St Willibrord's Roman Catholic Primary School

Introduction

St Willibrord’s role is to participate in the mission of the Catholic Church by providing a curriculum, including Catholic religious education and worship, which will help children to grow in their understanding of the Good News and in the practice of their faith. The school will help the children develop fully as human beings and prepare them to undertake their responsibilities as Catholics in society. The school requires all parents applying for a place here to understand and respect this ethos and its importance to the school community. This does not affect the rights of parents who are not of the Catholic faith to apply for a place here.

As the Admissions Authority for St Willibrord’s RC Primary School in Manchester, the Governing Body is required to draft, consult on and determine their admission arrangements. Where there are more applicants than places available the Governing Body will apply the admission arrangements in order to decide which applicants will be offered places.

Admission arrangements for voluntary aided schools, foundation schools, free schools and academies are set by their Governing Body, who are the Admission Authority for their establishment. They are responsible for drafting, consulting on and determining their admission arrangements.

Application Procedures

Reception Places for September

All parents/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 parents/carers in writing of the outcome of their application.

Application forms are available from www.manchester.gov.uk/admissions and can be requested by phone on 0161 245 7166.

These admission arrangements apply to applicants seeking a place in Reception for a school in Manchester. Applications for admission to the nursery of a Manchester school/academy will be dealt with by the school/academy, not by the LA. Applicants should apply directly to the school for a nursery place.

The school 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;
• Parent/carers of children who are admitted for nursery provision must apply for a place at the school if they want their child to transfer to the reception class;
• Attendance at the nursery does not guarantee admission to the school;
• Parents/carers can request that the date their child is admitted to the school 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 of a summer born child may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1.
• Parents can request that their child attends part-time until the child reaches compulsory school age.

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, after all children whose Education, Health and Care plan names the school.

There are different oversubscription criteria for entry into:

• reception in September (Primary Admissions Round),
• reception up to year 6 during the academic year (In Year Admissions).

Primary Admissions Round – Oversubscription Criteria

• Baptised Roman Catholic Looked After Children and previously Looked After Children. Baptised Roman Catholic Children who were looked after or in state care outside of England. A child is regarded as having been in state care in a place outside of England if they were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation or another professional provider of care;
• A sibling of a child who has been placed in the school’s specialist provision
• Baptised Roman Catholic children who will have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of admission to the Reception Class and resident in the former parish of St. Willibrord’s boundary. (this does not include a child in Nursery)
• Baptised Roman Catholic children resident in the former parish boundary of St. Willibrord’s.
• Baptised Roman Catholic children who will have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of admission to the Reception Class and resident in the wider parish of The Holy Spirit’s boundary. (this does not include a child in Nursery)
• Baptised Roman Catholic children resident in the wider parish boundary of The Holy Spirit.
• Other baptised Roman Catholic children who will have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of admission to the Reception Class (this does not include the Nursery Class) and are resident in another parish.
• Other baptised Roman Catholic children who are resident in another Parish.
• Other Looked After Children and previously Looked After Children.
• Other children with a brother or sister attending the school at the time of the admission to the Reception Class (this does not include the Nursery Class).
• 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.

Notes:

Baptised Roman Catholic

• A valid Roman Catholic Baptismal Certificate must be presented to the school. If a certificate is not presented the application will be treated as not being for a Catholic child.
• ‘Catholic’ means
• Holding a certificate of baptism signed by a priest of the Latin Catholic Church;
• Holding a certificate of reception of baptised Christians into the Latin Catholic Church

Sibling

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

Late Applications

The closing date for applications will be 15 January. Any applications received after the closing date will be processed as late applications. This means an offer of a place will be made after all on time applicants have been processed. Late applications may result in parents/carers not being offered a place.

The LA will only process applications received after the deadline date as on time applications if there is a good reason for late submission. Such applications are valid late applications. A valid late application will include situations where children move into Manchester after the closing date. Late applications with reasons for late submission will only be considered up to the 31 January. This is the date when application information is exchanged with other LA’s.