Mawnan School Admissions Policy

 

Mawnan School is a Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary school for boys and girls.  The school is pleased to admit pupils from a wide area whose parents are seeking a Christian Education for their children. The Governors are the Admissions Authority and operate an Equal Preference Scheme.

The closing date for applicants will be as stated in the CSA Admissions Booklet.

From September 2011, all reception places must be offered as full-time, but parents may request part-time attendance until the child is of compulsory School age.  Deferred admission until the child is of compulsory School age (but not beyond the beginning of the summer term,) must be agreed if requested.

The governors have formulated this admissions policy for the school.

The governors’ admissions committee will meet when the number of applications exceeds the published admission number of 15.

An additional Supplementary Information Form will be requested from the parents applying under criteria 2, 5 and 6.  (This can be obtained from the school.)

The following criteria will be used to decide who might be admitted in the event of there being more applicants than places in the school.

These categories are listed in order of priority and will be strictly applied at an appropriate meeting, where the children will be ranked in priority order, which will be forwarded to the Local Authority who then decides on places to be offered in accordance with the co-ordinated admissions scheme.

Over-subscription Criteria to be used:

 

1.              Children in care and children who were in care but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order) immediately after being in care. *

2.            Children of practising Anglican families in the designated area **. (See definition of practising Anglican below.)  An additional Religious Commitment questionnaire must be submitted, which is available from the School.

3            Children in the designated area. **

 

4.             Siblings of pupils attending the school at the proposed date of admission. Our definition of             ‘sibling’ is in line with the Local Authority definition. ***

5.             Children of practising Christians of other denominations who are members of Churches Together within the LA designated area. An additional Religious Commitment questionnaire must be submitted which is available from the School.

6.             Children of practising Anglican families within the deanery. A map showing the Deanery Boundary is available in school (See definition below.) An additional Religious Commitment questionnaire must be submitted which is available from the School.

7.             All other children

*                 This is a statutory requirement as advised by the CSA.

**               Designated area is within the ‘Local Authority designated area for the School for   admissions and transport purposes.’ A map is available from the school or the Local Authority.

***             Where applications are received on behalf of ‘multiple birth siblings’ (i.e. twins, triplets, etc.) or siblings whose dates of birth place them in the same chronological year group, every effort will be made to offer places at the our school, which may mean allocating places above the Published Admission Number (PAN) where this is possible. However, where this is not possible, parents will be invited to decide which of the children should be allocated the available place. A sibling may be admitted even if the infant class size limit would be exceeded, where one of the siblings is the thirtieth child admitted.

Tie Breaker:

If the criteria outlined above leave more children with an equal claim than places available, the following tie breaker will be used:

 

Priority will be given to a child who lives nearer Mawnan C of E VA Primary School.  The measurement will be the “straight-line” distance from the parents’ gate to the school’s main entrance. [using the Local Authority’s computerised measuring system],

 

Applications

A place can be applied for either through the Cornwall Council booklet issued in the autumn term each year or online at www.cornwall.gov.uk/admissions. This will give you the right to express three preferences.

From September 2010, applications for all year groups at the school have had to be made via the Local Authority.

Waiting Lists:

The School will maintain a waiting list for each School year.  The waiting list will be reviewed on an annual basis and should a place become available, the over-subscription criteria will be applied to allocate places.  The LA will consult the school should an in-year application be received.  This will enable to the school to allocate a place taking into account any waiting list held by the school.

Late Entries:

Late applications will be assessed following the guidelines as laid out in the “How to apply for a place in a reception class in a primary school in Cornwall” booklet.

The governors are required to publish the school’s admission arrangements and, therefore, this policy will form part of the school’s Handbook.

 

 

 

 

Definitions of ‘practisingChristian’ for criteria 2, 4, 5 and 6.

 

(i)             An applicant ‘known to the church’ would not be a frequent but probably an occasional worshipper, someone who is perhaps known through a family connection, or one or more of whose family would be involved in some church activity, such as a uniformed or other church organisation.

(ii)           An applicant ‘attached to the church’ would be a regular but not frequent worshipper, by which meant (for example) one who usually attends a monthly family or church parade service or is regularly involved in a weekday church activity including an element of worship.

(iii)          An applicant ‘at the heart of the church’ would be a regular worshipper.  We suggest that this might normally mean one who worships usually twice a month.  To accommodate difficult patterns of work and family relationship account should be taken of week-day worship.  The worshipper could be the child for whom application is made or one or both parents. Greater priority will be given to applicants in this category

 

Please see the Local Authority booklet for the date when application outcomes will be notified.

 

 

Parents/ Family Members

A parent is any person who has parental responsibility for or is the legal guardian of the child. Where admission arrangements above refer to ‘parents’ attendance at church’ it is sufficient for just one parent to attend.  ‘Family members’ include only parents, as defined above, and siblings.

 

Home address

Each child may have one registered address only for the purpose of determining priority for admission and transport entitlement.  This address should be the place where the child is normally resident.  If there is shared custody of the child or a query is raised regarding the validity of an address, it may be necessary to use the address of the person receiving child benefit for the child or to request a copy of a utility bill in order to make a decision.