Thornhill College outlines temporary admissions criteria for 2021/22

The Board of Governors at the girls’ Catholic Grammar have announced new temporary arrangements in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The school originally confirmed it would not be using the Post-Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC) run GL Assessment test to admit pupils this year last summer.

The PPTC this month said it was not proceeding with planned entrance exams as a result of the ongoing restrictions.

Thornhill have announced five new criteria for admitting pupils.

These are outlined as follows: "(1) Priority will be given to those applicants who have selected Thornhill College as their 1st Preference school.

"(2) Applicants who have a sister/half-sister/step sister or legally adopted sister presently enrolled in the College or who will be in the coming year.

"(3) Applicants who are the first girl in the family to transfer to second level education.

"(4) Applicants who are registered for entitlement to Free School Meals at the time of completing the Online Transfer Application or on any date up to and including April 12, 2021, no later than 4.00 pm and who have communicated within their application that they are listed on the EA register as being entitled to Free School Meals.

"(5) In the event of over subscription in any one criterion when applied in the order set, the selection of available places will be carried out using a method of random selection."

The school, which admits, 200 Year 8 pupils on an annual basis has been oversubscribed in each of the past three years.

In 2018/19 there were 240 applications, in 2019/20 there were 210, and for the current academic year there were 227.