schools for residents in Bath & North East Somerset.

It is very important that you read the appropriate online admissions booklet before completing an application, including considering how your child will travel to their preferred school(s).

To make an online application you will need a valid email address in order to complete the registration process and to receive confirmation of your application. Please note: The child’s postcode determines which Local Authority you should make an application with. If the postcode is within another Local Authority outside of Bath & North East Somerset (e.g. Bristol, Wiltshire, North Somerset, Somerset or South Gloucestershire) then you should seek advice from that Local Authority on making an application. Applying for a school place is done via the Bath & North East Somerset Council Citizen Portal. A paper version of the application form along with copies of the primary and secondary admissions booklets are available from the website (the link can be found at the top of this page).

If you have any questions, please contact the Admissions & Transport on 01225 394312.

Keep an eye out for these handy ‘tip’ boxes found throughout the guidance

http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/schools-colleges-and-learning/admissions-schools


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CONTENTS PAGE

Admissions Website: Help, Information and Links 4

Setting up/Registering an Account 5

Logging into the Citizen Portal for the first time 8

Logging into the Citizen Portal 9

Creating a new application and submitting 10

Editing an existing application and resubmitting 19

Changing your details 21

Personal Details 21

Contact Details 21

Change Email Address 21

Change Password 21

Change Secret Question 22

Change of Circumstances 22

Help/Frequently Asked Questions 23

Council Tax reference number 23

Password not accepted 23

Lost/Forgotten Password 23

My preferred school is not showing up 23

Do I need to complete a paper application form as well as the online form? 23

Can I change the details on my application form? 23

I am moving house, what should I do? 23

How will I learn of the outcome of my application? 24

I don’t know/have a UID (Unique Identification Number) 24

I need some help with my application 24


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Admissions Website: Help, Information and Links

Along with making an online application, you can access helpful information from our admissions website: Admissions to Schools

You will be presented with the options below when visiting our admissions website, click on each of the options to view more information about each section: It is very important that you read the appropriate online admissions booklet before making an application, including considering how your child will travel to the preferred school(s)

IMPORTANT NOTE The Citizen Portal now works with mobile and tablet devices. You can of course still use a

laptop or computer as well as mobile and tablet devices.



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Setting up/Registering an Account

Before you can complete an online application you will need to have registered with a valid email address. Some parent/carers may have registered already as they have submitted applications in previous years. Follow the below steps to do this:

Go to the school admissions website: Admissions to Schools Read either the primary or secondary admissions booklet depending on which age

group you are applying for.

It is very important that you read the appropriate online admissions booklet before making an application, including considering how your child will travel to their preferred school(s)

Click on the link ‘Admissions Online’ and the page below will open:

If you are new to our school admissions website and creating an account for the first time or need to re-register with our online school admissions website click ‘Register’

This will open the ‘Registration’ screen. Enter your details on this ‘Security Details’

tab. Fields marked with an * are required fields:

Enter your ‘Email Address’ and input the same address into ‘Confirm Email Address’

Passwords must be a minimum of 10 characters, no longer than 128 characters and must contain a minimum of 2 number(s). It must contain a minimum of 1 lower case character, 1 upper case character and 1 special character. Remember that your password is case sensitive.



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Enter your chosen ‘Password’ and enter the same password into ‘Confirm Password’

Select your ‘Secret Question’ from the drop down menu

Type in the answer to your ‘Secret Question’ into the ‘Secret Answer’ box

Click ‘Next’

This will open the ‘About You’ tab. Fields marked with an * are required fields

Select your ‘Title’ from the drop down menu

Enter your ‘Forename’ and ‘Surname’

Select your ‘Gender’

Click ‘Next’ or you can click ‘Previous’ to return to the previous screen

Enter your ‘Postcode’ and then click ‘Find Address’ to search for your house details from the postcode you have provided


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If your address does not appear after entering the ‘Postcode’ and clicking ‘Find Address’ then click ‘Enter Address Manually’ and enter your address details

If you do not know your postcode then click where it says ‘I don’t have a Postcode’ and you can enter your address details manually

Please provide a ‘Home Phone’, ‘Mobile Number’ or ‘Work Phone’

When you have entered all of your details click ‘Submit Registration’

After clicking the registration link, you will be asked to log in. Enter your ‘Email Address’

and ‘Password’

You have now completed your registration with the Bath & North East Somerset Citizen Portal!

Please check your inbox (including any Junk/Spam folders) for an email from Please check your inbox (including any Junk/Spam folders) for an email from

Back to Contents Page

An email will now be sent to the email address you have used to register with. Please check your inbox (including any Junk/Spam folders) for an email from

‘[email protected]’ – you will need to click the link in the email within 24 hours to complete the registration process and activate your account.


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Logging into the Citizen Portal for the first time Once you have successfully registered with our Citizen Portal you will able to login and start making an application.

Within the Citizen Portal you will have a ‘My Family’ section, which allows you to add children and their details for use with future applications. If you have recently submitted a school application, you may be asked if you’d like to add your child to your Citizen Portal ‘My Family’ – this will automatically pull through your child’s details from your last school application so that you don’t have to re-enter information again. Click either ‘Add my child to Citizen Portal’ to add your child’s details or click ‘Don’t add my child’ if you wish to enter these details manually later via the ‘My Family’ section or if you do not wish to add this child’s details.


If you have submitted in previous years an online application for a school place for a child, you may be presented with the following screens:


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Logging into the Citizen Portal

Once you have successfully registered with our admissions website you will able to login and start making an application. This section of the guidance shows you how to login to the admissions website if you have previously registered, further sections of this guidance below detail how to make an application for a school place, how to reset your password or change your email address.

Open the citizen portal: Citizen Portal

Enter your ‘Email Address’ and ‘Password’ and click ‘Login’

You will see the following screen when logging in:

If you have forgotten your password then click ‘Forgotten your Password?’ on the log in screen. Enter your email address to be sent a link regarding changing your password.

For further information on changing your password please see the ‘Changing your Account Password’ section later in this guidance.

If you are having issues logging in to the admissions website then please see further sections of this guidance


https://capita.bathnes.gov.uk/CitizenPortal_LIVE/


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Creating a new application and submitting

This section of the guidance will take you through ‘Creating a new application and submitting’ that school application.

During the process of creating a school application you are able to save any details and return later on to continue the application if you wish

If you have already submitted an application and wish to make amendments to it then please see the ‘Editing an existing application and resubmitting’ section below.

Open the citizen portal: Citizen Portal


You will see the Citizen Portal ‘Home’ screen below:

Go into ‘School Places’ to check/add any child details

If you need to add a child, click ‘Add Child’ and fill out the child’s details and address. Click ‘Add Child’ to save. You will then be taken back to the ‘School Places’ page.

If you have any existing school applications or school place offers, they will appear on this screen. You can ‘View Offer’, ‘View Application’ or ‘Start New Application’ against existing applications/offers Further down you will have a section entitled ‘Make a new application’ where any children without any previous/existing applications will be



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Click ‘Start New Application’ against the child you require:

My Child’s Postcode

You will be shown the following screen:

Enter ‘My Child’s Postcode’ into the box and click ‘Check Now’:

If the child’s postcode is within this Local Authority (Bath & North East Somerset) then click ‘Continue to Apply’

Within ‘School Places’ each child that appears will have a badge against them, which details the current status. For example:

The child’s postcode determines which Local Authority you should make an application with. If the postcode is within another Local Authority (e.g. Bristol)

then you should seek advice from that Local Authority on making an application


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Transfer Group

Select the ‘Transfer Group’ you wish to apply for. For example ‘Starting School – Reception Year Group’ or ‘Secondary Transfer’

Find Child

You will now see the ‘Find Child’ screen, if you have received a letter from your school from Bath & North East Somerset Council informing you of your child’s ‘UID’ (Unique Identifier) enter the ‘UID’ into the ‘Unique Identifier’ box on the left hand side and check the child’s ‘Date of Birth’ is correct and click ‘Next’:

You can continue without the ‘UID’ by clicking the ‘No UID’ button on the right hand side

The ‘Date of Birth’ you have entered for your child in the ‘My Family’ section of the Citizen Portal is used to determine the ‘Transfer Group’ you are applying for -

if you enter an incorrect ‘Date of Birth’ this could affect finding the ‘Transfer Group’ you require (Starting School – Reception Year Group)

Please note: The ‘Primary’ admission group is for children starting at an infant or primary school, the ‘Junior’ admissions group is for children transferring from year 2

at an infant school to a Junior school and the ‘Secondary’ admission group is for children transferring from Junior/Primary to Secondary school


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Additional Child’s Details

Read through the questions on screen and select the appropriate answers for your child

Click ‘Next’ to continue

Address Details and Returning Services Families Only

The address of the child you have previously entered will appear. Check this is correct and if not, click ‘My Family’ to amend the details against the child you are applying for

If applicable, read through the ‘Returning Service Families Only’ section and set the required options. Leave this section blank if you are not a returning service family



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Child’s Current School

On the ‘Current School’ screen you will be asked to enter details about the child’s current school (if they are at a current school). If you’re making an application for a primary school this screen isn’t applicable and you won’t be asked to enter this information.

You can search using the ‘Schools located in’ and ‘School Name’ or a combination of these to search for the current school here – you can narrow the search by selecting the Local Authority (For example: Bath & North East Somerset)

A tip when searching for a school, try entering part of the school name, for example ‘Mary’ for ‘St Mary’s’, as it should make it easier to find the school you’re looking for

If after searching you are still unable to find the school, you can tell us where the child is currently being educated by typing the name into the ‘Currently educated at’ box


If you are applying for a secondary school place, you will be asked to enter the child’s ‘Current School’ – Primary school applications will not have this screen, so you can

move onto the ‘Preference School Search’ section below


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Preference School Search

On the ‘Preference School Search’ screen you will be asked to find the school preferences for the child. You can express a preference for up to 3 schools for reception and junior applications and up to 5 preferences for secondary:

Enter the ‘School Name’ and use the ‘Search’ button to locate your preferred school

A tip when searching for a school, try entering part of the school name, for example ‘Broa’ for ‘Broadlands’ or ‘Mary’ for St. Mary's Catholic Primary as it should make it easier to

find the school you’re looking for

You can search using the ‘Schools located in’ (For example: Bath & North East Somerset) and ‘School Name’ or a combination of these to search for the school.

A list of school options will appear, which will tell you how many schools it has found (in the example below this says ‘4 School(s) found’ and how many pages there are (which you can click ‘Next’ or ‘Previous’ on to see additional schools if applicable)

When you have found the school you require, click on the name of the school to select it

At this stage you will receive some questions to answer in order to support your application for this school, select the appropriate answers against these questions to proceed

You will then be given the chance in ‘Other Reasons’ to write in any other reason to support your application with that school. A maximum of 3000 characters is allowed. If you are intending to add a large amount of text it may be better to copy and paste this information as the application process is time sensitive.

Click ‘Next’ to continue. This will add your preferred school to the list

Click ‘Add a new preferred school’ to add another preference if you wish

The types of questions you will need to answer will depend on the type of school you’ve selected as a preference


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Repeat the above few steps to select more school preferences, remembering that you can have a total of 3 preferences for reception and junior and a total of 5 preferences for secondary. You don’t have to choose 3 or 5 preferences, you can choose only one or two; but note that you might not get your first preference

You can always ‘Re-order’ your preferences once you’ve selected them if you wish, use the ‘Re-order’ up and down arrows as shown below. You can also ‘Edit’ or ‘Remove’ any of your preferences and the details you set on this screen:

Once you are happy with your ‘School Preferences’ click ‘Next’

Terms and Conditions and Data Protection

Read through the ‘Terms and Conditions’ and ‘Data Protection’ sections

Please note: Transport is not necessarily offered to the school you prefer, if transport to school is an issue for you, you may wish to contact the

‘Admissions and Transport Team’ on 01225 394312 prior to naming your preferences to check whether your child is eligible for transport to your preferred

school


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School Place Offer, Preview Your Application and Submit Your Application

If you would like to receive your offer of a school place via email click ‘Yes’ against ‘I would like to receive my offer of a school place via email’– this option will be defaulted to ‘Yes’ as you are making an online application.

The email of a school place offer will be sent to the email address you used to make the application via the Citizen Portal

You can also see a printer friendly version of your application by clicking ‘Preview’

If you wish to edit an application you’ve already submitted, see the ‘Editing an existing application and resubmitting’ section of this guidance below

Before you can submit, you must select ‘Yes’ against: ‘I declare that I have checked the information given on this form and believe it to be

correct. I declare that I have read and agree to the terms and conditions set out above’

If you wish to save the details and submit later you can click ‘Return Later’

Finally, when you’re happy with the application and you would like to complete and submit the application, click ‘Submit Now’


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You have now submitted your application, you do not need to take any further action

If you need to make changes to the application, you can do so up until the stated date and time. If you need to make any changes to the application, you MUST

make sure you re-submit the application, otherwise your application will not be considered



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Editing an existing application and resubmitting

If you wish to make changes to your application, you may do so by logging back into the Citizen Portal website at any time until 23:59 on the closing date of that

admissions group (Secondary: 31st October and Primary: 15th January)

Open our admissions website: Citizen Portal


Go into the ‘School Places’ menu

You will see a section here entitled ‘View or change existing applications/offers’

Against any children with the badge ‘Application Submitted’ against them, you are able to ‘Change Application’, ‘View Application’ or ‘Start New Application’:

Click ‘Change Application’ to edit an existing application you have submitted

You will be asked to confirm you wish the change the application

You can view your application if you wish by clicking ‘View Application’ to read through the application you have already submitted. This will open a separate window. You can click ‘Cancel’ if you do not wish to make changes or click ‘Continue’ to proceed and make changes to the application you have submitted

If you clicked ‘Continue’ to make changes to the application you will see a warning advising you that you must resubmit before the date/time given. If you require help with the application please see the ‘Creating a new application and submitting’ section of this guidance above



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If making changes to the application you will need to go through all of the application screens again, making changes where required. Once you have made your changes, you must click ‘Submit Now’ within the ‘Submit Your Application’ section

You have now submitted your application, you do not need to take any further action

If you need to make further changes to the application, you can do so up until the stated date and time. If you need to make any changes to the application, you MUST

make sure you re-submit the application, otherwise your application will not be considered



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Changing your Details You are able to change your personal details by logging into the Citizen Portal and selecting ‘My Account’ in the top right hand corner:

Personal Details

After logging into the Citizen Portal, within ‘My Account’ > ‘Personal Details’ you can view/amend your: Title, Forename, Surname and Gender here. Click ‘Save’ when you have made any amendments.

Contact Details

After logging into the Citizen Portal, within ‘My Account’ > ‘Contact Details’ you can view/amend your: your address details and telephone numbers on this screen. Click ‘Save’ when you have made any amendments.

Change Email Address

After logging into the Citizen Portal, within ‘My Account’ > ‘Change Email Address’ you can view/amend your: Email Address and Password here. Click ‘Submit’ when you have made any amendments.

Change Password

After logging into the Citizen Portal, within ‘My Account’ > ‘Change Password’ you can view/amend your Citizen Portal Password. Click ‘Submit’ when you have made any amendments.

Passwords must be a minimum of 10 characters, no longer than 128 characters and must contain a minimum of 2 number(s), at least 1 lower & 1 upper case character and a

minimum 1 special character. Remember that your password is case sensitive.


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Change Secret Question

After logging into the Citizen Portal, within ‘My Account’ > ‘Change Secret Question’ you can view/amend your Citizen Portal Secret Question. Click ‘Submit’ when you have made any amendments.

Change of Circumstances

See the details on the Citizen Portal screen regarding a change of circumstance.



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Help/Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Council Tax reference number Council Tax reference number is not necessary to complete an online school application

Q: Password not accepted If you are having difficulties getting our system to accept your password and/or e-mail address, please read the following tips below before contacting us. Passwords are case sensitive. Be careful not to confuse for example the figure ‘1’ with a lower case ‘l’, the figure ‘0’ with the letter ‘O’. Also, ensure you provide the same e-mail address that you used when registering. Q: Lost/forgotten password If you need to retrieve your password, click the ‘Forgotten Password’ link below the password box on the Admissions Online homepage. You will be asked to enter the e-mail address and the answer to your ‘secret question’ entered during your registration. Your password will be emailed to this email address.

See the ‘Resetting your account password’ section of this guidance for instructions on how to do this.

Q: My preferred school is not showing up when I enter the name and click search Try entering just a few letters of the school name, e.g. st mar for ‘St. Mark's’, or som for ‘Somerdale Educate Together Primary School’ and then click the ‘Search’ button.

Q: Do I need to complete a paper application form as well as the online form? No, you should not complete a paper form as well. Duplicate forms can cause delays in the application process as additional checks need to be made. Where duplicates are received, the most recently received on time application will be the one processed and any previous applications withdrawn. You may need to complete a supplementary information form if you apply for a voluntary aided (church) school, Academy or Foundation school to allow the governors or academy trust to consider your application in accordance with their admission criteria.

Q: Can I change the details on my application form? You can edit any of the details on the online application form right up to the appropriate closing date. *If you edit the application, do not forget to re-submit your form

See the ‘Editing an Existing Application and Resubmitting’ section of this guidance for instructions on how to do this.

Q: I am moving house, what should I do? The application form should be completed showing the address as at the time of application as it is the address of the child as at the closing date that determines the priority given to the


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application for the first round of allocations. If you are planning to move documentary evidence will be required in order for any address changes to be taken into account in the first round of allocations made on 01 March (secondary) or 16 April (reception and junior) or the next appropriate working day should either of those dates fall on a weekend or bank holiday, the appropriate evidence should be submitted by midnight on the closing date and time of 31 October (secondary) or 15 January (reception and junior).

However, if details of a change of address that will occur after the closing date (and before the start of term 1) is received with the appropriate documentary evidence by 14 November (secondary) or 30 January (reception and junior) it will be considered in the first round of applications. In all cases, it is your responsibility to make sure that the LA has received the documentary evidence. Please refer to the admissions booklets for examples of evidence that may be acceptable to determine a child’s address.

Q: How will I learn of the outcome of my application? You will be able to view the outcome of your application by logging on to the website using your password on or after the relevant offer date.

A letter giving further details of the offer of a school place will only be sent to those applicants who have not been offered their highest preference and those applicants who have indicated that they wish to receive their offer by 2nd class post on the relevant offer date. We cannot respond to telephone enquiries about the school offered from residents outside of Bath & North East Somerset.

Please note that you will only be able to view the outcome of your application online if you have applied online via the Admissions Online. If you apply by paper application form, you will not be able to view information online.

Q: I don’t know/have a UID (Unique Indentifer)

Letters will have been sent to schools for them to give to you regarding your child’s UID (Unique Identification Number). Don’t worry if you don’t have the UID as you can submit an application without it.

Q: I need some help with my application If you have any questions, please contact the ‘Admissions & Transport Team’ on 01225 394312 or by email at [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]

Documents

School Admissions Guidance - Bath and North East Somerset · School Admissions Guidance: Completing an Online Application Form for Primary and Secondary Schools in Bath & North East