The schools adjudicator says two of Worthing High's Year 7 priority rules break the admissions code. The trust must fix them by 30 October.

Two of the rules Worthing High School uses to rank Year 7 applicants break the national School Admissions Code, the schools adjudicator has ruled. The school’s trust must rewrite them by Friday 30 October.

That is one day before the deadline for secondary school applications in West Sussex, at 11.59pm on Saturday 31 October, the county council says.

The ruling covers places starting in September 2027. It is binding on the trust, and the corrected rules must be used before offers go out on national offer day, 1 March 2027.

The adjudicator’s determination, reference ADA4649, is dated 21 October. The objection came from the clerk to West Sussex County Council’s admission appeals panel, which raised it on 6 May.

The two rules that have to change

Worthing High is an 11 to 16 academy on South Farm Road. It is run by the South Downs Education Trust, which has one other school: Clapham and Patching Church of England Primary.

When the school has more applicants than places, its published arrangements rank children with an education, health and care plan first, then in this order:

  1. looked after and previously looked after children
  2. children of staff who work on a permanent contract for South Downs Education Trust
  3. brothers and sisters of current pupils who live in Worthing borough
  4. children attending a school that is part of South Downs Education Trust
  5. other children who live in Worthing borough
  6. brothers and sisters of current pupils who live outside the borough
  7. other children who live outside the borough

The adjudicator, Philip Lloyd, upheld the objection to rules 2 and 4.

Staff children. The code lets a school give priority to children of staff employed at the school, either for two years or more or recruited to a post with a demonstrable skills shortage. Worthing High’s rule covered anyone on a permanent contract with the trust. The trust told the adjudicator it runs a “one staff” philosophy and does not want to separate staff by school or role. The ruling says that “employed by the Trust” is not the same as “employed at the school”, and the rule does not comply.

The feeder school rule. The code says a previous school can count only if it is a named feeder school. A rule covering any school in the trust is not named. The appeals panel worried it could also cover a secondary school if one ever joined the trust. The adjudicator upheld that part too.

The trust had not formally set its rules

The determination also records that the trust had not done the basic paperwork.

  • Every admission authority must formally determine its arrangements by 28 February each year. The trust did not do so for 2027.
  • It first sent board minutes from July 2025, then said determination had happened under delegated powers. It could not provide evidence of that.
  • After meeting the adjudicator, the trust held an extra board meeting and determined the 2027 arrangements on 14 October 2026.
  • The staff rule had been reworded from the 2026 version without the consultation the code requires. The old wording at least included the two-year and skills-shortage tests.

The adjudicator says the late determination is why the ruling came so close to the application deadline.

Two smaller points must also be fixed by 30 October. The arrangements do not explain how to apply for a place outside a child’s normal year group. And the tie-break measures distance “from a central point in each building”, which the ruling calls unclear on a site with several buildings. The trust accepted that the wording “could be more specific”.

What it means for you

  • If you are applying for Year 7 in September 2027, the deadline is still 31 October. Apply through West Sussex County Council, not the school. You can change a saved or submitted application until then.
  • If you were relying on the staff rule, it will now apply only to staff employed at Worthing High itself. Check the school’s revised arrangements once they are published.
  • If your child is at Clapham and Patching Primary, that school can still be given priority only if the trust names it as a feeder in the revised rules.
  • Priority for Worthing residents is unaffected. Rules 3 and 5, which favour families in the borough, were not challenged.

The school had 1,050 pupils against a capacity of 1,122, according to the government’s Get Information About Schools register. Term dates for every Worthing school are on our school term dates page.

Sources