Address:
Bolton Road
Pendlebury
M27 8UX
Telephone: 0161 794 4083
Email: staoffice@vantageacademies.co.uk
Principal: Mrs G Mangnall
School type: Academy
Total number of places for nursery: 26
Total number of places for reception: 30
Total applications received by offer day for reception: 40
Breakdown of reception offers at offer day (17 April 2023): All applicants offered
Total numbers of reception offers made: 27
Total reception vacancies: 3
The School’s published admission number agreed for admission to the reception class is 30. If no more than 30 applications are received for admission to the reception class, all applicants will be offered places. Children will be admitted to the reception class at the beginning of the autumn term before their fifth birthday.
The admission number for the nursery class is 26. Children will be admitted to the nursery class at the beginning of the autumn term before their fourth birthday.
The Governors will admit all children having an Education, health and care plan which names the school.
When the number of applications received is greater than the number of remaining places available, the decision on which children will be admitted will be based on the following criteria, which will be applied in the order of priority set out below:
a) Evidence of infant Baptism or Dedication of the child and of regular attendance of parent(s)/guardian(s) must be provided on the Supplementary Form available from the School Office/Website. Whilst completing this form is not compulsory, the Governors will not be able to give any credit for Church Attendance without the completed form and this could disadvantage the applicant.
Church attendance of one parent or guardian is sufficient. Regular attendance is normally taken to mean a minimum of fortnightly attendance for at least a year prior to the 1 September in the year before admission to the school. The supplementary evidence form is to be signed by the Clergy or other designated Church Officer.
b) Where there are more applicants for the available places within a category, the Local Authority, on behalf of the Governing Body, use a measuring system (straight line from address point of a child’s permanent home address, as defined by the Local Land and Property Gazetteer, to the centre point of school), nearer addresses having priority over more distant ones.
In the event of a tie, where two or more pupils’ home addresses are the same distance from the school and only one place is available, random allocation will be used. The ‘normal’ home of the child will be taken to be the home in which the child wakes for the majority of the school week.
c) Where admission is sought under special medical or social circumstances criteria, professional supporting evidence, eg from a doctor, psychologist or social worker, is essential. Such evidence must set out the particular reasons why the school is the most suitable for the child and the difficulties that would be caused if the child had to attend another school. The information will be considered by the Local Authority on behalf of the Governing Body (see notes (e) and (f) below).
d) Brother’ or ‘sister’ includes step, half, foster and adopted brothers or sisters living at the same address and full brother or sister living apart.
e) Applications on the basis of medical need (criterion 2) will be considered on behalf of the Governing Body by the local authority’s medical panel. Applicants under this criterion will be required to submit a medical form completed by an appropriate medical professional. Forms are available from the School Admissions team. These forms will be placed before the Medical Panel, consisting of a Consultant Paediatrician, School Health Lead Nurse, Educational Psychologist and two Headteachers.
The medical panel will consider all applications under this criterion and whether attendance at the preferred school is considered to be essential based on the child’s medical condition. Attendance will be deemed essential by the panel where, due to the child’s medical needs, the location of the school, the school building, or the support it is able to offer the child is unique in meeting the child’s needs and cannot be provided by another school. Parents will be informed of the panel’s decision before places are allocated, so that, where necessary, they may change their preference schools.
f) Applications with a social need for attending the school (criterion 2) will be those who have involvement with Social Services. In Salford, children who would be eligible for this criterion are those who are at Level 3 and have ongoing Social Worker involvement, and all at Level 4 on the ‘Thresholds of needs and response in Salford’.
For children resident in other local authorities, contact will be made with the child’s Social Worker to confirm that the child’s level of need falls within these boundaries of the Salford thresholds. The school must have confirmation of an applicant’s level of needs from an appropriate professional before they will be considered under this criterion.
The address used on the school’s Admission Form must be the current one at the time of application. If the address changes subsequently, the parents should notify the Local Authority. Where the parents live at different addresses, the current ‘at the time of’ application, normal address of the child should be used. This will normally be the one where the child wakes up for the majority of Monday to Friday mornings. The Local Authority will request proof of address.
Where we have more applications than places, the admissions criteria will be used. Children who are not admitted will have their name placed on a waiting list. The names on this waiting list will be in the order resulting from the application of the admissions criteria.
Since the date of application cannot be a criterion for the order of names on the waiting list, late applicants for the school will be slotted into the order according to the extent to which they meet the criteria. Thus it is possible that a child who moves into the area later to have a higher priority than one who has been on the waiting list for some time.
If a place becomes available within the admission number, the child whose name is at the top of the list will be offered a place. This is not dependent on whether an appeal has been submitted. This waiting list will operate until the end of the autumn term only.
If a child needs to change school other than at the ‘normal’ time, such admissions are known as non-routine admissions. If parents wish to change school mid-year, an application form can be obtained from the Local Authority or the school office. The completed form must be returned to St. Augustine’s for consideration by the Admissions Committee or full Governing Body. There will still be a right of appeal if a place is refused.
Where the Governors are unable to offer a place because the school is over subscribed, parents have the right to appeal to an independent admission appeal panel, set up under the School Standards and Framework Act, 1998, as amended by the Education Act, 2002.
Appeals can be submitted at any time after a place has been refused. However, if this is after the initial 20 days, then this may result in the hearing of the appeal being delayed. Parents should notify the Clerk to the Governors at the school of their intention to appeal.
Parents will have the opportunity to submit their case to the panel in writing and also to attend in order to present their case. You will normally receive 14 days’ notice of the place and time of the hearing.
Where the Governing Body discovers that a child has been awarded a place as the result of an intentionally misleading application from a parent, (eg a false claim to residence or involvement in a place of worship) which effectively denies a place to a child with a stronger claim, then the Governing Body is required to withdraw the offer of a place.
However, the Governors must consider the length of time the child has been at the school, ie less than one term. The application will be considered afresh and a right of appeal offered if a place is refused.
The school’s policy is that children will be admitted to the reception class at the beginning of the autumn term before their fifth birthday.
Children are eligible for a reception place from the beginning of the school year in which they become 5 years old. However, they do not become of compulsory school age until the start of the term after their fifth birthday.
After a place has been allocated and accepted parents can request that the school place be deferred until later in the school year and, if they do this, the place will be held for the child.
They cannot however defer entry beyond the beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday, nor beyond the school year for which the original application was accepted.
Parents can also request that their child attends on a part time basis until the child reaches compulsory school age.
Where there are children of multiple births wishing to be admitted and the sibling is the 30th child, the Governors may admit over the infant class requirement if it is possible to do so.
The Local Authority accepts that where there are extenuating circumstances for an application being received after the last date of application, and it is before the Governors have established their list of pupils to be admitted, then it will be considered alongside all the others. Otherwise, applications which are received after the last date will be considered after all the others and placed on the waiting list in order according to criteria.
There are a maximum of 26 full time places in the nursery and 30 in reception. The Governors shall determine how many of these nursery places are to be allocated on a full time or part time basis each year, depending on the number of applicants.
A place in the nursery does not guarantee a place in the reception class the following year. A separate application must be made for both nursery and reception places. The above criteria and procedures are followed for nursery admissions with the exception of appeals. There is no right of appeal for nursery admission to the school.