North Baddesley Infant School Admissions Policy 2012-2013

(for the 2011-2012 policy click here and for the 2013-2014 policy click here)

This policy will apply to all admissions from 1 September 2012, including in-year admissions.The authority's Fair Access protocol will be applied alongside the policy to secure the admission of vulnerable pupils from specific groups. It will be used during 2011-12 for allocating places for September 2012 as part of the main admission round for Year R.

Admission Criteria

Hampshire County Council is the admission authority for all community and voluntary controlled primary and secondary schools. The admission arrangements are determined by the County Council, after statutory consultations.

The County Council will consider first all those applications received by the published deadline of midnight on Sunday 15 January 2012. Notifications to parents offering a primary school place will be sent by the County Council on Thursday 19 April 2012.

The published admission number (PAN) for North Baddesley Infant School for 2012-2013 is 60.

For the main 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.

If the school is oversubscribed, places will be offered in the following priority order. Places for applications received after the deadline will be allocated using the same criteria:

1. Children who are in the care of a local authority or provided with accommodation by that authority in accordance with Section 22 of the Children Act 1989. (A letter from the Children’s Services Department confirming the child’s status must be provided.)
2. Children or families who have a serious medical, physical or psychological condition which makes it essential that the child attends North Baddesley Infant School rather than any other. (Appropriate medical or psychological evidence must be provided in support.)
3. Children living in the catchment area of North Baddesley Infant School who at the time of application have a sibling* on the roll of North Baddesley Infant School or its linked junior school, who will still be on roll at the time of admission.
4. Other children living in the catchment area of North Baddesley Infant School.
5. Children living outside the catchment area of North Baddesley Infant School who at the time of application have a sibling* on the roll of North Baddesley Infant School or its linked junior school, who will still be on roll at the time of admission.
6. Other children living outside the catchment area of North Baddesley Infant School.

5* This includes children who at the time of application have a sibling for whom the offer of a place has been accepted, even if the sibling is not yet attending. ‘Sibling’ refers to brother or sister, half brother or half sister, adoptive brother or adoptive sister, step brother or step sister, and includes children living as siblings in the same family unit.

N.B. School Closures statement: In the event of a school closure, pupils from the closing school may be given a higher priority (for example this might include the child being treated as in-catchment) within the admission criteria 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 by a particular closure.

Permanent Residence

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.

Distance Measurement

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. Hampshire County Council’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will be used to determine distances (from the Ordnance Survey home address point to the school office). Distances from 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. This method of prioritising admissions will also apply to any ‘school specific’ criterion unless otherwise stated in the school's brochure.

Multiple Births

If the last pupil to be offered a place within the school’s published admission number (PAN) is a multiple birth or same cohort sibling, any further same cohort sibling will be admitted, if the parents so wish, even though this may raise the intake number above the school’s PAN. The PAN will remain unchanged so that no other pupil will be admitted until a place becomes available within the PAN.

Pupils With Statements of Special Educational Needs

The governors will admit any pupil whose final statement of special educational needs names the school. This is not an oversubscription criterion. Where possible such children will be admitted within the PAN

In-Year Fair Access placements by the local authority

The local authority must ensure that all pupils are placed in schools 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.

Waiting List

When all available places have been allocated, a waiting list will be operated by the local authority. Any places that become available will be allocated 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 will affect their priority;
• at the end of each school year, when parents with a child on the waiting list will be contacted and asked if they wish to remain on the list for the following school year.

At the time of receiving an offer of a school place parents will be advised of the process for having their child’s name on a school’s waiting list. Parents may keep their child’s name on the waiting list of as many schools as they wish and for as long as they wish.

Deferred Entry to Year R

Pupils reach statutory school age at the beginning of the term following their fifth birthday, but, in Hampshire, most pupils are admitted as rising fives. Parents can request that the date their child is admitted is deferred until later in the year or until the child reaches compulsory school age. Pupils will normally be admitted at the start of a school term. If parents of summer born rising fives wish to defer their admission until they reach statutory school age, admission will be considered for Year 1, their appropriate year group