How to Create an Admissions Policy

(Basic Licence)

Applicable to SIMS .net version

7.70 onwards.

Permissions required
You will need to be a member of the Admissions Officer User Group in System Manager to create an
admissions policy.
Please see your System Administrator/Manager if you are not sure whether you have the required
Permissions.
This help sheet is applicable only to those schools who are their own admissions authority and have applied
an Own Admissions Authority Basic Licence.

Introduction
An admissions policy represents a complete set of selection criteria and banding that a school can use to
define their admission requirements and therefore, which applicants, within a particular intake, will be
allocated a place at the school. The selection criteria will only be used in the event of the intake being
oversubscribed.
Some schools may wish to have multiple admissions processes occurring concurrently. For example, a
Primary school may have one admission policy for entry into their nursery and one for entry into Reception. It
is therefore possible to create more than one admissions policy.
Selection criteria must have been previously set up before an admissions policy can be created. For more
information, please see the How to Create Selection Criteria (Basic Licence) help sheet (SupportNet
Resource Number 10862).
For more information about the admissions process in SIMS .net, please see the Summary of the
Admissions Process Using SIMS .net (Basic Licence) help sheet (SupportNet Resource Number 10861).

Creating an admissions policy

1. Select Tools | Admissions | Admissions Policy to display the Find Admissions Policy browser.
2. After searching to ensure that the admissions policy does not already exist, click the New button on
the toolbar to display the Admissions Policy Details page.

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11062-00
 3. In the Basic Details panel, enter the admission policy Name and ensure that the Active check box
is selected.

Adding selection criteria

1. In the Standard Criteria panel, click the New button to open the Associate Criterion with Policy
dialog.

2. Highlight the required criterion then enter the Priority for the criterion, e.g. 1. Selection criteria are
assigned a priority to enable applicants to be grouped in the order in which they should be offered
places at your school. For example, a criterion of In Care could be allocated priority 1. Any
applicants who are in public care will be given priority admission over any other applicant (regardless
of what other selection criteria they may meet). A criterion of SEN Statement could be allocated
priority 2 and so on.
3. Repeat for any further criteria you wish to add to the policy.

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 NOTE: Only criteria that have not already been selected for this admission policy will be available for
selection.

Removing unwanted criteria from the policy

Highlight the criterion in the Standard Criterion panel then click the Delete button.

Adding a band
Multiple bands can be defined by users with a Basic Licence if required. For example, a Catholic faith school
may wish to have two bands where 75% of places are offered to Catholics and 25% of places are offered to
non Catholics.
With a Basic Licence, pupil/students must be manually allocated to the appropriate bands via ASL data
entry. For more information, please see the How to Enter Data for an ASL File (Basic Licence) help sheet
(SupportNet Resource Number 10864).
1. To add a new band, click the New button in the Bands panel to open the Add Band dialog.

2. In the Basic Details panel, enter a unique Name, e.g. Catholics.

3. Enter required percentage in the Percentage of Intake Places field, e.g. 75.

NOTE: Fair banding and filter rules can only be used by users who have purchased and applied an
Own Admissions Authority Full licence.

4. Click the OK button to add the band.

5. Add any further bands, ensuring that the percentage total of the bands is equal to 100.
6. The added bands are then displayed in the Bands panel.

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Saving the admissions policy
1. Click the Save button on the toolbar to save the admissions policy.

De-activating/activating admissions policies

There may be occasions when previously created admissions policies are either no longer required, or you
wish to prevent them from being used for a specific application season. This is achieved by de-activating the
application season as follows:
1. Select Tools | Admissions | Admissions Policy to display the Find Admissions Policy browser.
2. Search for, then double-click the required admission policy. The Admission Policy Details page is
displayed.
3. De-select the Active check box.
4. Click the Save button on the toolbar to save the changes to the admissions policy.
The admissions policy can be re-activated at any point in the future by selecting the Active check box.

For more information, please refer to:

ƒ SIMS .net Admissions Code of Practice – Own Admissions Authority handbook (double-click Other
Handbooks on the SIMS Help shortcuts panel in SIMS .net).
ƒ SIMS .net Admissions Code of Practice – Non Own Admissions Authority handbook (double-click
Other Handbooks on the SIMS Help shortcuts panel in SIMS .net).
ƒ Summary of the Admissions Process Using SIMS .net (Basic Licence) help sheet (SupportNet
Resource Number 10861).
ƒ How to Create Selection Criteria (Basic Licence) help sheet (SupportNet Resource Number 10862).
ƒ How to Enter Data for an ASL File (Basic Licence) help sheet (SupportNet Resource Number
10864).

Training courses
For information on training courses, please contact your SIMS Support Provider.

Providing feedback on this help sheet

If you have any suggestions or comments about this or any of our other help sheets, please email
helpsheets@capita.co.uk.

Help sheet revision history

Doc. Version Change Description Date
1062-001 Initial Release 12/06/06

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