Pupils are also admitted to the sixth form aged 16 or 17, for which similar criteria is applied. External students must have at least five predicted A* GCSEs and will be given conditional offers based on how high their predicted grades are. In the event of over-subscription, priority will be given to internal applicants, followed by external applicants in Local Authority Care. Students are then ranked according to their predicted or actual GCSE results, and the distance to school is again used as a tiebreaker. Should entrance be refused for any reason, parents have a statutory right of appeal, which is heard by the governors of the school. In 2007, the school was ordered to pay compensation to two pupils after it was deemed that they did not receive fair appeals because of what the Local Government Ombudsman deemed "inappropriate links" between the appeals panel and the governors.