St James’ Catholic Primary School Hattersley Admission Policy for 2010/11

St James’ is a Roman Catholic Primary School situated in the Diocese of Shrewsbury and is maintained by Tameside Education Authority as a voluntary aided school.

The Governors have a responsibility to maintain the distinctive Catholic character/nature of the school and the Admission Policy reflects this. As a Voluntary Aided school , the governing body is the Admissions Authority and is responsible for taking decisions on applications for admissions. The co ordination of the admissions arrangements is undertaken by the Local Authority. For the school year commencing September 2010 the School’s Admission number is 20.

Admission to the school will be made by the Governing Body. All preferences listed on the Local Authority Preference Form will be considered on an equal basis with the following set of admissions criteria forming a priority order where there are more applications than the school has places available.

Our admissions policy needs to be read in conjunction with the additional notes.

Admission to school

1. Baptised Catholic children who are in public care.
2. Baptised Catholic children who have a sibling in the school at the time of admission.
3. All baptised Catholic children residing in the Parish of St James’ Hattersley.
4. Baptised Catholic children residing in other parishes.
5. Other children who are in public care.
6. Other children who have a sibling attending the school at the time of admission.
7. Other children whose parents wish them to have a Catholic education.

Parish Boundary:

Parents should check carefully that they are resident within the parish boundary of St. James’ Hattersley.

Notes:

• All applications will be considered at the same time and after the closing date for admissions which is set by the Local Authority.
• All Catholic applicants will be asked to produce a baptismal certificate.
• It is the duty of the Governing Body to comply with class size limits in Key Stage One.
• The Governing Body reserves the right to withdraw the offer of a place where false evidence is received in relation to baptism, sibling connections or place of residence.

Oversubscription

If category 3 is over subscribed, children who satisfy 2 and 3 will have priority over children who satisfy only 3. subsequently if in this or any other category there are more applications than places available, priority will be given on the basis of distance from home to school.

Distance

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. Measurement will be made using the Local Authority’s school admissions data software, which employs a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.

The address from which the distance will be measured will be the permanent residential address at the time of application, of the parent with whom the child lives. Where a child lives with parents with shared responsibility, each for part of the 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 Child Benefit.

Those living nearer to the school will have priority.

Tie Breaker

In the event of the distance 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. All the names will be entered into a hat and the required number of names will be drawn out.

Definition of Siblings

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

In the case 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.

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.

Change of Preference

Admissions authorities will not allow preferences, ranking order or pupil details, to be changed after the closing date except in exceptional circumstances, for example , if the family has recently moved address. Evidence must be provided to support the request. No changes will be considered after the allocation process has started.

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 list will be ranked according to the oversubscription criteria. Places will be offered, should any become available, to the highest ranked application received by the date the place becomes available. If new or late applications have a 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 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 subject of a direction by the local authority to admit must be given precedence over any other children on the waiting list.

In –Year Applications

For “In-Year” applications received outside the normal admissions round and if places are available then children qualifying under the admissions criteria will be admitted. If there are places available but more applicants than places then the published oversubscription criteria will be applied.

Appeals:

If an application for admission has been refused by the Governing Body, the parents can appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel. This appeal must be sent in writing to the Clerk to the Governors within 14 days (10 working days) of refusal. The parents must give their reasons for appeal in writing and the decision of the Appeals Panel is binding on the Governors.

Nursery

Admission arrangements to the Reception Class are separate to those for the Nursery. Attendance at the Nursery does not give a child any guarantee or priority when it comes to consideration by the Governors of applicants for admission to the Reception Class.