Highwood Copse Primary School

Admissions

   

 Highwood Copse Primary School

The Children Come First 

Name of Policy

 

 

Admissions Policy

Scope of Policy

 

 

All admissions to Highwood Copse Primary School

Approved by

 

Board of Trustees

Date of Approval

 

September 2023

Review period

 

Annually

Review Date

 

September 2024

 

Contents

  1. Aims. 3
  2. Legislation and statutory requirements. 3
  3. Definitions. 3
  4. How to apply. 4
  5. Requests for admission outside the normal age group. 4
  6. Allocation of places. 5
  7. In-year admissions. 6
  8. Appeals. 7
  9. Monitoring arrangements. 7

 

1. Aims

This policy aims to:

  • Explain how to apply for a place at the school
  • Set out the school’s arrangements for allocating places to the pupils who apply
  • Explain how to appeal against a decision not to offer your child a place
  •  

2. Legislation and statutory requirements

This policy is based on the following advice from the Department for Education (DfE):

As an academy, the school is required by its funding agreement to comply with these codes, and with the law relating to admissions as set out in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.

This policy complies with our funding agreement and articles of association.

 

3. Definitions

The normal admissions round is the period during which parents can apply for state-funded school places at the school’s normal point of entry, using the common application form provided by their home local authority. 

Looked after children are children who, at the time of making an application to a school, are:

  • In the care of a local authority, or
  • Being provided with accommodation by a local authority in exercise of its social services functions

 Previously looked after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they:

  • Were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 or the Adoption and Children Act 2002, or
  • Became subject to a child arrangements order, or
  • Became subject to a special guardianship order

This includes children who appear to have been in state care outside of England and have ceased to be in state care due to being adopted.

 A child reaches compulsory school age on the prescribed day following his or her fifth birthday (or on his or her fifth birthday if it falls on a prescribed day). The prescribed days are 31 December, 31 March and 31 August.

 

4. How to apply

For applications in the normal admissions round you should use the application form provided by your home local authority (regardless of which local authority the schools are in). You can use this form to express your preference for a minimum of 3 state-funded schools, in rank order.

You will receive an offer for a school place directly from your local authority.

 

5. Requests for admission outside the normal age group

Parents are entitled to request a place for their child outside of their normal age group.

Decisions on requests for admission outside the normal age group will be made on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. In accordance with the School Admissions Code, this will include taking account of:

  • Parents’ views
  • Information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development
  • Where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional
  • Whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group
  • Whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely
  • The headteacher’s views

Wherever possible, requests for admission outside a child’s normal age group will be processed as part of the main admissions round. They will be considered on the basis of the admission arrangements laid out in this policy, including the oversubscription criteria listed in section 6. Applications will not be treated as a lower priority if parents have made a request for a child to be admitted outside the normal age group.

Parents will always be informed of the reasons for any decision on the year group a child should be admitted to. Parents do not have a right to appeal if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group.

 

6. Allocation of places

6.1 Admission number

The school has an agreed admission number of 30 pupils for entry in reception.

6.2 Selection and banding

6.3 Oversubscription criteria

All children whose education, health and care (EHC) plans name the school will be admitted before any other places are allocated.

If the school is not oversubscribed, all applicants will be offered a place.

In the event that the school receives more applications than the number of places it has available, places will be given to those children who meet any of the criteria set out below, in order until all places are filled.

  1. Highest priority will be given to looked after children and all previously looked after children who apply for a place at the school.
  2. Priority will next be given to children on the basis of social or medical need. The school defines social and medical need as a case supported by a written recommendation from the child’s pediatrician/consultant or professional from Children’s Services. The school requires written evidence that must explain why the school is the only suitable school to meet the child’s needs and why no other school could provide appropriate support for the child.
  3. Priority will next be given to children of staff at the school, in either of the following circumstances:
    a) The member of staff has been employed at the school for 2 or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, or
    b) The member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage
  4. Priority will next be given to children with siblings at the school. Siblings include step siblings, foster siblings, adopted siblings and other children living permanently at the same address. Priority will not be given to children with siblings who are former pupils of the school.

6.4 Tie break

In the case of 2 or more applications that cannot be separated by the oversubscription criteria outlined above, the school will use the distance between the school and a child’s home as a tie breaker to decide between applicants. Priority will be given to children who live closest to the school. Distance will be measured in a straight line from the child’s home address to the school’s front gates on Highwood Copse Way. A child’s home address will be considered to be where he/she is resident for the majority of nights in a normal school week.

Where the distance between 2 children’s homes and the school is the same, random allocation will be used to decide between them. This process will be independently verified.

Priority will be given within any of the over-subscription criteria in the following order:

 

1.For Criteria A-E, priority will be given first to siblings (the definition of sibling is as explained in criteria F of the oversubscription criteria).

2.For reception applications only. A child entitled to the Early Years Pupil Premium Grant (during the application period, 12 September to 15 January) who attends the nursery school that is linked to the school.

Parents must have applied to the West Berkshire Council early years team for the early years pupil premium grant and been entitled between 12 September and 15 January for consideration with their on-time school application. Parents must indicate within their reasons for applying for a school place that they are entitled to the Early Years Pupil Premium Grant and this will be verified by the school admissions team.

6.5 Children below compulsory school age

Where children below compulsory school age are offered a place at the school, they will be entitled to attend the school full-time in the September following their fourth birthday.

Parents may defer their child’s entry to the school until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which the child reaches compulsory school age, and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year the offer was made for.

Where the parents wish, children may attend part-time until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age.

6.6 Challenging behaviour

We may refuse admission for an in-year applicant for a year group that isn’t the normal point of entry, only in such a case that we have good reason to believe that the child may display challenging behaviour that may adversely affect the provision we can offer. In this case, we will refer these pupils to the Fair Access Protocol. We will not refuse admission on these grounds to looked after children, previously looked after children and children with EHC plans listing the school.

6.7 Fair Access Protocol

We participate in West Berkshire Council’s Fair Access Protocol. This helps ensure that all children, including those who are unplaced and vulnerable, or having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, get access to a school place as quickly as possible.

 

7. In-year admissions

Parents can apply for a place for their child at any time outside the normal admissions round. As is the case in the normal admissions round, all children whose EHC plans name the school will be admitted.

Likewise, if there are spaces available in the year group you are applying for, your child will be offered a place.

If there are no spaces available at the time of your application, your child’s name will be added to a waiting list for the relevant year group. When a space becomes available, it will be filled by one of the pupils on the waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria listed in section 6.3 of this policy. Priority will not be given to children on the basis that they have been on the waiting list the longest.

Applications for in-year admissions should be sent to the following address:

admissions@westberks.gov.uk

Parents will be notified of the outcome of your in-year application in writing within 15 school days.

 

8. Appeals

If your child’s application for a place at the school is unsuccessful, you will be informed why admission was refused and given information about the process for hearing appeals. If you wish to appeal, you must set out the grounds for your appeal in writing using the West Berkshire form, available at: https://www.westberks.gov.uk/school-admission-appeals

Information on how to appeal will be provided with the result of the application. Appeals must be lodged by the dates set out in the coordinated admissions scheme for the normal admissions round in order to be heard in the bulk appeals round.

9. Monitoring arrangements

This policy will be reviewed and approved by the board of trustees every year.

Whenever changes to admission arrangements are proposed (except where the change is an increase to the agreed admission number), the governing board will publicly consult on these changes. If nothing changes, it will publicly consult on the school’s admission arrangements at least once every 7 years.

 

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