Admissions

 Welcome to the school admissions page for St. David's C of E Primary School. Selecting a school for your child can be a stressful time, but we hope that we can make this process easier by including all of the relevant information on our website.

Starting school in September 2024?
If your child is due to start school in September 2024 you should have applied for a school place through the Local Authority Admissions Team, the online application facility is open between 3rd November and 15th January. An information booklet containing various information about the schools in Gloucestershire and the process is above. Parents and carers will be informed on 16th April 2024 of the school their child has been allocated. If you would like to appeal against the decision made regarding the school place allocated to your child you have between June and July 2024 to lodge your appeal.

The Governing Body of St. David’s C of E Primary School is its own Admissions Authority as the school is an Academy. For schools within its care and control, the Church of England’s prime aim is to provide the best possible education for the children of the parish in which the school is located. This education has a Christian ethos which is based on the teachings of the Church of England, but is open to all children regardless of their families’ religious beliefs or affiliations. This inclusive principle underlies the Admissions Policy of St. David’s C of E Primary School. When children join our school they become part of the family and through this we develop their potential through academic achievement, personal and social development and self-discipline, based on the beliefs and values of the Christian faith.

St. David’s C of E Primary School serves the town of Moreton-in-Marsh together with the villages of Todenham, Bourton-on-the-Hill and Broadwell. The Governors at St. David’s C of E Primary School have drawn up this policy in consultation with Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire County Councils, the Gloucester Diocese and the local community. Its aim is to provide a clear and fair guide to the school’s admission procedure.

The school will admit children up to its published admissions number (PAN) of 45 children per year into the Reception Year. This is the agreed number of pupils in each age group that the school is obliged to accept. If the number of applicants exceeds this, the admissions criteria will be applied.

Admissions’ criteria

These criteria will be applied, in the order set out below, in cases of over-subscription:

Where any particular category at points 1-3 above is oversubscribed, criterion 4 (strongest geographical claim) will be used to determine which of the children is offered a place. In the event of a tie between two or more children when criterion 4 is applied, a process of random allocation will be followed.

If it becomes apparent at any time that a parent/carer has made a fraudulent or intentionally misleading application that has effectively denied a place to another child, the Governors reserve the right to withdraw the place.

Children with Educational Health Care Plan

As required by current legislation, priority will be given to children with an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) that names St. David’s C of E Primary School.  Therefore, children who have an EHCP and name St. David’s C of E Primary School will be allocated a place even if the school is full.

Admission of Summer Born Children for Reception Entry for St David’s C of E Primary School

The Governing Body of St David’s C of E school acknowledges the updated advice from the Department of Education that, parents/carers of “summer born” children (born between 1 April and 31 August) may request to start the Reception Class of a school a whole academic year later. The Governing Body will make a decision on behalf of St David’s C of E Primary School. We follow the Local Authority process which states that parents can only apply for a Reception place at a school once and must apply for a place during the standard application process timeline for their chronological year group, stating their reasons for requesting deferred entry to the following year. The Governing Body will decide whether the deferred entry can be approved for the school.

Normal Admission Round

The term ‘normal admissions round’ refers to all applications for admission to the main year of entry of the school i.e. Reception for Infant and Primary Schools. Applications made during the normal admissions round will be made in advance of the academic year in which the child is due to start at the new school. Children are entitled to a full-time place, however, may attend part-time until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age.

Starting School

The exact procedures for starting school will vary from year to year but they will always include the following elements:

• introductory visits for parents and children in the summer term;
• an opportunity to meet the teacher and discuss each child’s needs during a home visit;
• an introduction to the school and its staff by the Headteacher;
• a phased start to the September term so that children begin the term with half-time schooling before moving on, generally after a fortnight, to full-time schooling.

Waiting List

If the school is oversubscribed, a waiting list will be held from September 2024 until the end of December 2024. The waiting list will be prioritised according to the school’s oversubscription criteria.

In-Year Admissions

1. Local Authority is not responsible for offering places to children on behalf of all schools, but the Local Authority does maintain the statutory duty of being responsible and aware of all pupils and vacancies within schools in Gloucestershire. To apply for a place at St. David’s C of E Primary School parents/carers should therefore contact the school in the first instance. If there are no places available, they can ask to be placed on our waiting list for the rest of that term. you will be required to contact the School in the new term, if they still require the place. The school has signed up to the In-Year Fair Access Protocols held by the Local Authority. Should a vulnerable child within these Protocols require a place at St. David’s C of E Primary School, that child will take precedent over any child on the waiting list.

Challenging behaviour

We will not refuse to admit a child on behavioural grounds in the normal admissions round or at any point in the normal year of entry. We may refuse admission in certain cases where the specific criteria listed in the School Admissions Code (paragraph 3.8) apply, i.e. where section 87 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 is engaged. 

We may refuse admission for an in-year applicant for a year group that isn’t the normal point of entry, only in such a case that we have good reason to believe that the child may display challenging behaviour that may adversely affect the provision we can offer. In this case, we will refer these pupils to the Fair Access Protocol. We will not refuse admission on these grounds to looked after children, previously looked after children and children with EHC plans listing the school.

Fair Access Protocol

We participate in Gloucestershire County Council’s Fair Access Protocol. This helps ensure that all children, including those who are unplaced and vulnerable, or having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, get access to a school place as quickly as possible.

Appeals

The parents of any child whose application is rejected have the right to appeal against this decision. Any appeal in writing should be addressed to the school for the attention of the Clerk to the Governors. The appeal is considered by an independent appeals panel that will consider each appeal against the admission criteria listed. Information is obtainable from the school office.

Guidance Notes

1.  A ‘looked after child’ (1a) or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption (1b) child arrangements order (residency order) (1c) or special guardianship (1d) including those who appear to the admission authority to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.

(1a) A 'looked after child' is a child who is (i) in the care of a local authority, or

(ii) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school. In Gloucestershire, such children are referred to as Children in Care.

(1b) This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see section 12 adoption orders) or the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (see section 46 adoption orders).

(1c) Under the provisions of s. 12 of the Children and Families Act 2014.

(1d) See Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 which defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians). 

(1e) A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society.

1. A child’s home address is considered to be the child’s permanent address where he/she lives with at least one parent and where he/she spends the majority of the school week (Monday to Friday including nights).
2. There are two possible conditions. Firstly, the member of staff must have been employed on a continuous basis at the school for two or more years. For normal round admissions, the date that will be used to assess the length of time that a member of staff has been employed will be the closing date for applications. Secondly, a member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which, in the opinion of the Governing Body, there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
3. Pupils are normally admitted into school in the September of the school year in which they become 5 years old. Parents can request that the date their child is admitted to school is deferred until later in the academic year or until the term in which the child reaches compulsory school age. Parents can request that their child takes up the place part-time until the child reaches compulsory school age.
4. Where an application for a school place has been received ‘late’ i.e. after the relevant closing date for that round of allocations, the application will only be considered once children from all on-time applications have been allocated a school place, if the school’s published admission number has not been reached.
5. School transport is not provided by the school. For further information about school transport in Gloucestershire, please go to www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/transport/school-and-college-transport/school-transport-enquiries/
6. This policy and these criteria should be read in conjunction with the Guide for Parents and Carers. This can be found at www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/schooladmissions or is available on request from the Admissions and Transport Team Shire Hall Gloucester GL1 2TP. You will be encouraged by the Admissions and Transfers Team to apply online at www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/schooladmissions but will be sent a paper version on request.

For further information regarding admissions to St. David’s C of E Primary School please contact:

Admissions

St. David’s C of E Primary School

East Street

Moreton-in-Marsh

Gloucestershire

GL56 0LQ

Tel: 01608 650521

Email: admin@st-davids.gloucs.sch.uk 

In-Year Admissions

1. Local Authority is not responsible for offering places to children on behalf of all schools, but the Local Authority does maintain the statutory duty of being responsible and aware of all pupils and vacancies within schools in Gloucestershire. To apply for a place at St. David’s C of E Primary School parents/carers should therefore contact the school in the first instance. If there are no places available, they can ask to be placed on our waiting list for the rest of that term. They will be required to contact the School in the new term, if they still require the place. The school has signed up to the In-Year Fair Access Protocols held by the Local Authority. Should a vulnerable child within these Protocols require a place at St. David’s C of E Primary School, that child will take precedent over any child on the waiting list.