The Federation of St Elphege's Catholic Schools

Admissions

St. Elphege's School Tours: Nursery, Reception and Year 3

The school offers tours every Thursday at 10.00am (term time only).

If you would like to book a tour, please contact the school office directly and book an appointment.

• School email: infant-office@stelphegesrcschools.org.uk
• Office: 02086696306 ext 0

St Elphege’s is a Voluntary Aided Federation of Infant and Junior Schools in the Archdiocese of Southwark. It was built to serve the Catholic and local community.

The members of the school community supports the school because they value a distinctive Catholic education for their children. For the remainder of this policy, the word Catholic refers to the Catholic faith.

Parents elect to apply for these schools in order to ensure that the Catholic values and way of life are passed on to their children at home, in the parish and at school. Governors have full regard for these factors in the framework of this policy.

To see a full copy of our Admissions policy and process, please download the relevant information

Revised Admissions code - The Federation of St Elpheges Catholic Schools - Admission Arrangements

Parents and carers applying for places in Years Nursery to 6 in the academic years are asked to note the following changes to the admissions criteria 1 (in relation to the School Admissions Code amendments effective from 1st September) for Looked After and Previously Looked after Children.

Criterion 1

Looked After Children* in Category A – 1 By law, children who are Looked After by a Local Authority receive top priority for a school place. As a Faith School the Governors give priority to Looked After Catholic children or Looked after children in the care of Catholic families and previously Looked After Catholic children who have been adopted or who have become the subject of a residence or guardianship order. Within Category B, Looked After Children are given the highest priority. The Governors may consider non-Catholic Looked After Children in the care of Catholic families within Category A. The Governors will consider the individual circumstances and will seek advice from other agencies where necessary.

* a 'looked after child' or a child who owas previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order91 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. A looked after child is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accomm dation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989)

Getting ready for school

Children will have learned many things before they come to school. You will have helped them to learn to walk and talk and gain knowledge of our world. In their everyday play children will have begun to learn about colour, to count (plates for dinner, sweets to be shared, cars on the road etc.) to read (recognising advertisements, the McDonalds sign) sing nursery rhymes, pop songs, look at books, comics and magazines. These all help to foster a joy of reading and learning.

Now the time has arrived for the school to assist you in helping your child to learn more and develop into a happy healthy adult. These notes are to help you to prepare for and enjoy this new experience and to encourage you to continue assisting at home. All children learn through play at home and at school. Please do not underestimate the importance of play in children's life. They will learn from doing and talking before they are ready to read and write about their experience. They will need to find out about the properties of sand, water, paint, clay, to estimate and count before they write their findings as "sums".

Children develop at an individual rate; some walk or talk or are toilet trained before others. It is the same with reading and writing. Try not to compare your child with others. Even brothers and sisters develop at different rates.

Things to do before your child starts school

• Endeavour to help your child to be toilet trained and knows how to ask for the toilet.
• Make sure all your child's clothes are clearly marked with his/her name.
• Talk about school with your child. Talk about "starting school" stories and visits to school support their transition. Our Nursery and Reception staff will always provide a home visit to ensure your children feel secure and welcome when they arrive at school.
• Support your children in their use of a knife and fork so that they are able to enjoy their lunch independently. If he/she is to have a packed lunch ensure that the container is clearly marked and recognisable and the contents support a healthy choice and balance. This reinforces our aim for all children to enjoy a healthy diet.
• Help your child to listen to simple instructions and carry them out. (e.g. tidying away toys, coming when called.).
• If your child has a special physical or educational need please make sure that the Headteacher and class teacher are fully aware of these.
• You will be invited to a meeting during the term before your child is due to start school.

In-Year Admissions

Before the Governors can consider the allocation of places, the application process has to be complete.

• Applications should be made to Sutton Council on an In-Year Application Form, which is available online at Sutton.gov.uk/admissions. St Elphege’s Supplementary Information Form MUST be completed by those with parental responsibility and returned to the school office for full consideration of any in-year application. These are available from the school office or on-line at http://www.stelphegesrcschools.org.uk.
• The child’s Baptism Certificate must be produced for inspection at the school.
• Applications for children of other faiths should be supported by a minister’s/faith leader’s reference. The school will send the Supplementary Information Form to those with parental responsibility with the application form upon request.
• Those with parental responsibility should complete all appropriate parts of the form as soon as possible.

Maintenance of the In-Year Waiting Lists In-Year waiting lists and subsequent offers are managed by the school directly in line with the school admissions criterion. Notification of the Outcome of the In-Year Application Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application (whether a place can be offered or if the Candidate has been placed on an In-Year waiting list) usually within 10-15 school days of the school receiving Local Authority notification AND the completed school supplementary form. Occasionally, the school may require additional information from the Applicant which may delay this process, especially if an out of chronological age group place has been requested. If it is not possible for the school to offer a place to the Candidate, the Applicant has the right to appeal this decision. A deadline for lodging the appeal will be given, and the Applicant must set out their grounds for appeal in writing. How are the waiting lists ranked? There are different admissions criteria (see the Admissions Policy for the year of application). In order to rank applications correctly onto each year group waiting list, each application is firstly given a criterion in accordance with the Admissions Policy, and then, within each criterion, Candidates are also ranked according to distance from the school. Distances are calculated by Sutton Local Authority.