St. Stephen’s (Droylsden) Admission Policy 2010-11

St Stephen’s is a Roman Catholic Primary School provided by the Diocese of Salford and is maintained by Tameside Local Authority as a voluntary aided primary school. The school’s governing body is the admission authority and is responsible for taking decisions on applicants for admission. For the school year commencing 2010/2011 the governing body’s planned admission number is 60.

Admission to the school will be made by the governing body in accordance with the equal preference scheme laid out in the new Admissions Code of Practice subject to the following criteria which will be used to form a priority order if there are more applications for admission than the school has places available.

Admission arrangements to the Nursery are different from admission into school. Admission in to Nursery does not guarantee a place in Reception.

The criteria should be read in conjunction with the additional notes below.

1. Baptised Roman Catholic children who are in public care.

2. Baptised Roman Catholic children where the child or family has exceptional medical or social needs.

3. Baptised Roman Catholic children who will have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of admission and resident in the parish of St. Stephen’s.

4. Baptised Roman Catholic children resident in the parish of St. Stephen’s.

5. Other baptised Roman Catholic children who will have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of admission and are resident in another parish.

6. Other baptised Roman Catholic children who are resident in another parish.

7. Other children who are in public care.

8. Children and families with exceptional medical or social needs

9. Other children who will have a sibling attending the school at the time of admission.

10. Other children with preference being given to children living nearest to the school.

Fr. Fallon

Notes

a) The governing body is the admissions authority. The admissions committee is comprised of the following governors: chair of governors, parish priest, and headteacher.

b) In the autumn term all parents who have expressed an interest in a school place will be sent a copy of the Local Authority ‘Primary Admission Booklet’ which gives details of the LA co-ordinated admissions arrangements. These are available from Local Authority offices, public libraries and primary schools.

c) Parents must complete a common application form and express up to three preferences for primary school admission. The closing date for all applicants is in accordance with the coordinated admissions scheme. The governors will consider all applicants at the same time in a fair way according to the published criteria.

d) Supplementary Form
The supplementary form must only request information relating to the fact of baptism. Any further information usually collected by the school should be requested on admission.

e) Parents will be informed of the governors’ decision by Tameside LA in accordance with the co-ordinated admission scheme. An offer of a place does not guarantee a place for brothers and sisters in subsequent years.

f) Each Roman Catholic applicant will be required to produce a baptismal certificate.

g) Proof of address: Parents should check carefully whether they are resident within the parish boundaries of St. Stephen’s. Maps illustrating parish boundaries are attached.

All applicants in the parish of St. Stephen’s will be required to provide proof of address. Applicants must provide two from the following list:

• Mortgage Statement*
• Tenancy agreement or letter from landlord*
• Council Tax Statement*
• Council Tax benefit statement*
• TV licence*
• Home contents insurance certificate*
• Buildings insurance certificate*
• Recent utility bill (gas, electricity, water, land-line telephone bill but not a mobile phone bill)**
• Letter from a solicitor confirming exchange of contracts on a house**
* issued within the last 12 months
** issued within the last 3 months

h) Home address:
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.
i) It is the duty of governors to comply with class size limits at Key Stage One. This means that the school cannot operate classes in Key Stage One of more than 30 children.

j) Special Needs
If a child has a statement of special needs naming a specific school there is a duty for the school to admit the child

Distance:
If in any category there are more applications than places available, priority will be given on the basis of proximity 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 local authority’s school admissions data mapping software, which employs a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.

Random allocation/ tie breaker:
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.

k) Siblings/Multiple births:
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.

l) 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.

m) Parents are asked to read and confirm receipt of the Governors’ published admission policy. Any changes to the policy will be circulated to all applicants on file for subsequent years.

n) Appeals: If the governing body has turned down an application for admission parents can appeal to an independent appeals panel. This appeal must be sent in writing to the clerk to the governors at the school; parents will be allowed at least 10 school days from the date of notification to submit their appeal. The date of notification will be 2 working days after posting by first class post. The parents must give their reasons for appealing in writing and the decision of the appeals panel is binding on the governors. The outcome of the appeal is binding on the parents and the governing body.

o) 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 (St Stephen’s RC Primary) is essential. A panel of Governors 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.”

Waiting Lists:
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.