Admission Policy and Arrangements for St Raphael’s R C Primary School

St Raphael’s is a Catholic Primary School under the trusteeship of the Diocese of Shrewsbury. It is maintained by Tameside Education Authority. 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 admissions arrangements is undertaken by the Local Authority. For the school’s year commencing September 2010, the Governing Body has set its admissions at 26.

Admissions to the school will be made by the Governing Body. Children with Statements of special educational needs where the school is named in the Statement will be allocated places before the oversubscription criteria are applied. All preferences listed on the Local Authority Preference Form will be considered on an equal basis with the following set of admission criteria forming a priority order where there are more applicants for admission that the school has places available.

a) Baptised Catholic children in the care of the local authority (Looked after Children);
b) Baptised catholic children in the parish of St Raphael’s , Millbrook
c) Baptised catholic children who have a brother or sister at the school at the time of admission;
d) Baptised Catholic children from other parishes
e) Children who are not baptised Catholic but are in the care of the local authority (LAC);
f) Non Catholic children who have a brother or sister at the school at the time of admission;
g) Children who are not baptised but whose parents wish them to have a Catholic Education.

Notes

1. All applications submitted on time will be considered at the same time

2. 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

3. All catholic applicants will be required to produce baptismal certificates.

4. It is the duty of the Governors to comply with class size limits in Key Stage One

5. If category (b) is over subscribed, children who satisfy (b) and (c) will have priority over children who satisfy only (b). 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 and school, those living nearer to the school having priority.

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

7. The definition of sibling applied by Tameside will be applied: natural sisters/brothers; half sisters/ brother; adopted sisters/brothers; sisters/brothers of fostered children, and in each case living at the same address The governing body reserves the right to give special consideration to twins or triplets etc to prevent breaking the sibling link. For example, where twins, triplets or other multiple birth siblings 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.

8 Distance will be measured as a straight line from the child's home address, using the address point assigned by Tameside Council Master Address Database, The Local 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

9 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.

10. 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 someone independent of the school. All the names will be entered into a hat and the required number of names will be drawn out.

11 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 application 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.”

Please note: Children entering the Nursery will not automatically be offered a place in the Reception Class. The admissions criteria for entrance into the main school will be implemented at this stage.