Admissions

ST JOSEPH’S CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL,WRIGHTINGTON.

ADMISSIONS

We would welcome the opportunity to show you around our wonderful school. 

All applications are made online and these must be completed by the 15th January 2024.  A supplementary form is also available for parents who wish their application to be considered against the faith criteria as outlined in the full policy, which is required for all Catholic schools.  The supplementary form should be returned to our school office. Our admission number is 20.    

Our full admission arrangements are detailed below but if you have any questions, please ring our school office and we would be happy to help.

MAKING AN APPLICATION

Applications for admission to the school for September 2024 should be made on-line to the local authority in which you live. Online admissions can be found at:

https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/children-education-families/schools/apply-for-a-school-place/

or

https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Education/Schools/School-Admissions/Primary-Schools.aspx

between 1st September 2023 and 15th January 2024. It is not normally possible to change the order of your preferences for schools after the closing date. Parents must complete the Local Authority electronic form, stating three preferences. Parents who wish their application to this Church school to be considered against the faith criteria should also complete the supplementary form. If the school is oversubscribed, a failure to complete the supplementary form may result in your application for a place in this school being considered against lower priority criteria as the Governing Body will have no information upon which to assess the worship attendance.

The Supplementary Information Form is available from the school.

Letters informing parents of whether or not their child has been allocated a place will be sent out by the Local Authority on 16th April 2024. Parents of children not admitted will be informed of the reason and offered an alternative place by the Authority.

NON-ROUTINE OR IN-YEAR ADMISSIONS

It sometimes happens that a child needs to change school other than at the “normal” time; such admissions are known as non-routine or in-year admissions. Parents wishing their child to attend this school should arrange to visit the school. They will be provided with an application form once they have a definite local address. If there is a place in the appropriate class, then the governors will arrange for the admission to take place. If there is no place, then the admissions committee will consider the application and information about how to appeal against the refusal will be provided. Appeals for children moving into the area will not be considered until there is evidence of a permanent address, e.g. exchange of contracts or tenancy agreement with rent book. Please note that you cannot re-apply for a place at a school within the same school year unless there has been relevant, significant and material change in the family circumstances.

ADMISSION OF CHILDREN OUTSIDE OF THEIR NORMAL AGE GROUP

Parents may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group, for example, if a child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. In addition, the parents of a summer born child may choose not to send that child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1. Admission Authorities must make clear in their admission arrangements the process for requesting admission out of the normal age group. Admission authorities must make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This will include taking account of the parent’s views; information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development; where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional; whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group; and whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely. They must also take into account the views of the head teacher of the school concerned. When informing a parent of their decision on the year group the child should be admitted to, the admission authority must set out clearly the reasons for their decision. Where an admission authority agrees to a parents’ request for their child to be admitted out of their normal age group and.  As a consequence of that decision, the child will be admitted to a relevant age group (ie the age group to which pupils are normally admitted to the school) the local authority and admission authority must process the application as part of the main admissions round, unless

the parental request is made too late for this to be possible, and on the basis of their determined admission arrangements only, including the application oversubscription criteria where applicable. They must not give the application lower priority on the basis that the child is being admitted out of their normal age group. Parents have a statutory right to appeal against refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied. This right does not apply if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group.

1 The term summer born children relates to all children born from 1April to 31 August. These children reach compulsory school age on 31August following their fifth (or on their fifth birthday if it falls on 31 August) It is likely that most requests for summer born children admitted out of their normal age group will come from parents of children born in the later summer months or those born prematurely

DEFERRED ADMISSION

If your child is due to start school during the next academic year, it is important that you apply for a place for September. If your child’s fifth birthday is between the months of September and

December, then, if you wish it, admission may be deferred until January; if it is between January

and April, then admission may be deferred until the start of the summer term though it is likely to be in your child’s interest to start no later than January. You may also request that your child attend school part time until he/she reaches his/her fifth birthday.

TWINS ETC

Where there are twins, etc wanting admission and there is only a single place left within the admission number, then the governing body will exercise as much flexibility as possible within the requirements of infant class sizes. In exceptional circumstances cases we are now able to offer places for both twins and all triplets, even when this means breaching infant class size limits.