St. Luke and St. Philip’s Primary School A Church of England Academy
ADMISSION ARRANGEMENTS For September 2024
Click on the link below to download the Admissions Policy & Diocesan Supplementary Information Form with Clergy Reference Form
Making an application
Applications for admission to the school for September 2024 should be made on-line at https://www.blackburn.gov.uk/schools-and-education/school-admissions or on the Common Application Form between September 2023 and 15th January 2024. It is not normally possible to change the order of your preferences for schools after the closing date.
Parents must complete the Local Authority form, stating three preferences. Parents who wish their application to this Church school to be considered against the faith criteria should also complete the supplementary form. If the school is oversubscribed, a failure to complete the supplementary form may result in your application for a place in this school being considered against lower priority criteria as the Governing Committee will have no information upon which to assess the worship attendance.
The Supplementary Information Form is available from the school or you can download it at the bottom of this page
Letters informing parents of whether or not their child has been allocated a place will be sent out by the Local Authority on 16th April 2024. Parents of children not admitted will be informed of the reason and offered an alternative place by the Authority.
Admission procedures
Arrangements for admission have been agreed following consultation between the governing committee, the Diocesan Board of Education, Local Authorities and other admissions authorities in the area.
The number of places available for admission to the Reception class in the year 2023 will be a maximum of 30.
The governing committee will not place any restrictions on admissions to the reception class unless the number of children for whom admission is sought exceeds their admission number. By law, no infant class may contain more than thirty children. The Governing Committee operates a system of equal preferences under which they consider all preferences equally and the Local Authority notifies parents of the result. In the event that there are more applicants than places, after admitting all children with a statement of educational need, or education health and care plans naming the school, the governing committee will allocate places using the criteria below, which are listed in order of priority.
1. (a) Looked after children and previously looked after children. This includes any “looked after child” and any child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after was adopted or became subject to a, residence/child arrangements order or special guardianship order.
(b) Children with special medical or social circumstances affecting the child where these needs can only be met at this school. Professional supporting evidence from a professional, eg a doctor, psychologist, social worker, is essential if admission is to be made under the criterion for special medical or social circumstances, and such evidence must set out the particular reasons why the school is question is the most suitable school and the difficulties which would be caused if the child had to attend another school.
2. Children who have a sibling attending the school on the date of application and on the date of admission. Siblings include step, half, foster, adopted brothers and sisters living at the same address.
3. Children whose parent(s)/guardian live within the ecclesiastical parish of Christ the King. A map showing the boundaries is available in the school admissions policy below.
4. Children with a parent/guardian worshipping in a church in full membership of Churches Together in England, the Evangelical Alliance, the Irish Council of Churches, Action of Churches Together in Scotland or Churches Together in Wales
“Parental worshipping” is normally taken to mean a minimum of monthly attendance at church at public worship for over at least the six months leading up to the 1st September 2023.
The governors will request confirmation of this from the relevant member of the clergy or church officer.
The lists of Churches can be found on the Churches Together in England website at cte.org.uk, and for the Evangelical Alliance at eauk.org; lists are taken as on 1st September 2017.
5. Children of staff who have been employed in the school for the whole of the two years prior to the closing date for applications, or where the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage. This applies to all staff, full and part time, who are employed by the governing body.
6. Other children
Late applications for admission
Where there are extenuating circumstances for an application being received after the last date for applications, and it is before the governors have established their list of pupils to be admitted, then it will be considered alongside all the others.
Otherwise, applications which are received after the last date will be considered after all the others, and placed on the waiting list in order according to the criteria.
Tie break
Where there are more applicants for the available places within a category, then the distance between the Ordnance Survey address points for the school and the home measured in a straight line will be used as the final determining factor, nearer addresses having priority over more distant ones. This address point is within the body of the property and usually located at its centre. Where the cut off point is for addresses within the same building, then the single measure between address points will apply and the Local Authority’s system of a random draw will determine which address(es) receive the offer(s).
Admissions information:
In 2023, there were 53 applications for 30 places
Waiting list
Where we have more applications than places, the admissions criteria will be used. Children who are not admitted will have their name placed on a waiting list. The names on this waiting list will be in the order resulting from the application of the admissions criteria. Since the date of application cannot be a criterion for the order of names on the waiting list, late applicants for the school will be slotted into the order according to the extent to which they meet the criteria. Thus it is possible that a child who moves into the area later to have a higher priority than one who has been on the waiting list for some time. If a place becomes available within the admission number, the child whose name is at the top of the list will be offered a place. This is not dependent on whether an appeal has been submitted.
This waiting list will operate for the full autumn term.
Address of pupil
The address used on the school’s admission form must be the current one at the time of application, i.e. the family’s main residence. If the address changes subsequently, the parents should notify the school. Where the parents live at different addresses, and there is shared parenting, the address used will normally be the one where the child wakes up for the majority of Monday to Friday mornings. If there is any doubt about this, then the address of the Child Benefit recipient will be used. Parents may be asked to show evidence of the claim that is being made for the address, e.g. identity cards of various sorts showing the child’s address as the one claimed. Where there is dispute about the correct address to use, the governors reserve the right to make enquiries of any relevant third parties, e.g. the child’s GP, Council Tax Office, Electoral Registration Officer, utilities provider. For children of UK Service personnel and other Crown Servants returning to the area proof of the posting is all that is required.
Non-routine or in-year admissions
It sometimes happens that a child needs to change school other than at the “normal” time; such admissions are known as non-routine or in-year admissions. Parents wishing their child to attend this school should arrange to visit the school. They will be provided with an application form once they have a definite local address. If there is a place in the appropriate class, then the governors will arrange for the admission to take place. If there is no place, then the admissions committee will consider the application and information about how to appeal against the refusal will be provided. Appeals for children moving into the area will not be considered until there is evidence of a permanent address, e.g. exchange of contracts or tenancy agreement with rent book.
Please note that you cannot re-apply for a place at a school within the same school year unless there has been relevant, significant and material change in the family circumstances.
Appeals
Where the governors are unable to offer a place because the school is over subscribed, parents have the right to appeal to an independent admission appeal panel, set up under the School Standards and Framework Act, 1998, as amended by the Education Act, 2002. Parents should notify the clerk to the governors at the school by 16th May 2024. Parents will have the opportunity to submit their case to the panel in writing and also to attend in order to present their case. You will normally receive 14 days’ notice of the place and time of the hearing.
Appeals which are received after the deadline will be slotted into the schedule where this is possible. There is no guarantee that this will happen and late appeals may be heard after the stipulated date at a second round of hearings. The schedule is subject to change depending upon the availability of appeal panel members, clerks, venues and the number of appeals for each school (which will vary year on year).
Please note that this right of appeal against the governors’ decision does not prevent you from making an appeal in respect of any other school.
Fraudulent applications
Where the governing committee discovers that a child has been awarded a place as the result of an intentionally misleading application from a parent (for example a false claim to residence in the catchment area or of involvement in a place of worship) which effectively denies a place to a child with a stronger claim, then the governing committee is required to withdraw the offer of the place. The application will be considered afresh and a right of appeal offered if a place is refused.
Deferred admission
If your child is due to start school during the next academic year, it is important that you apply for a place for September. If your child’s fifth birthday is between the months of September and December, then, if you wish it, admission may be deferred until January; if it is between January and April, then admission may be deferred until the start of the summer term though it is likely to be in your child’s interest to start no later than January. You may also request that your child attend school part time until he/she reaches his/her fifth birthday.
Admission of children outside of their normal age group
Parents may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group, for example, if a child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. In addition, the parents of a summer born child may choose not to send that child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1. Admission Authorities must make clear in their admission arrangements the process for requesting admission out of the normal age group.
Admission authorities must make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This will include taking account of the parent’s views; information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development; where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional; whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group; and whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely. They must also take into account the views of the head teacher of the school concerned. When informing a parent of their decision on the year group the child should be admitted to, the admission authority must set out clearly the reasons for their decision.
Where an admission authority agrees to a parents’ request for their child to be admitted out of their normal age group and as a consequence of that decision, the child will be admitted to a relevant age group (ie the age group to which pupils are normally admitted to the school) the local authority and admission authority must process the application as part of the main admissions round, unless the parental request is made too late for this to be possible, and on the basis of their determined admission arrangements only, including the application oversubscription criteria where applicable. They must not give the application lower priority on the basis that the child is being admitted out of their normal age group. Parents have a statutory right to appeal against refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied. This right does not apply if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group.
Twins, etc
Where there are twins, etc wanting admission and there is only a single place left within the admission number, then the governing committee will exercise as much flexibility as possible within the requirements of infant class sizes. In exceptional circumstances cases we are now able to offer places for both twins and all triplets, even when this means breaching infant class size limits.
*The term summer born children relates to all children born from 1 April to 31 August. These children reach compulsory school age on 31 August following their fifth ( or on their fifth birthday if it falls on 31 August) It is likely that most requests for summer born children admitted out of their normal age group will come from parents of children born in the later summer months or those born prematurely.
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