Admissions

HOLY CROSS & ALL SAINTS R.C PRIMARY SCHOOL

SCHOOL ADMISSIONS POLICY 2011-2012

Holy Cross & All Saints School is a Roman Catholic Primary school provided by the Diocese of Salford and is maintained by the Salford Education Authority as a Voluntary Aided school.  The school’s Governing Body is the Admissions Authority and is responsible for taking decisions on applications and admissions.  For the school year commencing 2011/2012, the Governing Body has set its planned admissions number at 30.

Admission to the school will be made by the Governing Body in accordance with the stated parental preference subject to the following set of criteria, which will be used to form a priority order if there are more applications for admission than the school has places available.

a)      Baptised Roman Catholic children who are in public care.

b)      Baptised Roman Catholic children who will have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of admission and resident in the former parish of Holy Cross (including new additions from St. Mary’s parish border).

c)      Baptised Roman Catholic children resident in the former parish of Holy Cross (including new additions from St. Mary’s parish border).

d)      Other Baptised Roman Catholic children who will have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of the admission and are resident in another parish.

e)      Other Baptised Roman catholic children who are resident in another parish.

f)        Other children who are in public care.

g)      Exceptional Needs

h)      Other children with a brother or sister attending the school at the time of admission.

i)        Other children.

NOTES

The Governing body is the admissions authority.  The admissions committee is comprised of the following governors: chair of governors, parish priest, headteacher, parent governor & independent clerk.

The Governing Body shall consider all applicants at the same time after the closing date for admissions. Parents will be notified of the Governors’ decision by the Local Authority on a date determined by the Local Authority and published in the Information booklet to parents and on their website.

In the Autumn term all parents who have expressed an interest in a school place will be sent a copy of the Local Authority ‘Primary Admission Booklet’ which gives details of the LA co-ordinated admissions arrangements.  These are available from Local Authority offices, public libraries and primary schools.

Parents must complete a common application form (CAF) and express preferences for primary school admission.  Parents must adhere to the relevant closing date (15 January 2011). All applicants will be considered by the Governors at the same time in a fair way according to the published criteria. Parents who wish their application to this Roman Catholic School to be considered against the priority faith criteria should also complete the supplementary form. If the school is oversubscribed failure to complete the supplementary form will result in your application for a place in this school being considered against lower priority criteria as the governing body will no information upon which to assess the application on the basis of the applicant’s baptism.

It is the duty of governors to comply with class size limits at Key Stage One.  This means that the school cannot operate classes, in Key Stage One, of more than 30 children.

Additional/supplementary forms

All parents who list their preferred schools on the Local Authority’s Common Application Form are regarded as having made valid applications. An additional or supplementary form may also have to be completed for applicants considered under faith criteria of faith schools, for boarding schools and for selective schools.

Parents/ Family Members

A parent is any person who has parental responsibility for or is the legal guardian of the child. Where admission arrangements refer to ‘parents attendance at church’ it is sufficient for just one parent to attend.  ‘Family members’ include only parents, as defined above, and siblings.

Parents will be informed of the governors’ decision by letter posted on Friday 15^th April 2011.  An offer of a place does not guarantee a place for brothers and sisters in subsequent years.

Baptism and parish boundaries

Each Roman Catholic applicant will be required to produce a baptismal certificate.

Parents should check carefully whether they are resident within the parish boundaries of Holy Cross.

All applicants resident in the parish of Holy Cross will be required to provide proof of address, by supplying an original, up-to-date, utility bill or family credit book.

Exceptional Needs

Children for whom the governors accept that there are exceptionally strong medical, social or welfare reasons associated with the child and /or family, which are directly relevant to the school concerned. Supporting professional evidence will be required. This may be from whatever source(s) the applicant feels are most appropriate. Examples of such evidence are doctors, health visitors and social services.

Special Needs

If a child has a statement of special needs naming a specific school there is a duty for the school to admit the child.

Distance

If in any category there are more applications than places available, priority will be given on the basis of proximity to the school.

Distance will be measured in a straight line from the centre point of the child’s  home address (including flats) to the centre point of the school, using the Local Authority’s computerised measuring system, with those living closer to the school receiving the higher priority.

Where a child lives with parents with shared responsibility, each for part of the week, the ‘home’ address will be determined as being where the child resides for the majority of the school week.

Twins/Multiple births

The governing body reserves the right to give special consideration to twins or triplets etc. to prevent breaking the sibling link.

Sibling

Sibling refers to brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step brother or sister, or the child of the parent/carer’s partner where the child for whom the school place is sought is living in the same family unit at the same address as that sibling. The governing body reserves the right to give special consideration to twins or triplets etc. to prevent breaking the sibling link

Waiting lists

If the school is oversubscribed, a waiting list will be maintained until 31 December 2011.  This will be ordered according to our admission over-subscription criteria.

Late applications

Late applications will be considered in accordance with the published admissions criteria.  If the school is over-subscribed, late applications will be placed on a reserve list in priority order according to the published admissions criteria.  Parents will be notified if a vacancy subsequently arises. Parents are expected to provide a reason/reason(s) for the late application. If this is not exceptional the application will be dealt with after all others have been dealt with.

Parents are asked to read and confirm receipt of the Governors’ published admission policy.  Any changes to the policy will be circulated to all applicants on file for subsequent years.

Appeals

If an application for admission has been turned down by the Governing body parents can appeal to the independent appeals panel.  This appeal must be sent in writing to the clerk to the governors at the school within 14 days of notification of refusal.  The date of notification will be 2 working days after posting by first class post.  The parents must give their reasons for appealing in writing and the decision of the appeals panel is binding on the governors. The outcome of the appeal is biding on the parents and on the governing body.