Longsight Community Primary

Application arrangements

All parents are required to apply to their home Local Authority regardless of where the school is situated. Manchester residents will apply for a place at Longsight Community Primary or Unity Community Primary through Manchester’s Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme. If you live within a different Local Authority area, for example, Salford, then submit via your home Local Authority who will pass the form to Manchester Local Authority as the maintaining authority for Longsight and Unity Community Primary.

Oversubscription Criteria

Where more applications are received than there are places available, after the admission of pupils with an Education, Health or Care Plan or Statement of Special Education Needs which names the school, priority for admission will be given to children who meet the criteria set out below, in order:

• A ‘Looked after child’ or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, child arrangements order or special guardianship order. 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 the definition in section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989.)
• Children who have exceptional social or medical circumstances or the parent is disabled, this should be indicated with the reasons for choosing the school. Parents/carers must also provide documented social, medical or psychological evidence in support of the application from an appropriate independent registered professional which clearly explains why the child should attend the school.
• Children with a sibling attending the school at the time of application. Sibling is defined in these arrangements as children who live as brother and sister, including natural brothers and sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers and sisters and foster brothers and sisters.
• Children of staff members (teaching and non-teaching staff) where the member of staff has been employed at the school consecutively for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made or where a staff member has been recruited to a post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
• All other children, according to the distance between the child’s permanent address and the school, with those living closest having priority for admission. If two or more children have an equal rating after applying the above criteria and it is a tie breaker situation then an independent person from the Local Authority will allocate the place on the basis of random allocation of tied candidates.

Within each category applicants will be prioritised according to the distance between the child’s permanent address and the school, with those living closest having priority for admission. 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.

The school will require proof of address. Where a child lives with parents with shared responsibility, each for part of the week, the ‘home’ address will be determined as being where the child resides for the majority of the school week. If time is equally divided then the address at which the child is registered with their GP will be used.

Admission of children below compulsory school age and deferred entry to school

Both Longsight and Unity will provide for the admission of children into Reception in the September following their fourth birthday. Parents can request that the date their child is admitted to school is deferred until later in the same academic year or until the term in which the child reaches compulsory school age, and parents can request that their child takes up the place part-time until the child reaches compulsory school age.

Waiting List

A waiting list will be maintained according to the oversubscription criteria until the end of the first term of the academic year. 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. Each child added to the list will require the list to be ranked again in line with the published oversubscription criteria. If places become available at the school, they will be offered to children on the waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria.

In year admissions (outside the normal round)

All applications for In Year Admissions should be made directly to Manchester Local Authority. The Local Authority will co-ordinate all applications. Where an application is received by the school, the school will forward the details to the LA. In Year Applications will be considered in accordance with the published admissions criteria. If the school is oversubscribed In Year Applications will be placed on the waiting list according to the published admissions criteria.

Appeals

All applicants refused a place have a right of appeal to an independent appeal panel. If a parent wishes to appeal an admissions decision they are able to do so by lodging an appeal through the Local Authority. Parents wishing to appeal should complete the appeals form on the Manchester City Council website (www.manchester.gov.uk/schoolappeals). There is also a booklet for parents on the website explaining the appeal process in detail.