Applicants should be aware that Nursery education is a nonstatutory service and that accordingly a child's attendance in the School’s Nursery Class does not guarantee a future place in the Reception, Infant or Junior classes.
Pupil numbers
The Governing Body will ensure that the number of pupils admitted to each year group will be such as to conform to statutory legislation. The Governing Body proposes to admit 30 pupils, being the Published Admissions Number, to each year group.
Application forms
Applications for the 2008 Reception Class intake must be made on the Hackney Common Admissions Form. This form is available from:
The Learning Trust, Hackney Technology & Learning Centre, 1 Reading Lane, London E8 1GQ .
All other applications must be made on the School's application formavailable from the School office.
Priest's reference and supplementary information
The School will provide each applicant with a Priest’s reference and supplementary information form that must be completed and returned to the School by the date specified on the form.
Applicants must provide the School with the originals of the child’s birth and baptismal certificates. If neither one nor both of these certificates exist, applicants should indicate in writing the reasons for this being the case.
Applicants must provide the School with proof of their residential address. Independent verification may be sought of the applicant's residential address.
Waiting list
If there is no place available, parents/carers must confirm in writing to the School if they wish to have their application placed on the School's waiting list. The waiting list will be maintained in order of the over-subscription criteria (see below) and not in the order in which applications are received or added to the list.
Names are normally removed from the list after six months unless parents/carers submit a written request asking for their application to remain on the waiting list.
Pupils with statements of Special Educational Needs
The admission of pupils with statements of Special Educational Needs is dealt with by a completely separate
procedure. The procedure is integral to the making of statements by the pupil's home Local Authority. Details of this separate procedure are included in the DfES Special Educational Needs Code of Practice.
Over-subscripiton criteria
Children will be admitted to the School in the following order of priority:
- Catholic "looked after" children.
- Baptised children of practising Catholic families who will have a brother or sister attending a Reception, Infant or Junior class in Our Lady and St. Joseph School at the proposed date of admission.
- Baptised children from practising Catholic families whose parents/legal guardians are resident in the Hackney Catholic Deanery Parish of Our Lady and St. Joseph , Kingsland.
- Baptised children from practising Catholic families whose parents/legal guardians are resident in the Hackney Catholic Deanery Parishes of Our Lady of Good Counsel or St. John the Baptist.
- Baptised children of practising Catholic families whose parents/legal guardians are resident in Parishes other than those listed in criteria 3 and 4 (see above).
- Baptised children from Catholic families not included in criteria 2, 3, 4 and 5 (see above).
- Other "looked after" children.
- Children of other Christian families whose applications are supported by a Priest, Minister or Church Leader.
- Children not included in criteria 1 to 8 (as above).
In prioritising applications within over-subscription criteria, first priority will be given to children who will have a brother or sister attending a Reception,
Infant or Junior class in Our Lady and St. Joseph Catholic Primary School at the proposed date of admission.
The Governing Body may increase the priority of an application within a category where evidence is provided at the time of application of an exceptional social, medical or pastoral need of the child which can be most appropriately be met at this school. The Governing Body will require written evidence from an appropriate professional such as priest, doctor or social worker.
Tie-breaker
Where the offer of places to all the applicants in any of the criteria listed above would lead to over-subscription, places up to the admission number will be offered to those children whose parents’/carers’ residential address is the shortest distance from the base of the clock tower of Our Lady and St. Joseph RC School when measured in a straight line on a map.
Admission Appeals for unsuccessful applicants to
the Reception Class and Years 1 to 6
Unsuccessful applicants have the right to appeal to an independent panel. Parents wishing to appeal should obtain a form from the School. This should be completed and returned to the School, marked for the attention of Clerk to the Admission Appeal Panel, within 14 days of receipt of the letter confirming that the application has been unsuccessful.
If an appeal is unsuccessful, the Governing Body will not consider a further application within the same school year unless there have been significant and material changes in the applicant’s circumstances.
In year access protocols
The School is committed to taking its fair share of vulnerable children who are hard to place, in accordance with locally agreed protocols. Accordingly, outside the normal round
of admissions, the Governing Body is empowered to give absolute priority to a child where admission is requested under any local protocol which carries the agreement both of the
Governing Body and the Diocese for the current admission year. The Governing Body has this power even when admitting such a child would exceed the normal admission number.
Interpretation of terms used in the Admissions Policy
and over-subscription criteria
Applicants
The parents and/or legal guardians submitting an application for a place on behalf of a child.
Catholic
A person who is a member of a Church in full communion with the See of Rome. This includes catechumens
and members of the Eastern Christian Churches . For the purposes of this Policy it also includes a "looked after" child who is in the process of adoption by a "Catholic family".
Looked after children
Children in the care of the Local Authority or provided with accommodation by them e.g. children
with foster parents (see section 22 of The Children’s Act 1989).
Family
Those individuals who live at the residential address of the parents and/or legal guardians who are
submitting an application for a place on behalf of a child.
Practising Catholics
Families who regularly attend Sunday Mass (this includes attendance at Saturday evening Mass).
"Regularly attend" Families who attend Sunday Mass more often than not.
Christian
A member of one of the Churches that is a member of "Churches Together in Great Britain and Ireland".
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