For both admissions rounds and in-year admissions/transfers, a school admission application must be completed by a parent/carer.
A separate application is required for each child.
A child will not be permitted to start at a school until an application has been received and processed by the local authority, and a school place has been offered by the local authority.
In respect of applications for nursery children and children of statutory school-age, the application must be made by a ‘parent’ of the child, as defined by Section 576 of the Education Act 1996. This states that a ‘parent’, in relation to a child or young person, includes any person who is not a biological parent but who has parental responsibility, or who has care of the child.
Therefore, for the purposes of education law, a ‘parent’ is deemed to include
All biological parents, whether they are married or not;
Any person who, although not a biological parent, has parental responsibility for a child or young person - this could be an adoptive parent, a step-parent, guardian or other relative;
Any person who has care of a child or young person but is not a biological parent and does not have parental responsibility.
A person typically has care of a child or young person if they are the person with whom the child lives, either full or part-time and who looks after the child, irrespective of what their biological or legal relationship is with the child.
The local authority uses the term ‘parent/carer’ throughout this policy to reflect the legal definition of ‘parent’, as detailed above.
The local authority will only accept an application from a person who is not a parent/carer if it is accompanied by an appropriate written authorisation from a parent/carer.
An applicant will be required to make a declaration of the relationship to the child and provide such information as the local authority requires, including documentation, evidencing that relationship, at the time the admission application is submitted.
The local authority expects that the parents/carers of a child reach agreement about the preferred school/s and who will submit the application, before a school admission application is submitted. The local authority will not intervene in disputes between parents/carers over school applications and will expect that these are resolved privately. If parents/carers cannot agree and a Court order stating who should be making the application and what the school preference/s should be has not been obtained, the local authority will proceed to accept the application from the parent/carer in receipt of Child Benefit for the child.
Applications in respect of post-16 admissions/transfers can be submitted by a parent/carer or the learner.
Applications can be completed online through sign up to ‘My Account’ on the Bridgend County Borough Council website.
Any parents/carers who do not have access to their own computer/laptop or smart phone, may use the computers available within the libraries in the county borough to sign up to My Account and complete a school admission application. A parent/carer who remains unable to create a My Account and access the relevant online school admission application, may contact the local authority and request a hardcopy school admission application.
If parents/carers permit completion and submission of a school admission application for their child through the My Account of a third party, the My Account holder will be deemed to be submitting the application on behalf of, and with the full authority of, the parents/carers of the child. In these circumstances, the parents/carers will be considered as accepting responsibility for the consequence of any errors or deficiencies in the completion of the application and/or the submission of the application.
rounds Nursery education is non-statutory; however, in Wales, children are entitled to a free, parttime, early-years education place from the start of the term following their third birthday. The place can either be at a local authority-maintained school (‘LA-maintained’), or within the non-maintained sector with a registered early year’s provider. This policy applies only to admissions to nursery classes in LA-maintained schools.
The local authority is the admissions authority for nursery classes in LA-maintained schools in Bridgend County Borough. Parents/carers who wish to apply for a nursery place at a voluntary aided school must approach that school directly.
The relevant age group for the reception year is 4-5 years.
Every child is required by law to receive full-time education from the beginning of the school term after his/her fifth birthday. In the Bridgend County Borough, children are normally admitted to the reception year in the September following their fourth birthday. However, parents/carers have the option of deferring their child’s entry to the reception year until later in the same school year. The deferment cannot continue beyond the beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday, nor beyond the school year for which the original admission application was accepted by the local authority. Where the parent/carer wishes to defer the child’s entry to the reception year as detailed, the local authority will hold a place for the child.
An application for a reception year place must be submitted. There is no automatic admission to the reception year at any primary or infant school, regardless of the school at which the child may be attending a nursery class.
In primary schools, the infant and junior sections are simply departments of the same school and children progress through the school from the infants to juniors without having to transfer elsewhere. Parents/carers are therefore not required to complete a school admission application, since the children are already regarded as registered pupils in the primary school.
Children attending Year 2 in an infant school do not automatically transfer to Year 3 at junior school. An application for a Year 3 place at junior school must be submitted. There is no automatic admission to a junior school or any primary school regardless of the infant school or primary school that a child currently attends.
Children normally enter Year 7 in secondary school at the beginning of the academic year following their eleventh birthday.
An application for a Year 7 place must be submitted. There is no automatic admission to any secondary school, regardless of the primary or junior school that a child currently attends.
In Bridgend, there is one Welsh-medium secondary school, ie Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Llangynwyd. There is one faith secondary school, ie Archbishop McGrath Catholic High School, for which the local authority is not the admission authority. All other secondary schools are English-medium.
The local authority maintains waiting lists for oversubscribed schools. If a place at the preferred school is not offered, the child will be automatically included in the waiting list for 38 the school unless the parent/carer expressly advises the local authority that this action is not required.
For the admissions rounds, children will remain on the waiting list, for any school at which they have been refused a place, until 30 September 2022. Children will automatically be removed from the waiting list/s after this date.
If additional places become available at a school, they will be allocated to children on the waiting list on the basis of the published oversubscription criteria (see sections 13 and 14) and not the length of time a child has been on the waiting list.
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