St. Werburgh's CE (A) Primary

Admissions arrangements 2023/2024, 2024/2025 & 2025/2026

Our school vision, aims and objectives

At St. Werburgh’s C. E. (A) Primary School we believe each person is special and made in God’s image. Providing equal opportunities for each member of our school family, we aim to develop his or her potential within guidelines of acceptable behaviour and a set of values which will fit each child for life and the British society in which they live. The achievements of each child are celebrated and the family, the school, and the whole community are valued and respected.

The aim of the staff and Governors is to create a happy, welcoming and stimulating, learning environment in which children feel secure and are helped to develop their natural curiosity and academic ability, as well as physical, intellectual, social and aesthetic skills. We aim to foster and nurture the children’s spiritual and moral growth and they are encouraged to adopt friendly, caring and considerate attitudes to one another and a respectful polite manner to adults, while at the same time developing a sense of self-reliance, self-respect and sensitivity to other people around them and in the wider community.

In accordance with the 1988 Education Reform Act, St. Werburgh’s Church of England School and Dilhorne Endowed Church of England (A) Primary School seek to: “promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of the pupils” and “prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.” 

As Church Schools, we share Christian values and beliefs, in close association with the Anglican tradition and practice of the Church of England, we lay the foundations of a Christian education, “assisting children to achieve their intellectual, moral and spiritual potential in a caring Christian environment.”

St Werburgh’s C. E. (A) Primary School welcomes children from all backgrounds, faiths and no faith. The Trustees of the School are committed to developing an inclusive school that reflects the diversity of the local community. Admission to the school is not dependent on being a member of a particular faith community.

As well as being an inclusive neighbourhood school, as a Church school St Werburgh’s has a distinctive character and ethos that reflects the teachings of Jesus Christ and Christian values. We ask all parents applying for a place here to respect this ethos and its importance to the school community. We hope that all children who come to the school will be able to participate (as appropriate) in the religious life of the school (including collective worship and religious education). This does not affect the right of parents who are not Christians to apply for a place. Indeed, through our commitment to inclusivity, we actively welcome families from other faiths and no faith.

The Trust Board is responsible for the admission of pupils to the School and admits 30 pupils to the reception class each September. This admission limit has been agreed between the Trust Board, the Diocese of Lichfield and the Local Authority and applies to the academic year 2019/20 and 2020/21.

Primary School Admissions

1. Full-time places in reception classes will be available in September of the academic year within which the child becomes five.
   
   
2. Although parents have the right to express a preference for the Primary School they wish their child to attend, there is no guarantee of a place at their preferred school.
   
   
3. If applications exceed places, the school’s admissions criteria will apply.
   
   
4. Primary admissions are administered through a Coordinated Admissions Scheme processed centrally by the Local Authority, and each pupil will receive one offer of a place at a Staffordshire School.

Oversubscription Criteria for Primary Admissions

If the number of applications for admission to St Werburgh’s Church of England Aided Primary exceeds the school’s Published Admission Number (PAN: 30) the places are allocated in order of priority using the following criteria:

1. Relevant ‘Children in care’ or ‘Looked After Children’ and previously looked after children. Previously looked after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order.
    
2. Pupils living within the ecclesiastical parish.
    
3. Pupils who have an elder sibling in attendance at the school and who will still be attending the school at the proposed admission date. Elder sibling also includes: step-siblings, foster siblings, adopted siblings and other children living permanently at the same address. 
    
4. Pupils whose parents are regular attenders of the Church of England; or a church in communion with the Church of England; or a church affiliated to the Council of Churches for Great Britain and Northern Ireland or the Evangelical Alliance. Evidence of such attendance will be required in the form of a letter from a minister of the Churches concerned.
    
5. Children of a member of staff who has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, and or, the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
    
6. Pupils who satisfy both of the following tests:

   Test 1: They are distinguished from the great majority of applicants either on medical grounds or by other exceptional circumstances. Medical grounds must be supported by a medical report (obtained by the parents). It must clearly justify, for health reasons only, why it is better for the child to attend St. Werburgh’s C. E. (A) Primary School, Kingsley rather than any other school.

   Exceptional circumstances must relate to the choice of school, i.e. the circumstances of the child, not the economic or social circumstances of the parent. They should be supported by a professional report, e.g. Social worker, justifying why it is better for the child to attend St. Werburgh’s C.E. (A) Primary School rather than any other school.

   Test 2: They would suffer hardship if they were unable to attend the school.

   Hardship means severe suffering of any kind, not merely difficulty or inconvenience, which is likely to be experienced as a result of the child attending a different school. Parents must provide detailed information about the type and severity of any likely hardship.

7. Other pupils arranged in order or priority according to how near their home addresses are to the school by straight line measurement, as calculated by the Local Authority’s Geographical Information Systems.

Special Educational Needs

Pupils whose statutory statement of special need or Education Health Care Plan names the school as the most appropriate mainstream school that meets the pupil’s needs must be admitted. This will reduce the number of places available.

Appeals

Any prospective parent whose child is refused admission to the school has the right to appeal against that decision. The appeals will be heard by an independent panel and the final decision of the panel is binding on all parties.

Waiting lists

Where applications are refused a child’s name will automatically be placed on a waiting list which will be kept in admission criteria order. If any places subsequently become available at the school, places will be allocated off the waiting list. The waiting lists will be kept until the end of the Autumn Term of the year of admission.

Where infant class size applies, waiting lists will be kept until the end of Key Stage 1. If any places subsequently become available at the school children on the waiting list will be given priority in accordance with the published oversubscription criteria.

Inclusion on a school’s waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available at the preferred school.

A child’s position on a waiting list is not fixed and is subject to change during the year i.e. they can go up or down the list.

Late Applications

Application forms received after the closing date will be considered alongside those applicants who applied on time wherever possible. Where it is not possible because places have already been allocated then late applicants will be considered only after those applicants who applied by the published closing date.

A late application does not affect the right of appeal or the right to be placed on a school’s waiting list.

Repeat Applications

It is not the Trustees’ policy to consider repeat applications in the same academic year unless there have been significant and material changes in the circumstances of the applicant.

Admission Outside of the Normal Age Group

Parents may seek to apply for their child’s admission to school outside of their normal age group, for example if the child is exceptionally gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. In addition, the parents of summer born children may choose not to send their child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted outside of their normal age group to Reception rather than Year 1.

These parents will need to make an application alongside children applying at the normal age which should explain why it is in the child’s best interest to be admitted outside of their normal age which may include information such as professional evidence as to why this is the case and why an exception should be made in the case of the child. A decision as to whether this is an appropriate course of action will be made by the Trust Board who will take into account the circumstances of the case and views of the Executive Principal. Parents do not have the right to insist that their child is admitted to a particular year group.

Deferred Entry

Parents may request that their child be admitted to Reception Class on a part-time basis, or that their child be admitted to school later in the same academic year until the child reaches compulsory school age (i.e. beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday). A place will be held for the child in Reception and will not be available to be offered to any other child within the same academic year in which it has been offered. Parents must visit school and make such as request to the Executive Principal.

Notes

In a very small number of cases it may not be possible to decide between applicants for a place. If there is no other way of separating the application according to the admission criteria and to admit both or all of the children would cause the legal limit to be exceeded, the local authority on behalf of the Governing Body will randomly select the child to be offered the place by drawing lots.

Relevant children in care means children who are in the care of a local authority in accordance with section 22 of the Children Act 1989(b) and who (a) are looked after at the time an application is made and (b) in relation to whom the local authority has confirmed that the children will still be looked after at the time when the child will be admitted to school.