Admissions Arrangements
Parents/carers cannot apply for their child to attend Three Towers.
Wigan Council currently commissions all of our places. If you require further information about accessing one of our places, including a medical needs referral, please contact the Access & Inclusion Team directly.
Number of Places
We are currently registered for 193 places across the entire provision, however due to increased need we are commissioned for 201 places for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years. The distribution of these places varies in response to the needs of the local authority. Currently we have:
Key Stage 1 (Years 1 & 2) – 8 places
Lower Key Stage 2 (Years 3 & 4) – 10 places
Upper Key Stage 2 (Years 5 & 6) – 10 places
Lower Key Stage 3 (Years 7 & 8) – 16 places
Year 9 – 32 places
Year 10 – 48 places
Year 11 – 64 places
Medical Needs - 8 places are based at our Hindley Campus for medical needs referrals who are able to attend onsite or remotely using TEAMs to access the live lessons. We also allocate some of our places to in-patient teaching on Rainbow Ward at Wigan Infirmary. All these are places for dual-registered learners who remain on role with their mainstream school.
Our primary provision is based at our Whelley Campus and our secondary provision at our Hindley Campus.
Admission Arrangements
All referrals to Three Towers are considered on a needs-led basis. If we believe that we can meet the referred learner's needs, we then consider the appropriateness of the placement for that learner, as well as the effect admitting them will have on the wider group before we make a final decision to go ahead with the admission.
If we cannot meet the needs of the learner or we determine that accepting the referral is not in their best interest or that of our existing cohorts, we discuss this directly with the local authority who are statutorily responsible for providing alternative provision to permanently excluded learners. W
When we have accepted a referral we will endeavour to admit excluded learners no later than six days from receiving the referral if we can meet their needs. However, meeting this timescale is dependent on receiving the referral information as soon as possible from the referring school.
Once a referral has been accepted the relevant Admissions & Induction procedure is followed. This process depends on
- the type of referral;
- the key stage of the learner;
- the support requested in the referral;
- the identified needs of the individual referred (including their wellness); and
- the expected outcomes for the placement at Three Towers.
In order to ensure we meet the personalised needs of each learner it is important that any medical needs referral includes supporting evidence from medical professionals including recommendations about the extent of support required.
Whilst personalised to the learner, the different procedures have common strands – a discussion with the previous school to get an idea of what barriers the learner faces and what strategies have been tried, as well as what led to the referral being made; completion of a risk assessment with the previous school; a meeting with parents / carers and when appropriate external agencies involved with the learner to get their perspective on what led to the referral being made; completion of a 360 pastoral assessment with the learner and their parent / carer; a handover meeting at the learner’s mainstream school to collect all work and the school records; a variety of academic baseline assessments; and a visit to the Campus for those referred for onsite provision.
