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ADMISSIONS TO SCHOOL Parents who are seeking a place for their child at Garstang St. Thomas C.E. Primary School should contact the school and arrange an appointment with the Head teacher at any time following the child’s third birthday. At this meeting the Head teacher will explain the arrangements for admission and will offer a brief guided tour of the school. They will be given the admissions form and advised of its return date. The return of this completed form by the date shown serves as confirmation of the parents’ formal application for a place for their child. ADMISSION POLICY FOR GARSTANG ST THOMAS’ C.E. PRIMARY SCHOOL Criteria for Admission The school provides for a total of not more that 230 children, and the number of places each year, after consultation with the Local Authority, will be a maximum of 30. This arrangement follows consultations between the governing body, the Diocesan Board of Education, the Children’s Services Authority and other admissions authorities in the area. The governors will not place any restriction on admissions for Reception Class unless they are advised that the number of children for whom admission is sought is likely to exceed this number. By law, no infant class may contain more than 30 children. In the event that there are more applications than places, after admitting pupils with a statement of special educational needs naming the school, the governing body will allocate places (taking all first preferences before any second, and all second before any third, etc.) the following criteria, which are listed in order of priority: 1) Looked after children and others with special medical, social or other particular circumstances affecting the child where these needs can only be met at this school. 2) Parental involvement in the work and worship of the Parish Church of St. Thomas. 3) Parental involvement in the work and worship of another Church of England parish, which is not served by a Church school. 4) Parental involvement in the work and worship of another Christian church, which is a member of Churches together in Britain & Ireland. 5) Relationship as brother or sister attending the school at the time of transfer. 6) To judge between otherwise equal cases after the application of criteria 1-5, or within those categories if necessary, places are awarded by reference to distance from home to school. Notes: • Professional supporting evidence from e.g., a doctor, psychologist, social worker or clergyman, will be essential if admission under this criterion is to be considered. This includes looked after children. • Parental involvement in the work and worship of a church is considered for this purpose through information given on an Admissions Form that relates to the church attendance of the parents (or the more committed parent), as is supplementary information on whether or not the parents (or parent) are on the Church Electoral Roll (or similar evidence of church membership for other churches). Monthly church attendance over a period of at least the last 6 months is regarded as the minimum standard of genuine parental church involvement. Asking a clergyman to confirm always tests parental claims or otherwise what parents have said on their Admissions form. ‘Parent’ is defined as the parent with parental responsibility. • “Brother or sister” includes step, half, foster and adopted siblings living at the same address. • Where there are more applicants for the available places within a category, then a tie break will apply. The distance to home front door from the main gate of the school in a straight line (as the crow flies) will be used as the final determining factor, nearer addresses having priority over more distant ones. ADMISSIONS INFORMATION Last year the school was able to admit all pupils whose parents applied. TIMETABLE Applications for admission to the school should be made on the form enclosed with the Local Authority brochure between 1st September 2007 and 23rdth November 2007. If there are more applications then there are places available, the admissions committee will meet to allocate places. Letters informing parents of whether or not their child has been allocated a place will be sent out by the Local Authority by 10th March 2008. Parents of children not admitted will be informed of the reason and offered an alternative place by the Children’s Services Authority. The law requires that the governing body sets up an admissions committee to make all decisions about admissions. DEFERRED ADMISSION If your child is due to start school during the next academic year, it is important that you apply for a place for September. If your child’s fifth birthday is between the month of September and December, then, if you wish it, admission may be deferred until January; if it is between January and April, then admission may be deferred until the start of the summer term though it is likely to be in your child’s interest to start no later than January. LATE APPLICATIONS FOR ADMISSION TO RECEPTION Where there are extenuating circumstances for an application being received after the last date for applications, and it is before the governors have established their list of pupils to be admitted, then it will be considered alongside all the others. Otherwise, applications which are received after the last date will be considered after all the others, and placed on the waiting list in order according to the criteria. WAITING LIST Where we have more applications than places, the admissions criteria will be used. Children who are not admitted will have their name placed on a waiting list. The names on this waiting list will be in the order resulting from the application of the admissions criteria. Since the date of application cannot be a criterion for the order of the names on the waiting list, late applications for the school will be slotted into the order according to the extent to which they meet the criteria. Thus it is possible that a child who moves into the area later to have a higher priority than one who has been on the waiting list for some time. If a place becomes available within the admission number, the child whose name is at the top of the list will be offered a place. This is not dependent on whether an appeal has been submitted. This waiting list will operate until the second week of the autumn term only. TWINS Where there are twins wanting admission and there is only a single place left within the admission number, then the governing body will exercise as much flexibility as possible within the requirements of infant class sizes. If only one place can be offered then parents will be advised to go to appeal for the other twin, though with the Infant Class Size legislation, it is unlikely that an appeal panel will overturn the decision of the governing body. ADDRESS OF PUPIL The address used on the school’s admission form must be the current one at the time of application. If the address changes subsequently, the parents should notify the school. Where the parents live at different addresses and have shared parenting, the current-at-the-time-of-application, normal address of the child will be the one used. This will normally be the one where the child wakes up for the majority of Monday to Friday mornings. Parents may be asked to show evidence of the claim that is being made for the address, e.g., family allowance booklet, identity cards of various sorts showing the child’s address as the one claimed. Where there is dispute about the correct address to use, the governors reserve the right to make enquiries of any relevant third parties, e.g., the child’s GP. NON-ROUTINE ADMISSIONS It sometimes happens that a child needs to change school other than at the “normal” time; such admissions are known as non-routine admissions. Parents wishing their child to attend this school should arrange to visit the school. They will be provided with an application form. If there is a place in the appropriate class, then the governors will arrange for the admission to take place. If there is no place, then the admissions committee will consider the application and, if the parents wish, place the child on the reserve list. At the same time, information about how to appeal against the refusal will be provided. Please note that you cannot re-apply for a place at a school within the same school year unless there has been relevant, significant and material change in the family circumstances. APPEALS In the event of the Governors being unable to admit any child because all vacancies at the school have already been filled, the parent of the child whose admission has been refused may appeal in writing to the Clerk of the Appeals Committee, c/o The School, against the Governors’ decision, setting out the grounds of the appeal. Arrangements will be made for the parent to have an opportunity of stating this case to an Appeals Committee constituted under the School Standards and Framework Act, 1998), as amended by the Education Act, 2002. 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. If your child was refused a place in Reception or Key Stage 1 because of Government limits on Infant class sizes, the grounds on which your appeal could be successful are limited. You would have to show that the decision was one which in the circumstances no reasonable governing would have made, or that your child would have been offered a place if the governors’ admissions arrangements had been properly implemented. Please note that this right of appeal against the governors’ decision does not prevent you from making an appeal in respect of any other school. FRAUDULENT APPLICATIONS 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 a false claim to 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 then be considered afresh and a right of appeal offered if a place is refused.
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