Over-Subscription Criteria

• Community and voluntary controlled schools (List A)
• Voluntary aided schools (List B)
• Definitions for admission arrangements
• Data Protection Act
• Stalyhill Junior School

Community and voluntary controlled schools (List A)

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 for community and voluntary controlled primary schools are:

1. Children in Public Care (Looked After Children)
2. 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 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.

3. Sibling: this will apply where there are brothers or sisters attending the school or the linked junior 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 Reception. 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.

4. Distance: Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school taking into account ease of access to and distance from alternative schools.

Ease of access will be considered when parents provide details of particular reasons that mean their child could reach their nearest school but will have a disproportionately long journey to another school if denied admission to their nearest school. Details must be provided on the special circumstances section 38.78 KB of the common application form.

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.

Voluntary aided schools (List B)

In voluntary aided schools (List B) the governing body is responsible for determining the admission arrangements and for allocating the places at the school.

Many voluntary aided schools require applicants for a school place to provide additional information, for example a Baptismal certificate for Roman Catholic schools or confirmation of church attendance for Church of England schools, if they wish to be considered under the faith-based criteria. This may mean completing a supplementary form.

If you are considering a voluntary aided school as one or more of your preferences, you are strongly advised to contact the Headteacher for further information about the school and the admission arrangements and, where applicable, the supplementary form.

The admission arrangements are posted on the Tameside Council website, and can also be obtained on request from the School Admissions Section.

Definitions for admission arrangements

Unless stated otherwise in the admission arrangements for any voluntary aided school, the following definitions will apply.

Definition of 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. Measurements will be made using the local authority’s school admissions data mapping software, which uses a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.

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 .

Tie-breaker

If a school is oversubscribed within any of the criteria, priority will be given to those children living nearest to the school. 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 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.

The Data Protection Act

The council maintains a register entry in respect of education which includes the administration relating to pupils.

Personal information provided on the application form is treated in confidence and complies with the requirements of the Act. This information may also be shared with other Local Authorities.

Verification of Information - the council may verify information you have provided on the application form, which could involve contacting other departments of the council or other councils who maintain appropriate records. In instances where the information provided is different from that held by them, they may use the information on the application form.

Stalyhill Junior School

Tameside only has one junior school: Stalyhill Junior School. Parents of children attending Infants schools who wish to be considered for a transfer to Stalyhill Junior School in September 2010, must complete the Common Application Form (CAF) Junior, and submit it to Stalyhill Infants School, if that is where your child attends, or direct to the Admissions Section, by 8 January 2010. Further information about the Stalyhill admission arrangements are available on the Tameside website, or from the Admissions Section.