St. George’s C.E. Primary School, Mossley Governors’ Admissions’ Criteria

The number of places available for the Reception Class for year 2010 will be a maximum of 25. Children are admitted to the school in the September of the school year in which they are 5 years of age.

All applicants for admission will be considered. However, in the event of there being more applicants than places available, the Governors will apply the criteria below, in the following categories of priority order. If the school is named in a statement of special educational needs the Governing Body has a duty to admit the child to the school 

1. Looked after children, i.e. children in public care.

2. Exceptional/special family or medical circumstances that may apply. In the event of a place being sought under this criterion, supporting evidence will be required, e.g. letter from doctor or hospital, Community Health Physician, Social Services or the Educational Psychologist, as appropriate. This evidence must state the reasons why the child should attend this school rather than any other school. A panel of officers from the governing body 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. Children living in the same home as brothers or sisters already in school at the time of admission. This will include step, half, foster and adopted siblings. 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.

4. Children from families having a regular involvement with St. George’s Church, i.e. where one or more parent or grandparent attends with the child on average once a month over the 6 months period immediately prior to application. This should be verified by a letter from the vicar or a completed certificate of attendance signed by the vicar.

5. Regular immediate family involvement with another church in the area which is a member of Churches Together where one or more parent or grandparent attends church with the child. Again, this should be verified by a letter from the vicar of that church, or a completed certificate of attendance signed by the vicar. It is expected that ‘regular’ be defined as attending on average once a month over the 6 months period immediately prior to application

6. Those whose homes are within the Parish of St. George’s Church.

7. Any other children

In the event of oversubscription, after all the above criteria have been applied, the following definitions will be used as tie breakers:

a) Children living nearest 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.

b) 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 public place 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.”

Note

• 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.
• If false or misleading information is given in the application, then the offer of a place may be withdrawn.
• Having attended a place in Nursery does NOT guarantee a place in Reception.
• Applications received after the closing date will be dealt with as late and will be considered after all application received
• on time have been processed.
• Children of Primary age moving into the area are admitted according to existing class vacancies.

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.

Appeals
Where the governors are unable to offer a place because the school is over subscribed, parents have the right to appeal to an independent admission appeal panel, set up under the School Standards and Framework Act, 1998, as amended by the Education Act, 2002. Parents will be allowed at least 10 school days from receiving the letter refusing a place to notify the clerk to the governors at the school. Parents will have the opportunity to submit their case to the panel in writing and also to attend in order to present their case. You will normally receive 10 school days’ notice of the place and time of the hearing. The panel’s decision is binding on the governors.

If you would like to put your child’s name down for the school, please contact the school so that you can provide details of your child's name, date of birth and address, including postcode. This will enable the school to send you a copy of Starting Out and the Common Application Form.

Re-written Mar 2009