Admission Arrangements

This policy will apply to all admissions from 1 September 2018, including in-year admissions. It will be used during 2017-18 for allocating places for September 2018 as part of the main admission rounds for Year R. It does not apply to those being admitted to nursery provision.

Hampshire County Council is the admission authority for Hale Primary School. The admission arrangements are determined by the County Council, after statutory consultations.

The published admission number (PAN) for Hale Primary School for 2018-2019 is 15.

The County Council will consider first all those applications received by the published deadline of midnight on Monday 15 January 2018. Notifications to parents offering a primary or infant school place will be sent by the County Council on 16 April 2018.

Applications made after midnight on 15 January 2018 will be considered after all on-time applications have been fully processed unless exceptional circumstances merit consideration alongside on-time applications.

For the normal admission round, all on time preferences will be considered simultaneously and ranked in accordance with the admission criteria. If more than one school can offer a place, the parent’s highest stated available preference will be allocated.

Admission Criteria

If the school is oversubscribed, places will be offered up to the PAN in the following priority order:

1. Looked after children or children who were previously looked after (see (i) in Definitions).

2. (For applicants in the normal admission round only) Children or families who have a serious medical, physical or psychological condition which makes it essential that the child attends Hale Primary School rather than any other. (Appropriate medical or psychological evidence must be provided in support.)

3. Children of staff (see (ii) in Definitions) who have, (1) been employed at Hale Primary School for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to Hale Primary School is made, or (2) have been recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

4. Children living in the catchment area of Hale Primary School (see (iii) in Definitions) who at the time of application have a sibling (see (iv) in Definitions) on the roll of Hale Primary School who will still be on roll at the time of admission. [See 7 for additional children who may be considered under this criterion.]

5. Other children living in the catchment area of Hale Primary School.

6. Children living out of the catchment area of Hale Primary School who at the time of application have a sibling (see (iii) in Definitions) on the roll of Hale Primary School who will still be on roll at the time of admission. [Where a sibling was allocated a place at Hale Primary School in the normal admission round in a previous year because the child was displaced (see (v) in Definitions) from the catchment school for their address, the application will be considered under 4, above, subject to the siblings still living in the catchment area. In future normal admissions rounds a younger sibling will be considered to have been displaced where they were allocated a place at Hale Primary School under this criterion as a consequence of their elder sibling’s displacement and they remain living in the catchment area].

7. Other children.

Definitions

(i) Looked after children are defined as those who are (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). Previously looked after children are those who were looked after but ceased to be so because they became subject to an adoption order, child arrangements order or special guardianship order. An adoption order is an order under section 46 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 or section 12 of the Adoption Act 1976. Child arrangements orders are defined in section 8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by section 12 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order. 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).

(ii) ‘Staff’ includes all those on the payroll of the school. ‘Children of staff’ refers to situations where the staff member is the natural parent, the legal guardian or a resident step parent.

(iii) The child’s permanent residence is where they live, normally including weekends and during school holidays as well as during the week, and should be used for the application. The permanent address of children who spend part of their week with one parent and part with the other, at different addresses, will be the address at which they spend most of their time.

(iv) ‘Sibling’ refers to brother or sister, half brother or half sister, adoptive brother or adoptive sister, foster brother or sister, step brother or step sister living as one family unit at the same address. It will also be applied to situations where a full, half or adopted brother or sister are living at separate addresses. Categories 3 and 6 include children who at the time of application have a sibling for whom the offer of a place at the preferred school has been accepted, even if the sibling is not yet attending.

(v) ‘Displaced’ refers to a child who was refused a place at the catchment school in the normal admissions round having named it in the application and was not offered a higher named preference school.

Tie-breaker

If the school is oversubscribed from within any of the above categories, straight line distance will be used to prioritise applications; applicants living nearer the school have priority. Distances will be measured from the Ordnance Survey home address point to the school address point using Hampshire County Council’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Distances to multiple dwellings will give priority to the ground floor over the first floor and so on. On individual floors, distances will be measured to the stairs leading to the communal entrance. Where two or more applicants are equidistant, random allocation will be used to allocate the place. An explanation of the random allocation procedure is available on the County website.

Additional Information

1. Pupils with an education, health and care plan or statement of SEN
The governors will admit any pupil whose final education, health and care plan or statement of special educational needs names the school. Where possible such children will be admitted within the PAN.

2. Multiple births
Where a twin or child from a multiple birth is admitted to a school under this policy then any further twin or child of the same multiple birth will be admitted, if the parents so wish, even though this may raise the number in the year group above the school’s PAN.

3. Fair Access placements by the local authority
The local authority must ensure that, outside the normal admission round, all children, especially the most vulnerable, are placed in school as quickly as possible. It may therefore sometimes be necessary for a pupil to be placed by the local authority, or a local placement panel acting on behalf of the authority, in a particular school even if there is a waiting list for admission. Such placements will be made in accordance with the provisions of the local authority’s Fair Access Protocol. The Protocol is based on legislation and government guidance.

4. School Closures
In the event of a school closure, pupils from the closing school may be given priority for any school nominated as the receiving school. Specific arrangements will be determined by the Local Authority in accordance with the School Admissions Code and will be published at the time for the specific schools affected.

5. Waiting lists
When all available places have been allocated, waiting lists will be operated by schools on behalf of the local authority. Any places that become available will be offered to the child at the top of the list at that time. The waiting list is ordered according to the criteria of the admission policy with no account being taken of the length of time on the waiting list or any priority order expressed as part of the main admission round. Fair Access admissions and school closure arrangements will take priority over the waiting list.

The waiting list will be reviewed and revised –
each time a child is added to, or removed from, the waiting list;
when a child’s changed circumstances affect their priority;

At the time of receiving an application decision from the County Council or a school, parents will be advised of the process for adding their child’s name to a school’s waiting list. Parents may keep their child’s name on the waiting list of as many schools as they wish.

The waiting list will be maintained until 31 August 2019, at which point all names will be removed. Should parents wish their child to be considered for a place at the school in the following school year, they should complete and submit a fresh in-year application in the August preceding the new school year. Schools will send a decision letter within the first 10 days of the new term.

6. Starting school
Pupils born between 1 September 2013 and 31 August 2014 (inclusive) are entitled to full-time schooling from September 2018. Parents can request that their child’s admission is deferred until later in the school year (usually at the start of a school term and before the end of the academic year), but not beyond the point they reach compulsory school age, at the beginning of the term following their fifth birthday. Parents can request that their child attends part-time until the child reaches compulsory school age.

Children with birthdays between:
1 September and 31 December 2013 (inclusive) reach compulsory school age on 31 December 2018, at the start of the Spring term.
1 January and 31 March 2014 (inclusive) reach compulsory school age on 31 March 2019, at the start of the Summer term;
1 April and 31 August 2014 (inclusive) reach compulsory school age on 31 August 2019, at the start of the new school year.

Parents of children with birthdays between 1 April and 31 August 2014 (inclusive), whose child has not started in a Year R class during the 2018-19 school year, may wish to request admission to Year R in September 2019 rather than admission to Year 1. In these circumstances, all relevant factors will be considered in assessing the request; parents would be expected to state clearly why they felt admission to Year R was in their child’s best interests. It is recommended that parents considering such a request contact the local authority in the autumn term 2017 to ensure that an informed decision is made. [Parents should refer to the Hampshire County Council webpage: www.hants.gov.uk/ad-summerborn.]

7. Admission of children outside their normal age group
Parents can seek places outside their normal age group. Decisions will be made on the basis of the circumstances of each case; parents may be offered a place in another year group at the school.

8. Legislation
This policy takes account of all Equalities legislation, together with all relevant regulations and the School Admissions Code (published by the DfE in 2014).