Tameside MBC
Admission Arrangements For Stalyhill Junior School 2010/11 Academic Year

Introduction

These arrangements apply to the admission of children, currently attending an Infant School, to Stalyhill Junior School in the normal admissions round for the academic year 2010/11.

Published Admission Number For Stalyhill Junior School

The Published Admission Number for entry in September 2010 is 60.

Applying For A Place At Stalyhill Junior School September 2010

If your child attends Stalyhill Infant School, you will receive an application form - the Common Application Form (CAF) Junior - from the Infants School in December 2009. The CAF Junior can also be obtained from the School Admissions Section at Tameside MBC.

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

The Local Authority (LA) may verify information you provide on the form, which could involve contacting other departments of the LA. 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 LA has the right to withdraw the offer of a school place.

The Process

• The application form will invite parents to indicate a preference for a place at Stalyhill Junior School, or at another Tameside primary school.
• Forms must be returned to Stalyhill Infant School, if your child attends there, or to the Admissions Section, by the closing date of 8 January 2010, with any supporting information / evidence if appropriate.
• Late applications will be dealt with as late and ranked after all applications received by the deadline.
• Stalyhill Infant School will forward all application forms (CAF Junior) to the LA.
• Changes to pupil details, such as a change of address, cannot be considered after the closing date, 8 January 2010.
• Decision letters in respect of places at Stalyhill Junior School will be sent out to parents on 5 February 2010. These letters will also inform parents of their right of appeal, and who to contact, if an application has not been successful.
• If parents indicate that they wish their child to be considered for a place at another Tameside primary school for September 2010, they will be sent a transfer request form in May 2010. Completed forms should be returned to the Admissions Section by Friday 21 May 2010.
  

Criteria For Allocating Places If The School Is Oversubscribed

Where applications for admission to the 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. 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 are:

1. Children in Public Care (Looked After Children)

2. Children who attend Stalyhill Infant School at the time of application

3. 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.

4. Sibling: this will apply where there are brothers or sisters attending the 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 Year 3. 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.

5. Distance: Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to 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 LA’s school admissions data mapping software, which uses a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.

Where oversubscription occurs in applying either criteria 1, 2, 3 or 4, 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 CAF.

Waiting List

If Stalyhill Junior School is oversubscribed the LA 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 LA 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, 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 LA 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, if appropriate. 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 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 LA.