Admissions at Southfields Primary School fall under two groups:
Nursery Children:
- The admissions arrangements for children are controlled internally by the school, we have a part time nursery with 26 pupil spaces in a morning session.
Foundation Stage and Older Children:
Community and Voluntary Controlled Primary Admissions Policy 2022/23 Oversubscription criteria:
If the number of applications is less than the published admission number then all applicants will be offered a place. All applicants with an Education, Health and Care Plan which names the school must be admitted before places are allocated using the oversubscription criteria. If there are more requests for a school than there are places available within the school’s admission number, places will be allocated in accordance with the following criteria and in the order shown below.
1. Children who, at the time of admission, are in the care of a local authority or are provided with accommodation by the authority (looked after children). Also children who were previously looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted, or became subject to a child arrangements order or a special guardianship order. This also includes those children who appear to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. A looked-after child is defined in Section 22 of the Children Act 1989.
2. Children who live in the catchment area served by the school, who have a brother or sister attending the school provided that the brother or sister will continue to attend that school the following year.
3. Other children who live in the catchment area served by the school.
4. Children living outside the catchment area with a brother or sister who currently attends the school provided that the brother or sister will continue to attend that school the following year;
5. Children of Staff who have been employed at the school for two or more years at the time of application for the school place; or recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
6. All other children If it is not possible to meet all of the requests in any one of the categories described above, the City Council will prioritise the requests based on the distance to the school.
Brothers and Sisters
Brothers and sisters are those children who live at the same address and either have one or both natural parents in common; are related by a parent’s marriage or whose parents are living as partners. We include children who are adopted within our definition of brothers and sisters. All brothers or sisters must still be attending the school when the applicant is due to be admitted. Please note that children attending nursery will not be classed as brothers or sisters for the purposes of this definition as they are not attending the main school.
Staff
Under the oversubscription criteria the word staff will mean: All staff who have been continuously employed by the school for a period of at least two years for the purpose of working in the school as follows:
* All full time teaching staff
* All full time support staff – defined as those on 37 week and above contract
* All part time teaching staff with a 45% and above timetable
* All part time support staff who work at least 15 hours per week for 37 weeks or more The two year qualification period may be waived if a post is hard to fill. Decisions on hard to fill posts will be made based on guidance from Human Resources. The definition does not include contract staff. If a service has been ‘in house’ and is subsequently ‘contracted out’ children of staff will no longer be eligible for priority admission under this criterion. The definition does not include peripatetic staff.
Distance
If it is not possible to meet all of the requests in any one of the categories described above, the City Council will prioritise the requests within that category based on the distance to the school. A straight-line measurement will be made, using a computerised mapping system, from the centre of the child’s residence – to the centre of the preferred school site. The address used must be the child’s permanent home address. The shortest measurement will have the highest priority. Where the final place in a year group can be taken by two or more children living an equal distance from the school, the local authority, overseen independently, will select by drawing lots
Home address
A pupil’s home address is considered to be a residential property that is the child’s only or main residence. At the time places are allocated, proof of permanent residence at the property concerned may be required. Where documentary evidence can substantiate to the satisfaction of the Local Authority that care is split equally between parents at two homes, parents must name the address to be used for the purpose of allocating a school place If a school is offered on the basis of an address that is subsequently found to be different from a child’s normal and permanent home address, then that place is likely to be withdrawn.
Children of UK service personnel and other Crown Servants will be treated as meeting the residency criteria for a catchment area once proof of posting has been provided Catchment area One of the aims of local schools is to serve its neighbourhood and develop links with the local community to strengthen the school and the community. The area served by a school is known as the catchment area and details of specific catchment areas are available at https://www.coventry.gov.uk/catchmentareas
Deferred entry into Primary School
Legally a child does not have to be educated until the term after their fifth birthday. Parents may feel their child is young for their age, or there may be other reasons for wanting to delay their entry to school. This is called deferred entry. In this situation applications for a place should be made in the normal way. The Authority recommends that the parent/carer contact the headteacher of the preferred school to discuss the matter in more detail prior to submitting the application. If the parent/carer then decides to defer entry, a place will be reserved until the child starts as long as they start within the academic year. The Authority cannot allocate it to another child.
Parents/carers
cannot assume however that an application for a deferred entry place will be successful. It will be considered alongside all other applications in accordance with the general City Council admissions policy. Where a parent/carer of a summer born child wishes to defer entry until the following academic year, and wishes their child to start in reception this will mean the child is taught out of their normal age group. They should still make an application at the usual time but must notify us on the application that they will wish to request a place out of the normal age group. Parents/carers will then be contacted to discuss the matter further and should note
there are no guarantees that such applications will be successful, but that each case will be considered individually.
Applications out of normal age group
Parents may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group. Parents should use the standard application form and include information regarding the year group requested and the reasons for the request. The application will be considered alongside all
other applications in accordance with the Coventry co-ordinated admissions scheme. Please note there are no guarantees that such applications will be successful, but each case will be considered individually. Where the application is refused the parent has a right to an appeal against the refusal of a place, unless the child has been offered a place in another year group in the school.
For more information on issues to take into account when considering out of normal age group applications please visit the following webpage:
https://www.coventry.gov.uk/school-admissions/primary-school-admissions/7
Part time attendance
Parents can request that their child attends part time until the child reaches compulsory school age.
Children currently attending Local Authority Maintained Nursery Classes
Parents of children already attending Nursery Classes will also need to complete an application form in order to request a place at their preferred Primary School. The policy of the City Council is not to provide nursery classes at every school, but to provide classes
which serve a wider area than the school’s catchment area. The number of part-time places available in a nursery class therefore often exceeds the number of places available in the Reception Class in the same school. The City Council cannot therefore guarantee that a
pupil who is admitted to a school’s nursery class will be admitted to the same school.
Waiting List
The Authority cannot always offer places at a preferred school. If this is the case the child’s name will be automatically placed on the Waiting List for community and voluntary controlled schools. If places become available, the Authority will allocate the places in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. Each time a child is added, the list is ranked again in line with the oversubscription criteria. Applicants may therefore move both up and down the list depending on whether others joining the list meet a higher ranked oversubscription criterion.
Waiting Lists will remain in operation until 31 December 2022. After this parents/carers will need to contact the School Organisation Team if they wish to stay on the waiting list until the end of the academic year when the waiting list will be discarded.
Appeals
Parents who have been refused a place at a school have the right to make an appeal against the decision. Appeals are heard by an independent appeals panel. Appeal forms and details about how to appeal and the schedule for all appeals, including deadlines for appeal forms to be submitted, can be accessed via the Coventry Appeals section on the website at
https://www.coventry.gov.uk/school-admissions/school-appeals/2
Parents do not have a right to a second appeal in respect of the same academic year, except where the City Council agrees there were faults in the first appeal which may have significantly affected the outcome or the City Council accepts a further application for a place
at the school because of a significant and material change in the circumstances of the parent, child, or school, but this has been turned down. Repeat applications will not be considered unless the significant and material change relates to matters that would affect the
level of priority which would be given to the application in accordance with the admission over-subscription criteria.
Coventry Primary Admissions Policy 2022-23
For more information on how to apply please visit Coventry Primary Schools Admissions or contact the admissions office on tel: 02476 975 445 or email: Primary.Admissions@Coventry.gov.uk.