Admissions
St. Andrew's CE Primary School, Shifnal
Admissions Policy
Draft Admissions Policy 2021-2022
St Andrew’s C of E Primary School
Shropshire Council is the admission authority for St Andrew’s CE Primary School
For admissions to Reception Year, application must be made through Shropshire Council (or the relevant home local authority) by 15th January prior to the academic year in which the child is due to start school. All applications received by this date will be considered and parents will be informed by the home authority on 16th April (or next working day) if they have been allocated a place for their child. Further details can be found in the Parents’ Guide to Education booklet on the website www.shropshire.gov.uk/schooladmissions.
The school has an admission limit (PAN) of 50 for entry into Reception. The school will accordingly admit at least 50 each year if sufficient applications are received. All applicants will be admitted if 50 or fewer apply.
Oversubscription criteria
The school will admit any pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan naming the school. Priority will then be given to those children who meet the criteria in the order set out below:
1 Looked after children' or children who were previously ‘looked after’ but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order1 including those who appear to Shropshire County Council to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
2 Very exceptionally, priority may be given to a child who has a particular health reason requiring them to attend a specific school. This will only be allowed if parents/carers provide written evidence from a medical professional that in the view of the authority confirms that attending St Andrew’s C of E Primary School (and no other) is essential to the medical well-being of the child. The authority reserves the right to contact medical professionals to ascertain the relevance of the medical condition.
3 Children living in the designated catchment area3 of the school (see map below). If there are not enough places for all the children in the catchment area, then the following criteria will apply in order:
3a. Priority will be given to children living in the catchment area3 who will have an older sibling2 on roll at the school on the day they are due to start school.
3b. After that, priority will be given to other children who live within the catchment area3.
4 Children living outside the designated catchment area will be offered places. If there are not enough places for all the children in the catchment area, then the following criteria will apply in order:
4a. Children who will have an older sibling2 at the school on the day they are due to start school.
4b All other children.
See footnotes below…
Notes:
1 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 (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989).
1 An adoption order is an order under the Adoption Act 1976 (see Section 12 adoption orders) and children who were adopted under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (see Section 46 adoption orders).
1 A ‘child arrangements order’ is an order settling the arrangements to be made as to the person with whom the child is to live under Section 8 of the Children Act 1989 as amended by Section 14 of the Children and Families Act 2014.
Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order
appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).
2 ‘Sibling’ means a natural brother or sister, a half brother or sister, a legally adopted brother or sister or half-brother or sister, a step brother or sister, or other child living in the same household who, in any of these cases, will be living with them at the same address at the date of their entry to the academy. However, cousins, other relatives or friends who take up residence in a home in order to establish an ‘in catchment area’ address will not be given priority under the sibling criterion.
3 Applicants will only be considered as resident in the designated catchment area when formal confirmation of the address (an exchange of contracts or signed tenancy agreement) has been received.
Each of the categories and sub-categories above will be rank ordered according to the distance from home to school as a straight line measurement. For admissions purposes all distances are measured as a straight line distance on a computerised mapping system between the home address and the nearest pedestrian entrance gate of the school by pinpointing the eastings and northings, the shortest distance being given highest priority. Where two addresses are within the same block of flats, the lowest number of flat nearest the ground floor will be deemed to be the nearest in distance.
In the event that two applications are exactly the same after all other criteria have been taken into account a tie breaker will be used. This will be by random allocation and overseen by an independent party not connected with the admissions process. However, if children of multiple birth (twins and triplets) are tied for the final place, those siblings will be admitted over PAN as permitted by infant class size rules.
All applicants are required to give correct information about the genuine residential address of the child. Where any information regarding a home address is found to be fraudulent or misleading a school place may be withdrawn even if the child has been admitted to the school. Where separated parents share care of their child, the home address will be deemed to be the address where the child spends the majority of school nights (term-time Sunday to Thursday). Where this results in an equal number of nights, the home address of the parent claiming child benefit will be used for school admission purposes.
When can my child start school?
Children can attend primary education from the September following their 4th birthday. The law requires that children attend school from the prescribed day4 following their 5th birthday. Parents can request that the date their child is admitted to the school is deferred until later in the school year, or until the child reaches compulsory school age in that year. They can also request that their child attends part-time until they reach compulsory school age. However, the offer of a place cannot be held over until the next academic year.
4 Children become of compulsory school age on the first prescribed day following their 5th birthday: 31 August, 31 December or 31 March (or on that day if any of these dates are the child’s birthday).
For more information on deferring the start of Reception to a different cohort, please see below.
Admission of children outside their normal age group (not Reception)
Parents may seek a place for their child outside their normal year group with a different cohort. Such requests may be appropriate, for instance where the child is gifted or talented, or where a child has suffered from particular social or medical issues impacting his or her schooling. All such requests will be considered on their merits and either agreed or refused, on that basis. If a request is refused, the child will still be considered for admission to their normal age group.
The process for requesting such an admission is as follows:
With the application, parents should request that the child is admitted to another year group (state which one), and the reasons for that request. Parents will submit any evidence in support of their case with the application, for instance from a medical practitioner, headteacher etc. Some of the evidence a parent might submit could include:
- 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; and
- whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely.
Requests for admission out of the normal year group will be considered alongside other applications made at the same time.
Requests to defer starting Reception
Children must have started school when they reach compulsory school age and cannot start school before the September following their fourth birthday.
Requests to defer starting Reception, must be made to Shropshire Council’s School Admissions Team at the same time as the application for a school place and by the closing date of 15 January.
Shropshire Council will gather as much information about the child as possible. Parents may submit documentation in support of their request and information may be provided by the current educational or early years setting. (See examples in section above.)
Consideration will be given to exceptional circumstances in a child’s development, medical history and premature birth, if applicable. Very exceptionally, an assessment by an educational psychologist may be appropriate.
When all the information is collated, the request will be considered by the admission authority. The decision will be made on the individual circumstances of the case and whether it is in the child’s best interests to join a different cohort.
If a deferred entry is approved, the school place application will be withdrawn, and parents will need to re-apply the following year. An agreed Reception deferral does not guarantee a place at the school the following year; a fresh application must be considered in terms of oversubscription criteria along with all the other applications received for that year group. If a request is refused, the child will still be considered for admission to their normal age group.
Mid-term applications
Mid-term applications should be made directly to the school and will be considered using the same admissions criteria given above. To apply for a place other than the start of Reception, parents should apply directly to the school on a mid-term application form available the Shropshire Council website www.shropshire.gov.uk/schooladmissions or from school. If there is a space available in that year group, a place will be granted. If the application is for a place in an over-subscribed year group, then the school will consider whether additional places can be offered above the published admission number. This decision will be made by governing body / admissions committee/ headteacher plus Mr Malcolm Maclean Decisions will be notified to parents within 15 school days.
If a place cannot be offered, parents will receive a formal letter and information on how to appeal against the decision.
Waiting list
Other than the first term of Reception year, the school will maintain a waiting list for unsuccessful applicants held in order of oversubscription criteria. Shropshire Council will operate the Reception waiting list for the first term of the academic year of admission after which the school will operate the waiting list. If any vacancies arise, places will be offered to applicants at the top of the waiting list. If a place can be offered, the applicant will be expected to take up the place within 6 school weeks or by the start of the next half term, whichever is the earliest date, with the exception of Reception children who have deferred entry until later in the same academic year. The waiting list will be reordered in accordance with the oversubscription criteria whenever anyone is added to or leaves it. If an offer of a place is refused, the name will be removed from the waiting list.
Appeals
All applicants refused a place have a right of appeal to an independent appeal panel constituted and operated in accordance with the School Admission Appeals Code.
Appellants should contact Shropshire Council School Admissions Team for information on how to appeal. Information on the timetable for the appeals process is on the website www.shropshire.gov.uk/schooladmissions. Parents must be given at least 10 school days from the date of notification that their application was unsuccessful to lodge an appeal.
Catchment Area
The proposed catchment area for the school is the area South of the railway line in Shifnal.
For admissions to the Reception Year or Year 7 application must be made through Shropshire Council by 15th January or 31st October in the academic year prior to which your child is due to start school. All applications received by this date will be considered and parents will be informed by Shropshire Council on 16th April or 1st March if they have been allocated a place for their child. Please see the Parents Guide to Education booklet on the Shropshire Council website:
Admissions Criteria:
Children with a Statement of Special Education Needs or Education and Health Care Plan which names St. Andrew's CE Primary School, Shifnal will be allocated places, after which places are allocated up to the Published Admission Number of 42 according to an agreed set of criteria in strict order of priority as shown below.
1. Looked After Children who are in Public Care or children who were Looked After but ceased to be so because they were adopted as defined in the School Admissions Code.
2. Children living inside the designated catchment area will have priority of admission. If there are not enough places for all the children in the catchment area then the following criteria for admission will apply in order:
2a. Priority will be given to children living within the catchment area who will have an older sibling at the school on the day they are due to start school.
2b. After that, priority will be given to other children who live within the catchment area.
3. If there are spaces still available after the above criteria have been applied, children living outside the designated catchment area will be offered places according to the following criteria:
3a. Children who will have an older sibling at the school on the day they are due to start school.
3b. All other children.
Please note that arrangements for the admission to Secondary School include the following: Priority is given to out of area children who have for one year prior to transfer attended a publicly-funded primary school which lies within the catchment area of the secondary school.
Each category will be rank ordered according to the distance from home to school as a straight line measurement.
Notes:
A sibling connection is defined as a brother or sister, step-brother or step-sister, or half-brother or half-sister, living at the same address as part of the same family unit and of compulsory school age (i.e. 5 - 16 years). Adopted siblings are also included. Older siblings must be attending the school on the date the younger sibling is due to start there. However, cousins or other relatives who take up residence in a home in order to establish an 'in catchment area' address will not be given priority under the sibling criterion.
Useful Links:
Parents Guide to Education
Includes:
Applying Online
Waiting List and Reviews
Special Needs
Oversubscription Criteria
Frequently Asked Questions
Starting or transferring school
Includes:
Mid Term Transfer Application Form & Guidance Notes
Appeal against allocation of school place
Admission Arrangements and Criteria