Admission criteria
These describe the way in which South Gloucestershire Council gives priority to children when it allocates places at individual schools that are over-subscribed.
Admission number
The Admission Number is the number of places that must be offered in each year group if there is sufficient demand for places. This number is calculated taking into account the physical capacity of the school. Once the Admission Number is reached, any further admissions would normally be by appeal.
Appeal
Parents/Carers have the right of appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel concerning the decision of South Gloucestershire Council not to offer a place at the preferred school. Parents/ Carers are invited to attend the hearing.
Area of prime responsibility (APR)
This is a defined geographical area. Where an APR exists the area indicates to parents/carers the school(s) which normally serve the home address. When allocating places South Gloucestershire Council will give priority to those children who live within the Area of Prime Responsibility of the school. In some cases an APR is served by more than one school (see also Consortium Area).
Children in Public Care
Children in public care (Looked After Children) are either subject to Care Orders or are accommodated by South Gloucestershire Council. They may be living in foster placements,
children’s homes, residential provision or with their families with social work support. Parents/Carers retain primary parental responsibility for their children when they are
accommodated, although South Gloucestershire Council has corporate parenting responsibilities.
Co-ordinated admissions (PRIMARY)
South Gloucestershire Council co-ordinates the admission arrangements for all Infant, Junior and Primary Schools, including all Voluntary Aided schools within South Gloucestershire. All applications for places at infant/primary schools in South Gloucestershire are to be made to South Gloucestershire Council. (See following section and section 7 for details of the co-ordinated admission arrangements).
Co-ordinated admissions (SECONDARY)
The co-ordinated admission scheme processes applications from parents/carers living in South Gloucestershire and ensures that one school place is offered on the same day (posted second class on 2 March 2009). South Gloucestershire Council will share information with other Local Authorities as part of the co-ordinated admission scheme. The Local Authority in which the child lives will offer a school place, either for one of its own schools or on behalf of another Local Authority.
Closing date
The closing date for on-time applications is 4.30pm on Friday 24 October 2008.
Community/controlled schools
South Gloucestershire Council is the Admission Authority for community/controlled schools and is responsible for determining the admission arrangements and allocating school places. Section 5 of the primary admissions booklet gives a full list of all the maintained schools in South Gloucestershire, including those schools that have Voluntary Aided status, where the individual governing body for the school is the Admission Authority.
Section 5 of the secondary admissions booklet gives a full list of all secondary schools in
South Gloucestershire.
Consortium area
A Consortium Area is an Area of Prime Responsibility that is served by more than two schools.
Deferred admission
In South Gloucestershire, children are able to attend school from the beginning of the school year in which they will become five.
The policy in South Gloucestershire of enabling children to benefit from three full years of infant education (by starting school in the September following their fourth birthday) in itself provides children with an earlier start date than some other Local Authorities.
If parents/carers wish they may apply for a place at the normal time but request that their child does not attend until later in the school year. If the place is allocated, it will be reserved but must be taken up at the beginning of either the January (Term 3) or April (Term 5) terms, according to the child’s date of birth. Children must be in attendance at a school by the beginning of the term after their fifth birthday. Additionally, the place must be taken up during the school year 2009/10. If parents/carers do not take up the reserved place during the school year they will need to reapply for a Year 1 place for the following year. There is no guarantee that a place will be available at the preferred school at that point.
Denominational schools
These schools are Voluntary Aided schools, run in partnership between South Gloucestershire Council and the Church; in South Gloucestershire currently all these schools are either Catholic, Church of England or CE/Methodist. Section 5 in the admissions booklet gives a full list of all the maintained schools in South Gloucestershire, including those schools that have Voluntary Aided status, where the individual governing body for the school is the Admission Authority. Section 9 of the admissions booklet gives further details about denominational schools.
There are no secondary denominational schools in South Gloucestershire.
First area
In some cases, where a school forms part of a Consortium Area of Prime Responsibility, the school concerned may also have a First Area of Responsibility for certain outlying or more rural areas. Children living in these First Areas will be given priority over children living elsewhere within the Consortium Area of Prime Responsibility.
Gazetteer
The Routes to School Gazetteer that is used by the Children and Young People Department in
determining allocations comprises:
a) Routes that are Public Highway maintained by South Gloucestershire Council as the Highway Authority.
b) Man-made surfaced roads, tracks and paths on South Gloucestershire Council owned land.
c) Potentially adopted highways that are covered by adoption agreements with developers.
Although these lengths of highway are not maintained by the Council, but by the developer, the land on which the adoptable roads and footpaths have been constructed is dedicated as public highway. This dedication occurs on the issuing of ‘Certificate 1’ under the terms of the adoption agreement, prior to first occupation. To meet the requirements of Certificate 1 the roads and footpaths must be surfaced to base course level and lit. Wherever possible the roads and footpaths on new developments, satisfying the ‘Certificate 1’ criteria are included so as not to disadvantage individuals moving onto new developments.
The following routes are not included:
- Isolated/remote Public Rights of Way -although a highway, the surface is private
and unpredictable; they are generally not lit.
- Route(s) through private land.
Home address
The home address is considered to be where the child lives most of the time with his or her parent(s) or carer(s). Where the child spends time with each parent/carer equally at two different addresses South Gloucestershire Council will ask for proof of the arrangements and will determine the appropriate address to be used in allocating a school place.
Infant class
This means a class containing pupils where the majority will attain the age of five, six or seven during the course of the school year (Key Stage 1). The Reception Year is often described as the last year of the Foundation Stage. From September 2001, by law, no infant class may contain more than 30 pupils per single qualified teacher.
Joint area
A Joint Area is an Area of Prime Responsibility that is served by two schools.
Local authority
South Gloucestershire Council is the Local Authority for South Gloucestershire residents. The student Access & Support Team administers the admissions process and is based in the Department for Children and Young People at Bowling Hill, Chipping Sodbury.
Local sibling
Local siblings are defined as:
- only those living within the Area of Prime Responsibility;
- or, where there is no Area of Prime Responsibility, local siblings will be deemed to be those living up to a maximum of 2 miles from school by the nearest available walking route;
- or, where the distance is over 2 miles but the school is still the nearest school with a
place available.
The sibling must already be in attendance at that school and be there in September 2009.
For the purposes of the local sibling criterion, a paired infant and junior school will be treated as one school.
Nearest appropriate school (as defined by South Gloucestershire Council)
This may be the nearest school, the school within the Area of Prime Responsibility serving the home address, nearest school with a place available, or nearest school able to meet a child’s identified Special Educational Needs.
Nearest available walking route (including measurement of distance)
Distances from home to school are measured using the nearest available walking route to the
nearest school gate. Walking distances are determined using the South Gloucestershire Council Routes to School Gazetteer adopted by 1 September 2008. Those living closer to the school are given higher priority in the allocation of places. (See also Statutory Walking Distance)
Over-subscribed schools
A school is over-subscribed when there are more applications than there are places available. In such cases South Gloucestershire Council will apply the over-subscription criteria (listed in section 8 for community and controlled schools and section 9 for Voluntary Aided schools).
Parent (parental responsibility)
Both a child’s parents will have parental responsibility for the child if they are married and are the child’s natural parents. If the parents of a child are not married to each other, the mother automatically has parental responsibility, but the father does not. He can subsequently acquire parental responsibility by the following means:
- a parental responsibility agreement;
- becoming registered as the child’s father on the birth certificate;
- an order of the court granting him parental responsibility or a residence order.
Other persons can acquire parental responsibility for a child in the following ways:
- being granted a residence order;
- being appointed a guardian or special guardian;
- adopting a child.
A Local Authority can acquire parental responsibility for a child under a care order or an
emergency protection order. Only the parent with legal responsibility may complete and submit the school place application.
Parental/carer preference
Parents/Carers have the right to express a preference for the school they wish their child to attend. This right to express a preference is set out in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. South Gloucestershire Council must comply with parental/carer preference regarding arents’/carers’ preference for school except:
- when to do so would prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources; or
- where to do so would result in exceeding the limit on infant class sizes, as imposed by section 1(6) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998;
- when a child has been permanently excluded from two or more schools and the most recent exclusion has taken place within 2 years.
Applications for places will be considered against the published admission criteria without reference to the applicants’ order of preference. Where applicants meet the criteria for more than one school, the final offer will be the highest ranked school with a place available.
Phasing full time admission
New Reception Year children who start school in September will not normally be in full time attendance until Term 2. Parents/Carers should contact individual schools for details of the arrangements. This does not apply to children starting school at any other time of the year.
School terms
There are six school terms in the South Gloucestershire school year. School Term and Holiday Dates for 2000-10 are listed in section 14.
Sibling
For the purposes of allocating school places, children are siblings if they are half, full, adoptive brother or sister, or they are children of the same household. Siblings are considered as those children of statutory school age, i.e. must be attending school Years 7-11. (See also Local Sibling).
Special educational needs (SEN)
Where a child has a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities and this requires admission to the school applied for.
Statutory school age
Children starting school must be in attendance by the term after their fifth birthday i.e. at the beginning of either the January (Term 3) or April (Term 5) terms, according to a child’s date of birth. A child cannot leave school until the last Friday in June of the academic year in which they become 16.
Statutory walking distance
The distance between home and school, when measured by the nearest available walking route, is:
- For a child aged 5-7: up to 2 miles
- For a child aged 8-16: up to 3 miles
In some circumstances children will be eligible for free transport to school. (See section 11 primary handbook or section 10 secondary handbook for further details).
Under-subscribed schools
A school is under-subscribed when the number of applications for places is less than the Admission Number of the school.
Voluntary aided schools (VA)
In a Voluntary Aided school the governing body is the Admission Authority and its over-subscription criteria will normally differ from those used by South Gloucestershire Council. The governing body will, therefore, determine how places are to be allocated, but under co-ordinated arrangements applications for all schools (including Voluntary Aided schools) are made on the single South Gloucestershire application form which is included in this booklet or can be completed on-line. All school places are offered by South Gloucestershire Council, including those at Voluntary Aided schools where offers are made on behalf of the governing body.
Voluntary controlled schools (VC)
South Gloucestershire Council is the Admission Authority for Voluntary Controlled schools
and is responsible for determining the admission arrangements and allocating places.