Admissions policy for 2010/11

Set out below are the criteria that are used to decide who will be offered a place at a community school if there are more applications than there are places available. All applications are considered in accordance with the admissions criteria. The LA operates an equal preference system whereby all preferences listed by parents on the common application form are considered under the over-subscription criteria for each school without reference to the parental ranking. Only if a pupil is able to be offered a place at more than one school will the ranking be used to determine the single offer by selecting the one ranked highest of the places able to be offered.

Please note: Attendance at the nursery does not guarantee admission to the school for Primary Education, and a separate application must be made for transfer from nursery to Primary School.

The criteria listed in order of priority are:

1. Children in Public Care living within or outside the catchment area.
Children in Public Care are as defined in section 22 of the 1989 Children’s Act (this includes foster children).

 

Catchment
2. Children living in the catchment area with a brother or sister who will be attending the main school (not the nursery class) at the time of admission*

3. Children living in the catchment area with a brother or sister who will be attending the main school (not the nursery class) on the same site* (this refers only to Berrymede Infant and Junior schools) at the time of admission

 

Note
The words brother and sister refer to all blood, half, foster, step and adoptive brothers and sisters (not cousins) who live at the same home and in the same family unit as the child on a permanent basis or for the majority of time in any calendar year. A sibling relationship does not apply when the older child(ren) will leave before the younger one starts.

4. Children living in the catchment area with exceptional medical or social circumstances
Parents will be expected to provide supporting evidence from a consultant who is monitoring the child’s condition (not General Practitioner [GP]) in relation to medical circumstances or a social worker (or other appropriate professionally qualified person) in relation to social circumstances. All supporting evidence showing why priority should be given to the preferred school must be submitted at the time of application. Priority under this criterion can only be given for the first preference school.

The Schools Service Panel will consider all claimed exceptional medical or social circumstances in line with the admissions criteria and inform parents of their decision.

5. Children living in the catchment area on the basis of distance from the child’s permanent home address to the preferred school.
The distance from home to school is measured by straight-line, from a point in the property to the nearest gated entrance which is used by pupils to enter the school grounds.

The measuring system is an integral part of the admission software produced by Tribal Technology Ltd. It uses Ordnance Survey maps and is accurate to 1 metre.

It does not mean that we will be able to allocate a place at the school nearest to your address.

 

Out-catchment
6. Children living outside the catchment area with a brother or sister who will be attending the main school (not the nursery class) at the time of admission (as in 2 above)

7. Children living outside the catchment area with a brother or sister who will be attending the main school (not the nursery class) on the same site (this refers only to Berrymede Infant and Junior Schools) at the time of admission (as in 3 above)

8. Children living outside the catchment area with exceptional medical or social circumstances (as in 4 above)

9. Children living outside the catchment area on the basis of distance from the child’s permanent home address to the preferred school (as in 5 above).
Under each criterion applicants will be prioritised in distance order.

Any combination of two or more criteria give higher priority than one criterion. For example, a brother/sister connection and agreed medical/social circumstances would give priority over a brother/sister connection.

 

Tie break
In the event that the distances are equal the Local Authority (not the school) will draw lots to determine which applicant should be offered the place.

 

Twins, triplets or other children from multiple births
The Local Authority does not give priority under its admission criteria for twins, triplets or other children from multiple births, however, the Local Authority will endeavour wherever possible not to separate these children whilst still operating within the infant class size legislation.

 

Children of newly appointed staff
After the published offer date, where there is a demonstrable skills shortage for a vacant post (independent evidence is required), the admission authority will place the children of a new appointee for the post in question, at the top of the waiting list for places at the school.

 

Deferred entry to primary schools
If a child has not reached compulsory school age, the parent has the option of deferring their child’s entry. However, Ealing Council will only reserve an allocated place until the start of the Spring Term 2011 and if the place is not taken up then, it will be offered to the applicant who has highest priority for the place. Deferred admission refers only to children who have not already started primary school, it does not apply to children already at school whose parents wish to defer a change of school. If a parent would like to delay their child’s admission to school until the start of the summer term, he/she will need to apply for a place at the beginning of March 2011. If a child does not reach compulsory school age until September 2011 and the parent wishes to delay admission to school until then, he/she will need to apply direct to the school in mid-June 2011 for a place in year 1 for September 2011, as the child will be placed in that year group.

Applying for 2010/11
Please note that the closing dates for admissions for September 2010 have passed.

If you have not yet submitted your application, you need to apply (as a late applicant) as soon as possible and: