ADMISSIONS POLICY
HILL WEST PRIMARY SCHOOL ADMISSIONS POLICY INTRODUCTION Hill West Primary School operates as a two-form entry school admitting a maximum of sixty children in each of its seven year groups. The school is only equipped to facilitate sixty pupils maximum within each year group. All enquiries must be directed to our Admissions Officer who is based in the main school office.
SEPTEMBER ADMISSIONS TO FOUNDATION STAGE The 1998 Schools Standards and Framework Act, as amended by the Education Act 2002, introduced statutory requirements for every Local Authority (“LA”), to draw up a scheme for co-ordinating admission arrangements for all maintained schools within its area. The purpose of co-ordinated admission schemes is to establish mechanisms for ensuring, so far as reasonably practicable, that every parent of a child living in the LA area who has applied for a school place in the normal admission round receives an offer of one. Parents now have to decide on their school preference during the Autumn Term and are notified of their school place in the Spring Term, usually during the month of March. All admissions are now administered by the LA. Children must, by law start school at the beginning of the term after their fifth birthday. However, in Birmingham, children are admitted to the Early Years Foundation Stage in the September at the start of the academic year in which they reach five years of age. Parents have the right to retain any place offered but may start their child at the school later in the academic year if they so wish. Parents may register their interest in a place at a school, but must formally apply for a place, using the LA admissions procedure. A Parents’ Information Booklet and application forms will be published and available by the end of September each year. Using Health Service data all parents of eligible children will receive a copy direct from the LA. Copies will also be available in libraries and health centres.
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Parents will be required to complete the preference form and return this to the LA by the beginning of December in each year. Proof of address will also be required. Letters offering places will be sent to parents by the LA during March each year. Parents are then required to inform the school whether or not they accept the offer. If any parents approach school after the date for submission of preference forms they should be asked to contact Admissions and Appeals who will deal with their application on behalf of the school.
OVERSUBSCRIPTION: FIRST PREFERENCES If our school is oversubscribed, the LA will offer places in the following priority order, with first preference applications submitted by the published deadline taking initial priority:
Children who have a medical, physical or psychological condition, which makes it essential that they attend the preferred school rather than any other. (Appropriate medical or psychological evidence must be provided in support). Children living within the designated catchment area of the school who at the time of application have a brother or sister (including children living as siblings in the same family unit) on the roll of the school and who will still be on roll at the time of sibling’s admission; Children living within the designated catchment area of the school who live closest to the school, based on the shortest walking route from home to the main school gate using public roads and footpaths Children living outside the designated catchment area of the school who, at the time of application, have a brother or sister (including children living as siblings in the same family unit) on the roll of the school and who will still be on roll at the time of the sibling’s admission
WAITING LISTS Parents whose children have not been allocated their preferred school will be informed by the LA of their right to appeal and asked to confirm if they wish to remain on any community or voluntary controlled school’s waiting list. Inclusion on a school’s waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available there. It may be that those already allocated places do not give them up and the school is unable to make further offers in the future. Policies/School Admissions 07/04/2014
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Parents may request in writing that their child’s name be placed on the waiting list. If places become available, they will be allocated strictly in accordance with the published admissions criteria. At the end of the summer term, the waiting list will be reviewed and parents will be asked if they wish their child’s name to be placed on the waiting list for the following school year. Placing a child’s name on a waiting list does not affect the statutory right of appeal. The waiting list will then be passed to the school to administer.
ONGOING ADMISSIONS Following the transfer of school waiting lists from the LA to schools on 1st September 2013 any enquiries relating to mid-year transfers must be made to Hill West directly. Parents will be asked to supply information regarding the child/children, including full name, date of birth, current address and/or future address if moving and the name of their current school. Should a place be available in the required year group we will then formally offer the place to the parents and notify the LA. If a place is not available we will ask the LA to calculate the distance to school and the child’s name will be put on the waiting list, held by school, for that year group in distance from school order. Families who are intending to move into the area will not be added to the waiting list until school has been advised that they have relocated, however, their details will be kept on file in the interim period. Parents who have received an offer from us should contact the school to arrange a visit and start date. If the school has not heard from the parent within the period specified in the offer letter the place will be offered to the next child on the waiting list for that year group. If the parent declines we will make an offer to the next child on the waiting list for that year group (if any). Parents of children who have not been offered a place but are on the waiting list are able to lodge an appeal with the LA and should contact the Admissions and Appeals Department to do so. School contact details for Admissions: Telephone – 0121 308 5392 Email – enquiry@hillwest.bham.sch.uk Birmingham City Council Admissions and Appeals Department – 0121 675 0555
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Signed
A. Staples
Date
27th February 2014
Signed
B.M. Clarke
Date
27th February 2014
Policies/School Admissions 07/04/2014
(For the Local Governing Body)
(Head Teacher)
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