The admissions process at Sands is a bit different from most schools because it is based on the child themselves being given the opportunity to decide if Sands is going to be the right school for them.
Making an enquiry
The first step is to get in touch with us to find out more about the school and see if it might be the right fit for your family. Use our contact form to get in touch with the admissions team. Following a chat with our admissions team, we will offer you a visit to the school so you can see how Sands works for yourself. Visits are usually booked on a Tuesday or Thursday morning at 10.30 and are offered to families where we have a space available for your child’s year group or you are looking to join year 7 in following year and we feel fairly confident we will be able to meet your child’s needs. The best people to tell you about Sands are those that use it, so our tours are given by our current students. After that you’ll meet with a member of our Admissions Team, to talk through the enrolment process and answer any questions.
Open Days
Families with younger children looking to join in Year 7 may want to come to one of our Open Days. We usually hold Open Days in the Autumn and Spring and they are wonderful relaxed days where you can look around the school, meet staff, current students and parents and try out our teaching style in some relaxed workshops. For dates of our next Open Days and to register to come along please see the Latest Events page.
Try-Out Week
If you think Sands could be a good fit the next step is for the student to come and try it for themselves for 5 days, known as a try-out week. At the end of their try-out week, students are given an informal interview by their peer group to see how they got on and if they want to come to Sands. Places are offered on the basis that we have a space available, we can meet the student’s academic and other needs and the student is making an active and informed choice to come to Sands.
Our Try-Out Week Guide for Prospective Students, gives a detailed explanation of what to expect on your Try-Out Week.
To apply for a place please complete and Return our Application Form, along with a copy of your child’s most recent school report (or an equivalent from a tutor or group if home educated) and any paperwork you have about any additional needs they may have. Applications should be returned to the Admissions office by post or to enquiry@sands-school.co.uk.
For more information on the admissions process please see our Admissions Policy.
Year Groups at Sands
At Sands we believe that academics should be balanced with the other aspects of a young person’s life; family, friends, hobbies, sports and wellbeing are all equally as important as exam success. For this reason we decided to take some pressure off and give our young people more time and space in their life by spreading the secondary school experience out over 6 years instead of the usual 5. This means most of our students move on from Sands at the age of 17 instead of 16. This has had numerous benefits for all our students. Those that find academics stressful can take more time over their studies and even take exams more than once if they need to. Those who relish academic challenge can study more subjects and delve deeper into the curriculum have time to do that too.
However, we also recognise that not all of our students will want this extra year. It is therefore important to think carefully about your learning journey when deciding which year group to apply for. Here’s a quick guide to our year groups:
- Y1 – Year 7 – Aged 11-12
- Y2 – Year 8 – Aged 12-13
- Y3 – Year 9 – Aged 13-14
- O3 – Year 10 – Aged 14-15 (students begin their GCSE courses this year)
- O2 – Year 11 part 1 – Aged 15-16 (students typically take about half of their exams in this year)
- O1 – Year 11 part 2 – Aged 16-17 (students complete the remainder of their subjects this year and can take up some extra one-year courses)
If you would like to take advantage of our 6 year programme you should apply for a place in your child’s age cohort. If you would prefer that your child moves onto college at the normal school leaving age of 16, you should apply for a place in the year above. We add spaces to our year groups at Y2 and again at O3 to allow for students to join us at different points in their journey. If your child was previously placed in a lower group than their age, we recommend that you now move back up to their normal age group either by jumping from year 5 to Y1 or from year 6 to Y2, in order not to limit their options after Sands when moving onto college. If you’re not sure which is the right year group for your child, get in touch with our Admissions team to talk it over.
Y1 admissions (equivalent to Year 7)
Most children will do their Try-Out Week sometime during the year before they join, i.e. when they are 10 turning 11. The timing depends on when they are ready, they can grow up a lot over that preceding year, but also on the situation of the family. For families moving to Devon it helps to have a Try-Out earlier in the year to have plenty of time to organise the house move after being offered a place. We cannot commit to offering a place until the Try-Out Week is completed but before this there is usually a more gradual process of getting to know each other through visiting the school and / or coming to an Open Day or two. This gives a good indication of whether going on to do a Try-Out week is going to be appropriate.
In-year / admissions into other year groups
If there is space we are not at all prescriptive about the point at which children can join the school or the time of year when they can start. If you are looking to enrol in a current year group the first step is to get in touch to find out if we have spaces and to join our list of interested families.
Admissions and SEND
We endeavour to be as inclusive as is possible whilst offering an academic curriculum that is broadly aligned to Key Stages 3 and 4. A key part of coming to Sands is students having the capacity to take responsibility for their own learning and for their behaviour. In particular, students need to be able to use the school’s freedoms without putting themselves or others at risk and without detracting from others’ learning and enjoyment of the school. We don’t have the breadth of skills and experience of a Special School and will not be an appropriate school for everyone.
Due to constraints of resources we can only process applications for up to two students with EHCPs at a time per year group. Where families are in the process of applying for an EHCP we will need to see the draft EHCP before we can assess an application.
For more information on how we can support additional needs please see our SEND Policy.