Admissions

 

PARENTAL PREFERENCE

Section 86 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 requires the Local Authority to make arrangements for parents to express a preference as to the school at which they wish education to be provided.

It is the Duty of the Local Authority to comply with any preference expressed unless compliance with the preference would prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources.

CRITERIA

1. Looked after Children (In Public Care).

2. Children of staff who are employed across The Cromwell Community Learning Academy Trust.

3. Children with a brother or sister already at the school who will still be in attendance.

4. Children who live nearest the school:

Within each of these categories, priority is given to those who live nearest the school, calculated on the basis of a straight-line measurement between home and academy.

CHILDREN WITH A STATEMENT OF SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

Any child with a statement of special educational needs is required to be admitted to the academy that is named in the statement. This gives such children overall priority for admission to the named academy. This is not an oversubscription criterion.

LOOKED AFTER OF PREVIOUSLY LOOKED AFTER CHILDREN

A ‘looked after child’ or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, residence, or special guardianship order. 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). In the case of previously looked after children, admission authorities may request a copy of the adoption order, residence order or special guardianship order and a letter from the local authority that last looked after the child confirming that he or she was looked after immediately prior to that order being made.

SIBLING

Siblings (brothers or sisters) are considered to be those children who live at the same address and either;

Have one or both natural parents in common;

Are related by a parent’s marriage;

Are adopted or fostered by a common parent;

Unrelated children living at the same address, whose parents are living as partners, are also considered to be siblings;

Children not adopted or fostered or related by a parent’s marriage or with one natural parent in common, who are brought together as a family by a same sex civil partnership and who are living at the same address, are also considered to be siblings.

DISTANCE

Distances are calculated on the basis of a single-line measurement between the applicant’s home address and a point decided by the school (usually the front gates). The Local Authority uses a computerised system, which measures all distances in meters. Ordinance Survey supply the co-ordinates what are used to plot an applicant’s home address and the address of the academy.

SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

Where parents have shared responsibility for a child, and the child lives with both parents for part of the week, then the main residence will be determined as the address where the child lives the majority of the week. Parents may be requested to supply documentary evidence to support the address used.

FINAL QUALIFIER

In a very small number of cases it may not be possible to decide between the applications of those students who are the final qualifiers for a place, when applying the published admission criteria.

For example, this may occur when children in the same year group live at the same address, or where there are twins, or if the distance between the home and school is exactly the same, for example, blocks of flats. If there is no other way of separating the application according to the admissions criteria and to admit both or all of the children would cause the Published Admission Number for the child’s year group to be exceeded, the local Authority will use a computerised system to randomly select the child to be offered the final place.

In the event of this occurring with twins or other multiple birth applicants, schools will be asked to admit over their Published Admission Number to accommodate the students.

WAITING LISTS

Waiting lists will not be fixed following the offer of places. They are subject to change. This means that a child’s waiting list position during the year could go up or down. Any applicants will be added to the school’s list in accordance with the order of priority for offering places. Waiting lists will be maintained until the end of each academic year.

APPEALS

Parents who wish to appeal against the decision of the governors to refuse their child a place in the academy may apply in writing to Chair of Governors. Appeals will be heard by an independent panel.

IN YEAR APPLICATIONS

Applications made outside the normal admissions round (in-year admissions) should be made directly to the academy. Parents/carers can apply for a place for their child at any time and to any academy.

On receipt of an in-year application, the academy will notify the local authority of both the application and its outcome, to allow the local authority to keep up to date with figures on the availability of academy places in Birmingham.

REVIEW

This policy will be reviewed annually by the Board of Trustees.