Admission Arrangements For Tameside Community And Voluntary Controlled Primary Schools

2010/11 Academic Year

Introduction

These arrangements apply to the admission of children to Tameside community and voluntary controlled primary schools in the normal admissions round for the academic year 2010/11. Tameside will operate an equal preference scheme.

Applying For A Place In A Tameside Community And Voluntary Controlled Primary School - September 2010

If you wish your child to attend a Tameside primary school, whether or not you live in Tameside, you should put your child’s name down at the school you would like him/her to attend, by the beginning of October 2009. Application packs will be sent out by schools on 19 October 2009. The pack will contain a Starting Out booklet, a letter, a Common Application Form and a leaflet about applying on-line. You should use the form to apply for a Tameside primary school, even if you live in another Local Authority area. Application packs may also be obtained from the Admissions Section at Tameside MBC.

NB: Each school application should be discussed with all parents and carers of the child, and only one Tameside application may be submitted for each child.

The local authority may verify information you provide on the form, which could involve contacting other departments of the local authority. In instances where the information provided is different from that held by them, they may use the information on this form to investigate further. If false or misleading information is given, Tameside local authority has the right to withdraw the offer of a school place.

The Process

• The Common Application Form will invite all parents to indicate a preference for 3 schools, and then to rank the schools in order of preference, giving reasons for each preference. In allocating places, Tameside will operate an equal preference scheme.
• Forms must be returned to the preferred primary school by the closing date of 4 December 2009, with any supporting information / evidence if appropriate.
• There will be a common timetable for all including a single notification date. Late applications will be dealt with as late and ranked after all applications received by the deadline.
• Changes to preferences, ranking order, or pupil details, will not be allowed after the closing date of 4 December 2009, except in exceptional circumstances, for example, if the family has recently moved address. Evidence must be provided to support the request. An intention to change address cannot be considered by the local authority until the move has actually taken place and proof is available, or parents may provide a solicitor’s letter confirming an exchange of contracts on a property, or a tenancy agreement. No changes can be considered even where there are exceptional circumstances once information has been exchanged with the other admission bodies by the Council, because the allocations process has commenced. In the case of primary schools this cut-off date is the 15 January 2010.
• Primary schools will forward all application forms (common application form) to the local authority who will forward copies to any voluntary aided schools named on the form, as appropriate.
• Notification letters containing offers of a single school place will be sent out to parents on 29 March 2010. These letters will also inform parents of their right of appeal, and who to contact, if an application has not been successful.
• Parents will not receive multiple offers.

Electronic Admissions By E-Mail

Parents with a working e-mail address have the opportunity to apply on-line. To access this facility log on to Tameside’s website (www.tameside.gov.uk), then under quick links click on ‘Admissions on-line.’ This will take you to the log on page where you will need to register before you can make an application. The local authority will send you a confirmation reply.

Preferences can then be entered in ranked (priority) order. These may be changed at any time before the closing date of 4 December 2009. Parents can also opt to receive confirmation of their child’s school allocation by e-mail on 29 March 2010. Letters will additionally be sent by post.

Published Admission Numbers For Tameside Community And Voluntary Controlled Primary Schools

A list of all Tameside community and voluntary controlled primary schools, with their respective Published Admission Numbers, is attached at Appendix 1.

Where applications for admission to any school exceed the number of places available, the following criteria (see also ‘Starting Out’ booklet) will be applied, in the order set out below, to decide which children to admit.

Criteria For Allocating Places To Oversubscribed Schools

Children with statements of special educational needs where the school is named will be allocated places before the oversubscription criteria are applied. The criteria for over-subscription for community and voluntary controlled primary schools are:

1. Children in Public Care (Looked After Children)

2. Children and families with exceptional medical or social needs

Written evidence must be provided by a suitably qualified professional – e.g. a GP or consultant for medical needs, or a social worker for social needs – that he/she has a exceptional needs, which means that admission to a particular school is essential. A panel of officers from Tameside MBC will make a decision as to whether to admit a child under this criterion, using the evidence provided. All information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence.

3. Sibling: this will apply where there are brothers or sisters attending the school or the linked junior school at the time of application, who will still be attending at the time of admission, i.e. in the September when a pupil is admitted to Reception. Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school.*

The sibling criterion includes; natural sisters/brothers; half 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.

4. Distance: Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school taking into account ease of access to and distance from alternative schools.

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 uses a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.

Ease of access will be considered when parents provide details of particular reasons that mean their child could reach their nearest school but will have a disproportionately long journey to another school if denied admission to their nearest school. Details must be provided in the special circumstances section of the common application form.

* Where oversubscription occurs in applying either criteria 1, 2 or 3, priority will be given to those pupils living nearest the school, measured as a straight line (as above).

The address from which distance will be measured will be the permanent residential address, at the time of application, of the parent with whom the child is normally resident. Where a child lives with parents with shared responsibility, each for part of a week, the home address is the address from which the child travels to school for the majority of school days per week. If the number of days is exactly equal the home address will be that of the parent who receives the Child Benefit.

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

In cases where twins, triplets, other multiple birth siblings, or other siblings whose date of birth falls within the same academic year, are split when allocations take place, parents will be offered a choice of breaking the sibling link and being offered places at two or more schools or all siblings being offered a place at the same school which may not be a preference school named on the common application form.

NB: Many primary schools have nursery classes or foundation units. Admission arrangements to the nursery are different and having a place in the nursery class/foundation unit does not guarantee a place in the reception class in that school.

Waiting Lists

If any community or voluntary controlled primary school is oversubscribed the local authority will operate 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. The local authority will offer places, 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.

Appeals

Any parent who is dissatisfied with their school allocation has the right of appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel. For pupils with a statement of Special Educational Needs, an appeal can be made to the SEN and Disability Tribunal (details are included in the Statement).

Parents, therefore, who wish to appeal against any decision of the local authority in refusing admission to a community or voluntary controlled primary school, should do so by completing a School Admission Appeal Form, setting out clearly why your child should go to that particular school. Information about appeals will be sent out with the allocation letter. Forms can also be obtained from, and should be returned to, the School Admissions Section at Tameside MBC, Council Offices, Wellington Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, OL6 6DL.

The Appeals Panel will:

• be independent of the school and the LA;
• give the appellant, who may be accompanied by a friend or be represented, the opportunity to make oral representation;

The admission authority (LA?) will:

• give the appellant at least fourteen days notice of the time and place of the hearing;

The clerk will:

• give the appellant at least seven days notice of any written representations made to it by the LA.

The appeal shall be decided by a simple majority of the votes cast, the chairman of the panel having a casting vote.

The decision of the Appeals Panel and the grounds on which it was made shall be communicated by the Clerk in writing to the appellant. That decision shall be binding on all parties. Subject to the above conditions, all matters of procedure shall be determined by the local authority.