Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School

Application Procedures

All parent/carers are required to apply to their home LA regardless of where the school/academy they are applying is situated. Manchester residents will apply to Manchester LA. The LA will liaise with other Admissions Authorities in Manchester and other LAs where required. Manchester LA will inform parent/carers in writing of the outcome of their application.

Applications for admission to the sixth form or a nursery of a Manchester school/academy will be dealt with by the school/academy, not by the LA. Applicants should apply direct to the school for a sixth form or nursery place. The LA is obliged to include in these arrangements the following provisions that apply to parent/carers making applications for a place in Reception only:

• The arrangements do not apply to those being admitted for nursery provision including nursery provision delivered in a co-located children’s centre;
• Parent/carers of children who are admitted for nursery provision must apply for a place at the school/academy if they want their child to transfer to the reception class;
• Attendance at the nursery or co-located children’s centre does not guarantee admission to the school/academy;
• Parent/carers can request that the date their child is admitted to the school/academy is deferred until later in the school year or until the child reaches compulsory school age in that school year. Where entry is deferred, admission authorities must hold the place for that child and not offer it to another child. The parent would not however be able to defer entry beyond the beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday;
• parents can request that their child attends part-time until the child reaches compulsory school age. Further details of the application procedures can be found in the Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme.

Published Admission Numbers (PAN)

A Published Admission Number (PAN) is the number of places a school/academy has in the year of entry. Places will normally only be offered up to the published admission number. A child cannot be refused admission to the normal year of entry on the grounds of prejudice to the provision of efficient education and efficient use of resources unless the published admission number has been reached. Outside of the year of entry it is expected that the PAN will continue to be applied. However, if circumstances at the school/academy have changed since the year of entry, a place may be refused even if the admission number has not been reached.

Oversubscription Criteria

The oversubscription criteria will be applied to all applicants where there are more applicants than places available. All applicants will be placed in a priority order determined by the oversubscription criteria. Places will be offered to the applicants with the highest priority until all places at the school have been offered. There are different oversubscription criteria for entry into:

• Reception in September (Primary Admissions Round),
• Year 7 in September (Secondary Admissions Round),
• Reception up to year 11 during the academic year (In Year Admissions).

Primary Admissions Round – Oversubscription Criteria

• Category 1 - children who are looked after by a local authority and children who were previously looked after by a local authority. Previously looked after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order);
• Category 2 - children with exceptional medical/social needs;
• Category 3 - children with a sibling at the school;
• Category 4 – all other children

Within each category applicants, will be prioritised according to the distance between the child’s permanent address and the school. Distance will be measured in a straight line from the centre point of the child’s permanent home address to the centre point of the school as defined by Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG), and using the Local Authority’s computerised measuring system, with those living closer to the school receiving higher priority.

For parents who have shared responsibility for a child, the place of residency will be determined as the address where the child lives for the majority of the week. Where this cannot be easily determined full details must be provided in writing at the time of application to enable the Local Authority to determine which address will be used for the purpose of admission.

Should the Local Authority be unable to reach a decision based on the information received, the address provided for claiming Child Benefit and where appropriate, Child Tax Credits will be used. In such circumstances, documentary evidence must be provided.

Notes:

Category 2

• A panel of Local Authority officers will consider Category 2 applications on behalf of the Director of Children’s Services.
• If a parent has chosen a particular school because the child has exceptional social or medical circumstances or the parent is disabled, this should be indicated with the reasons for choosing the school. Parents must also provide a letter from a doctor or social worker as supporting evidence. The LA will then send a category 2 application form allowing the parent to state in full the exceptional social/medical reasons why the child should attend this school.
• If supporting evidence is not supplied with a category 2 application the application will be refused.

Category 3 - Sibling

• A sibling is defined as a brother or sister attending the applied for school when the applicant will take up the place and living at the same address. This includes adopted siblings, stepsiblings and foster children;
• Siblings who are in a nursery class of the primary school will not give the applicant a sibling priority.

Waiting Lists

Waiting lists will be held in criteria order according to the oversubscription criteria. Waiting lists will not be operated on a “first come, first served” basis. The amount of time an applicant is on a waiting list will not affect their position on it. For the Primary and Secondary Admissions Round a waiting list will be for the academic year as from September. At this point applicants will be required to re-apply for the school should they wish to stay on the waiting list. For In Year applications, waiting lists will be held for the academic year in which the application was made.

At the end of the academic year all applicants will be removed from all waiting lists. The only exception to this will be if the applicant has not been offered a place. In this circumstance the applicant will be kept on the waiting list for the next academic year. Details of the waiting list process will be on the application forms and on the offer letters sent to applicants.