St Annes Catholic Primary School

St Anne’s RC Primary School, a Voluntary Academy, a member of Emmaus Catholic Academy Trust, is a Catholic school in the Diocese of Salford. The school was founded by the Catholic Church to provide education for Catholic children, and it is maintained by the Academy Trust in accordance with the Trust Deed and the Articles of Association.

The school is conducted as a Catholic school in accordance with the Canon Law and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and in accordance with the principles of the Catholic Education Service and their 2021 guidance. Emmaus Catholic Academy Trust is the admissions authority and delegates this responsibility to Local Governing Bodies to administer the school’s admissions arrangements. This policy complies with the requirements of the School Admissions Code 2021, the School Admissions Appeals Code, and all other relevant legislation, including that on infant class sizes, equal opportunities, and disabilities.

As in previous years, for the academic year 2027-28, the school’s Indicated Admission Number remains at 30, so the Governing Body’s Planned Admission Number remains at 30.

Admission to the school will be made by the Governing Body strictly in accordance with the following set of criteria. These will be used to form a priority order if there are more applications for admission than the school has places available. The criteria need to be read in conjunction with the additional notes below.

Baptised Roman Catholic Looked After Children, Baptised Catholic previously Looked After Children and Internationally Adopted Previously Looked After Children.
Baptised Roman Catholic children with exceptional social and medical needs.
Baptised Roman Catholic children who will have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of admission and are resident in the Catholic Parish of St Anne.
Baptised Roman Catholic children who are resident in the Catholic Parish of St Anne.
Baptised Roman Catholic children who will have a brother or sister attending St Anne’s at the time of admission and are resident in another parish.
Other baptised Roman Catholic children.
Other children who are in public care and those children adopted from state care outside of England.
Other children with certified exceptional social and medical needs.
Other children.

For categories 1 to 6, a valid Certificate of Roman Catholic Baptism is required to establish the faith of a child. This proof of Baptism must be supplied to the school before the Governing Body’s Admission Committee meets to allocate places. Priority cannot be given to pupils within these categories without this documentary evidence.

Oversubscription and Tie-Breakers

In the event of the need for a further tie-breaker, then geographical distance will be considered. Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school, measured as a straight line. 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 of the school property. Measurements will be made using Tameside Local Authority’s school admissions data mapping software, which uses a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.

In the event of geographical distances being identical for two 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. It 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.

Children with Education Health and Care Plans where St Anne’s School is specifically named in a plan (in accordance with the provisions of the SEN Code of Practice) will be allocated places before the oversubscription criteria are applied.

Additional Notes

The Governing Body is the admissions authority. The Admissions Committee is comprised of the following governors: Headteacher and four Foundation Governors including the Parish Priest.

If you are a Tameside resident you must make your application to Tameside Local Authority, even if you wish your child to attend a school in another Local Authority area. You should put your child’s name down at any Tameside Primary school by the beginning of October.

Tameside primary schools will forward details of all the children who have been registered with them to the local Authority Team, who will send out details of how to apply in November. Details will include where to view “Starting Out” and a letter explaining how to make your application.

You should use your application to apply for any primary school, whether this is in Tameside or in another Local Authority area. Application details may also be obtained from the Admissions Section at Tameside MBC.

“Starting Out” will be available on Tameside’s website. NB: Each school application should be discussed with all parents and carers and only one application may be submitted for each child.

Parents must complete a Common Application Form and express up to six preferences for primary admission. The closing date for all applicants is set by the Local Authority. All applications that are received by the closing date will be considered by the governors at the same time in a fair way according to the published criteria. Applications received after the closing date will be deemed “Late” and will only be considered after all applications received on time have been processed.

Parents will be informed of the decision of the Governing Body by Tameside LA on the offer date in the Spring before admission. Parents should note that an offer of a place does not guarantee a place for brothers and sisters in subsequent years.

Parents should check carefully whether they are resident within the parish boundaries of The Catholic Parish of St Anne. A map illustrating parish boundaries as formally defined by the Salford Diocesan Boundaries Board is on view in the School Office.

Children are eligible for a Reception place from the beginning of the school year in which they become five years old. However, they do not become of compulsory school until the start of the term after their fifth birthday. Parents may therefore request that their school place be deferred until later in the school year. However, they cannot defer entry beyond the beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday, nor beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which the original application was accepted. Parents can also request that their child attends on a part-time basis until the child reaches compulsory school age.

A request may be made for a child to be admitted outside of their normal age group, for example, if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. In addition, the parents of a summer born child, i.e. a child born between 1st April and 31st August, may request that the child be admitted out of their normal age group, to Reception rather than Year One. Any such request should be made in writing to Mrs Stephanie Clarke at St Anne’s R.C. Primary School, Clarendon Road, Audenshaw M34 5QA at the same time as the admission application is made. The governing body will make its decision about the request based on the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child. In addition to taking into account the views of the head teacher, including the head teacher’s statutory responsibility for the internal organisation, management and control of the school, the governing body will take into account the views of the parents and of appropriate medical and education professionals, as appropriate.

Where the governors are unable to offer a place because the school is oversubscribed, parents have the right to appeal to an independent admission appeal panel, set up under the School Standards and Framework Act, 1998, as amended by the Education Act, 2002. Appeals can be made online or in writing to:

Democratic Services

Tameside One

Market Place

Ashton Under Lyne

Tameside MBC OL6 6BH

Parents will have the opportunity to submit their case to the panel in writing and also to attend in order to present their case. You will normally receive 14 days’ notice of the place and time of the hearing.

Where the Governing Body discovers that a child has been awarded a place as the result of an intentionally misleading application from a parent (for example, incorrect details of a place of residence in the catchment area) which effectively denies a place to a child with a stronger claim, then the governing body is required to withdraw the offer of the place. The application will be considered a fresh and a right of appeal offered if a place is refused.

Definitions

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.

Parent: Throughout this policy the term ‘parent’ includes:

All natural parents, whether they are married or not;
Any person who, although not a natural parent, has parental responsibility for a child or young person;
Any person who, although not a natural parent, has care of a child or young person.

Siblings: Sisters and Brothers: For the purposes of this policy, the words “brother” and “sister” refer throughout to natural sister or natural brother, half-sister or half-brother, adopted sister or adopted brother, step-sister or stepbrother, foster sister or foster brother, or the child of the parent/carer’s partner. The child for whom the school place is sought must be living in the same family unit and at the same permanent address as the brother or sister. This allows for the priority admittance of children whose brothers and/or sisters will still be attending the school at the time of admission.

Proof of Address:

Starting out and the application form ask parents to provide two proofs of address 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)

Late Applications

Applications received after the closing date which is the 15^th January. Late applications will only be considered after all applications received on time have been processed.

Change of Preference

Changes to preferences, ranking order or pupil details, will not be allowed after the closing date, except in exceptional circumstances, for example, if the family has moved address. Evidence must be provided to support the request. An intention to change address cannot be considered until the move has actually taken place and proof is available, or parents may provide a solicitor’s letter confirming an exchange of contracts on a property, or a tenancy agreement. No changes can be considered even where there are exceptional circumstances once information has been passed from Tameside Local Authority to the school Governors, because the allocations process has commenced.

Waiting Lists St Anne’s is frequently oversubscribed, so a waiting list is held until the end of the Autumn Term. Parents who have expressed the school as a preference and have not been offered a place at the school or at a higher preference school, will automatically be placed on the waiting list. Other parents who have submitted an appeal or who have opted to go on the list will also be placed 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 formally referred under the Local Authority’s Fair Access Protocol or who are the subject of a formal direction by the Local Authority to admit must be given precedence over any other children on the waiting list.

Children with Exceptional Medical Needs or Home Circumstances and/or Special Educational Needs Written evidence must be provided from a doctor or other agency that he/she has exceptional needs which means that admission to St Anne’s Primary School is essential. A panel of governors will make a decision as to whether to admit a child under these criteria using the evidence provided. All information provided will be in the strictest confidence.

A Looked After Child

This term also refers to a child who was previously looked after but immediately after ceased to be because they were subject to an adoption, residence, or special guardianship order. A looked after child is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions.

Infant Class Sizes

Infant classes (viz. those where the majority of children will reach the age of 5, 6 or 7 during the school year) must not contain more than 30 pupils with a single school teacher. Additional children may be admitted under very limited exceptional circumstances. These children will remain an ‘excepted pupil’ for the time they are in an infant class or until the class numbers fall back to the current infant class size limit.

Nursery Admissions

Admission arrangements to the Nursery are separate to these for the Reception Class. It must be noted by parents that attendance at the Nursery does not give priority or guarantee admission to the school and parents must reapply for a Reception place.