Dear Parents and Carers,
We understand how important your child’s education is to you. Rest assured that we, as a Trust, are committed to providing high quality education and learning experiences that will help your child achieve their full potential and ambitious aspirations.
We acknowledge the frustration many of you have faced during the recent Gosforth Academy and Great Park Academy admissions process, and we want to address your concerns and questions with a set of FAQs, which you can find below. However, we would also like to highlight some key information about our admissions policy, the process and our schools.
Great Park Academy opened to Year 5 students in September 2021 and has been successfully providing education from a permanent building, temporarily located on the Gosforth Academy site, until its new home opens in September 2025. The need for Great Park Academy has arisen due to the increased number of students moving up from feeder schools. Without Great Park Academy, there wouldn't be enough school places to accommodate all students.
There has been an unprecedented number of applications for Year 9 places, and we have worked closely with the Admissions Team at Newcastle City Council to ensure that all Year 8 students in a Gosforth middle school would be allocated a place within the Gosforth three-tier system. All families who selected Great Park Academy as their first choice on National Offer Day have been offered a place, and Gosforth Academy has made 19 offers above the PAN to provide the required number of places.
We are confident that the Gosforth Academy Admissions Policy has been applied correctly. Full public consultation and reviews of the policy were carried out according to statutory requirements in the autumn of 2021 for admissions in 2023 and subsequent years. This is the first time the random allocation has been implemented, and this is due to the large number of applications made for Year 9 places at Gosforth Academy and not because of any admissions policy change.
Great Park Academy and Gosforth Academy are both excellent schools which provide high quality education and learning experiences with a broad and balanced curriculum. Our Trustees and school teams are committed to providing the very best teaching and learning experiences at both schools.
We hope that this information has provided you with clarity and reassurance.
Gosforth Group.