Primary Schools in Tameside

Primary school age ranges are as follows:

• Key Stage 1 (Infants) 4 to 7 years
• Key Stage 2 (Juniors) 7 to 11 years

There are four types of maintained primary schools in Tameside: community, voluntary controlled, voluntary aided and community special schools. They all work with and receive funding from the council. There are however some differences:

Community schools - the council employs the school’s staff, owns the school’s land and buildings and is the admissions authority. The council has primary responsibility for deciding the arrangements for admitting pupils. Some primary schools have specialist resourced provision to meet the needs of pupils who have significant special educational needs which cannot be met in schools without this provision - only pupils with a Statement of Special Educational Needs are able to access this provision.

Community special schools - there are currently three community special schools (to meet the needs of pupils with a Statement of Special Educational Needs only - each school is designated to meet the needs of pupils with specific needs). Admission is through a Statement of Special Educational Needs where the special school is named in Part 4.

Voluntary Controlled (VC) schools - the council is the employer and the admissions authority. The school’s land and buildings will normally be owned by a charitable foundation or a religious group (e.g. diocese, synagogue etc).

Voluntary Aided (VA) schools - in voluntary aided schools the governing body is the employer and the admissions authority. The school’s land and buildings will normally be owned by a charitable or religious foundation. The governing body will contribute towards the capital costs of running the school. The governing body also decides the admission arrangements for the school. The council administers the admissions process for VA schools, through the co-ordinated admissions scheme.

Three lists of schools appear on Allocation Statistics September 2009 section. Those in List A are community and voluntary controlled schools, List B are voluntary aided schools. List C are community special schools.

Those schools with an (N) after the headteacher’s name have a Nursery section, and those with (VC) after the headteacher’s name are voluntary controlled.

If you are considering a voluntary aided school, you will need to check details of the school’s admission arrangements in the school’s prospectus.