Holy Trinity C.E Primary School Admission Arrangements

Admission Policy 2010/2011

We are a Church of England Aided School. We cater for nursery, infant and junior aged children.

We have room for 210 school age children and 46 part-time nursery children.

Parents should note that having attended our nursery does not guarantee a place in our reception class. Parents wishing their child to attend our reception class must apply for a reception class place.

Please Note: Children with statements of special educational needs – this is not an over- subscription criterion. The governing body has a duty to admit children with a statement of special educational needs that name the school.

Our Published Admission Number for the school is 30.

If in the event of over subscription the following criteria will be applied in priority.

Criteria For Over Subscription

• Children in Public Care (Looked after Children)
• Children and families with exceptional social and medical needs.

Evidence must be provided from a child’s doctor or other agency that he/she has exceptional needs which means that admission to a particular school is essential. Reference will be made to the Community Health Physician, Education Psychologist or Social Services as appropriate. A panel of governors will make a decision as to whether to admit a child under this criteria using the evidence provided. All information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence.

•  Priority will be given to children with brothers or sisters already attending the school at the time of admission.

The sibling criterion includes: natural sisters/brothers; step sisters/brothers; adopted sisters/brothers; sisters/brothers of fostered children, and in each case living at the same address. This allows for the admittance of children whose siblings will still be attending the preferred school.

In cases where twins, triplets or other multiple birth siblings, or other siblings whose date of birth falls within the same academic year, would be split when allocations take place, and there are too few places available at the school to accommodate them all, the governors will consult with the local authority and the parent to consider whether all the siblings can be offered a place at the same alternative school (which may not be a preference school named on the CAF) or whether the parents can be offered places at two or more schools with a view to the parent deciding which child will take up which offered place.

Places are allocated on the basis of the parents’ principal home address. The only address that can be considered is the address of the parent/guardian with whom the child is permanently resident. Where a child lives with parents with joint responsibility, each for part of the week, the home address, for the purpose of distance measurements will be that which the child travels to school for the majority of school days during a normal school week. If the number of days is exactly equal the home address will be that of the parent who receives the Child Benefit.

• Children who live within the former parish boundary of Holy Trinity according to the shortest distance from the school.

Distance will be measured as a straight line from the child’s home address, using the address point assigned by The National Land and Property Gazetteer, to the main gate to the school property. Measurements will be made using the local authority’s school admissions data mapping software, which employs a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.

In the event of distances being the same for 2 or more applicants where this distance would be the last place/s to be allocated, a random lottery will be implemented between the applicants where the distance is the same. The random lottery will be carried out in a public place and supervised by a person independent of the school. All the names will be entered into a hat and the required number of names will be drawn out.

• Other children.

The distance criteria above will be used in the event of the last places for 2 or
more children applying for a place at the school.

Late Applications

Applications received after the closing date will be dealt with as late and will be
considered after all applications received on time have been processed.

Appeals

Parents who are not allocated a place at the school have a right to appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel. The appeal must be sent in writing to the clerk of governors at the school. Parents can offer any evidence they wish to the appeals panel when it meets.

Waiting List

If the school is oversubscribed the governors will maintain a waiting list. The waiting list will operate until the end of the autumn term 2010 for those parents who have submitted an appeal or who have opted to go on the list. All pupils on the waiting list will be ranked according to the oversubscription criteria. Places will be offered, should any become available, to the highest ranked applications received by the date the place becomes available. If new or late applications have a higher priority under the oversubscription criteria, they will be ranked higher than those who have been on the list for some time. A significant change of circumstances, such as a change of address, will be taken into account: evidence must be provided. Children who have been referred under the local authority’s Fair Access protocol or who are the subject of a direction by the local authority to admit must be given precedence over any other children on the waiting list.

March, 2009