St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

Oversubscription Criteria

Where there are more applicants for places than the number of places available, places will be offered according to the following order of priority:

• 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.
• Baptised Catholic children, a baptismal certificate or evidence of reception into the Catholic Church must accompany the supplementary information form.
• Other looked after children and other previously looked after children who have been adopted or who have become the subject of a residence or guardianship order.
• Children enrolled in the Catechumenate; evidence of enrolment required.
• Children who are members of the Eastern Orthodox Church; evidence of Baptism will be required.
• Christians of other denominations whose parents are in sympathy with the aims and ethos of the school and whose application is supported by a minister of religion.
• Children of other faiths whose parents are in sympathy with the aims and ethos of the school and whose application is supported by a religious leader.
• Any other applicants whose parents are in sympathy with the aims and ethos of the school.

The following order of priorities will be applied when applications within any of the above categories exceed the places available.

• For category 2, 3 and 5 above- the strength of evidence of commitment to the faith as demonstrated by Mass attendance each Sunday. This evidence must be provided by the parents/carers and endorsed by their priest. Applications will be ranked in the order shown on the supplementary form as follows:

• A sibling on roll at the time of admission. The term sibling includes relationship through blood, marriage or adoption; evidence of the relationship, and that the siblings live at the same address, may be required.
• Social and medical needs which make the school particularly suitable for the child; strong, relevant evidence must be provided by an appropriate professional authority within the last three months.
• Distance from the school’s pedestrian side gate to the child’s permanent home address. Distances will be measured using GI Tech Measurements Service to calculate the shortest walking distance. Where the last remaining place is to be allocated and two or more children are deemed to live at the same distance from the school, the place will be decided by the drawing of lots.

Application Procedure and timetable 

Applications should be submitted by 15th January, using your home Local Authority On Line Admissions Application.

A Supplementary Information Form is available from the school. Completion of the Supplementary Form is not mandatory; however if one is not received by 15th January, the Governors will only able to consider the application under the “any other applicants” category. Forms need to be signed by at least one parent and the school will request to see the child’s Baptism Certificate. You are advised to make two copies of the forms; retain one and pass the second to your priest or the school.

Please note, from onwards Southwark residents who are making a late application must do so online at www.southwark.gov.uk/schooladmissions. Non-Southwark residents wishing to make a late application to the school must check how to do so with their home local authority.

In Year Admissions

St Joseph's participates in the LA’s co-ordinated in year admissions scheme and follow the protocol set within it. For a copy of the protocol and further information on this matter you may wish to visit Southwark councils’ inyear admissions website www.southwark.gov.uk/schools-and-education/school-admissions/in-year-admissions If your child is currently not attending a Southwark school and you would like to apply for an in year place at a Southwark school, you must complete the Southwark in year application form If you would like to apply for a school outside of Southwark, you will need to contact the borough where the school is located to ask about their application arrangements.

The school’s supplementary form should also be completed to enable the governors to rank the application in the event of there being more than one application for a place. The governors will use the same criteria to rank the application as that listed above. The offer of a place at the school will be made by the LA on behalf of the governors. In the event of the governors deciding that a place cannot be offered parents will be offered the opportunity of placing their child’s name on the waiting list. This does not prevent parents from exercising their right to appeal against the decision not to offer a place.

Admission of children below compulsory school age

The governors will provide for the admission of all children in the September following their fourth birthday. Parents can request that the date their child is admitted to the school is deferred up until the child reaches compulsory school age in that school year; parents may also request that their child attends part-time up until the child reaches compulsory school age.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

For the purposes of safeguarding, Southwark residents must complete Southwark Council’s ‘Request for admission outside of the normal age group’ form: www.southwark.gov.uk/schools-and-education/school-admissions/admission-of-children-outside-their-normal-age-group Parents who are seeking a place for their child outside of their normal age group, eg, the child has experienced problems such as ill health or the parents of a summer born child preferring not to send their child to school until the September following their fifth birthday, may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1. Governors will make decisions on 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 will also take into account the views of the school’s head teacher. When informing a parent of the decision which year group the child should be admitted to, the governors will set out clearly the reasons for their decision. Where the governors agree to a parent’s 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 the age group to which pupils are normally admitted to the school the local authority will 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 the determined admission arrangements, including the application of oversubscription criteria where applicable. The agreement to admit any child outside of their normal age group does not guarantee that a school place will be offered as this is a separate process. Parents have a statutory right to appeal against the 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.

Fair Access Protocol

The school participates in the local authority’s Fair Access Protocol to allocate places to vulnerable and other children in accordance with the School Admission Code 2014. Admitting pupils under the protocol may require the school to admit above the planned admission number for the relevant year group.

Appeals

Parents whose applications for places are unsuccessful may appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel set up in accordance with section 85(3) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Appeals must be made in writing and must set out the reasons on which the appeal is made. Appeals should be made to the Admissions Appeal Clerk at the school address. Parents/Carers have the right to make oral representations to the Appeal Panel. Infant classes are restricted by the legislation to 30 children. Forms can be collected from the school office. Parents should be aware that an appeal against refusal of a place in an infant class may only succeed if it can be demonstrated that:-

• The admission of additional children would not breach the infant class size limit; or
• The admission arrangements did not comply with admissions law or had not been correctly and impartially applied and the child would have been offered a place if the arrangements had complied or had been correctly and impartially applied; or
• The panel decides that the decision to refuse admission was not one which a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case.

Notes(these form part of the oversubscription criteria)

A ‘looked after child’ is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school. This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see section 12 adoption orders) and children who were adopted under the Adoption and Children’s Act 2002 (see section 46 adoption orders). Child arrangements orders are defined in section 8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by section 12 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence orders in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order. Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians). References to previously looked after children in the School Admissions Code 2014 means such children who were adopted (or subject to child arrangements orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after.

‘Catholic’ means a member of a Church in communion with the See of Rome. This includes the Eastern Catholic Churches. This will normally be evidenced by a certificate of Baptism in a Catholic Church or a certificate of reception into the full communion of the Catholic Church.. Applications will be ranked on the strength of evidence of commitment to the faith as demonstrated by Mass attendance each Sunday in the order shown on the supplementary form as follows:

• practising Catholic means Catholic children from practicing Catholic families who habitually worship at Mass on a regular basis and where the application is supported by a Catholic priest. The Governing Body will expect this practice to be verified by a reference from a priest in the standard format laid down by the Diocese.
• ‘catechumen’ means a person who wishes to be baptised in the Catholic church and has been accepted as a member of the Catechumenate. This will normally be evidenced by a certificate of reception into the order of catechumens.
• ‘Eastern Orthodox Church’ includes Orthodox Churches and is normally evidenced by a certificate of Baptism or reception from the authorities of that Church.
• To demonstrate an exceptional, social, medical or pastoral need of the child which can be most appropriately met at this school, the Governing Body will normally require written evidence from an appropriate professional, such as social worker, doctor, or priest.
• The home address is where the parent/carer lives and the child permanently resides for the majority of school nights (Sunday to Thursday) unless otherwise directed by a Court Order. This will also apply to informal care arrangements. Where a child spends time with both parents/carers in separate homes and both have parental responsibility, the school will need to establish where the majority of school nights (Sunday to Thursday) are spent. This will then be treated as the home address.