£50 non refundable deposit for 6th form - normal?

[Reindeerballs]

My daughter in year 11 is applying to various 6th Forms. She has just received a letter of offer from a state school academy which stipulates the following:

6 A/A* GCSE
Sixth form must be first choice
£50 non refundable deposit must be submitted asap to secure place as they are allocated on 'first come first served' basis.

The school does promise that she will be on a "fast track" with extra support for uni applications etc. it does not say the deposit in any way funds this, it appears to be purely to secure a place.

I am absolutely incensed at being asked to effectively pay for a place at a state school. Is this a normal procedure - what about those who can't pay?

can I ask what the rules,are re interviews for 6th for places

This is specifically covered in the Admissions Code. They can have a meeting to discuss options and entry requirements but the meeting cannot form part of the decision making process. If they ask the wrong sort of questions at the meeting this is something that can be brought up at appeal as evidence of a possible breach of the Code.

In reality, Tiffin Girls asks 8A to be offered a place. My daughter's predicted grades were 7A 5A but did not have an offer. The school told us to contact Tiffin on the result if she has 8A*.
She stayed at her current school, not bothered.

OP, how would they ever know if it really was your first choice?

prh, that is interesting about the questions - must get DD to pay attention to what they ask!

Foomama, no surprises their A'level results are so good then!

I bet I can find ordinary 6th forms that only require CCCBB in all the places people say then need 6xA. It's the insistence on "must be first choice" part of OP that me.

Tiffin girls are actually acting against their own admission rules for the sixth form by asking for those requirements. Their admission document for the sixth form 2015-2016, states requirements of 8 passes comprised of 4 A grades 2 B grades and presumably 2 C grades. Grade A GCSE is the minimum requirement for studying that subject at A Level !.

If they are discriminating against students from other schools, surely they are in line for getting in to a lot of trouble !.

As far as interviews are concerned, paragraph 1.9M is relevant for 6th form applications. It says that for sixth form entry a meeting may be held to discuss options and academic entry requirements for particular courses, but this meeting cannot form part of the decision making process on whether to offer a place. Up to you 5madthings as to whether you think they are deciding whether to admit after interview or not.
As far as entry to 6th form is concerned, when it is a continuation of study in the same school, then whilst they can meet to discuss there is an assumption that they will continue and have to be accepted as long as they meet the criteria. When it comes to moving schools, then there should be a published admission number for the number of pupils that are accepted from outside with an admission criteria. Frankly the admission number is ignored as the level of funding is higher and therefore they accept as many as they can squeeze in!

Tiffin girls are actually acting against their own admission rules for the sixth form

No they aren't. And I am by no means convinced the Schools Adjudicator would rule that they are illegally discriminating against students from other schools.

They must admit any pupil already at the school who achieves the grades required by the admission arrangements. That leaves them with far more applicants from other schools than there are places available - based on the published figures for recent years they have 7+ applicants for every place. If they simply required them to meet the grades in the admission arrangements they would be left with far too many successful applicants. As this school selects by ability they therefore need to make conditional offers requiring higher grades so that the number of successful applicants does not exceed the number of places available. In my view there would only be a problem if they failed to fill all the places available and some external applicants were turned away despite achieving the grades laid down in the admission arrangements.

It is possible the Adjudicator would require them to put up the grades required of internal applicants thereby freeing up more places for external applicants but I doubt it. I may be wrong. The Adjudicator does occasionally surprise me. But I suspect the only thing they would find wrong with these arrangements is placing pupils who are already at the school behind LAC in the admission criteria. If they achieve the required academic standard children who are already at the school must be admitted to the sixth form without going through the admissions process, and therefore come ahead of all external applicants.