St Joseph's RC Primary School, Ordsall

School details

Address:

St Joseph’s Drive
Salford
M5 3JP

Telephone: 0161 921 1890

Email: stjosephsordsall.rcprimaryschool@salford.gov.uk

Headteacher: Ms R Hince

School type: Voluntary aided

Total number of places for nursery: 22

Total number of places for reception: 30

Total applications received by offer day for reception: 62

Breakdown of reception offers at offer day (17 April 2023): All applicants in categories 1-8 to a distance of 0.404 miles.

Total numbers of reception offers made (including alternative offers): 30

Total reception vacancies: 0

Admission policy

St Joseph’s RC Primary School is a Roman Catholic Primary School provided by the Diocese of Salford and is maintained by Salford Local Authority as a Voluntary Aided school.

The school’s Governing Board is the Admissions Authority and is responsible for taking decisions on applications and admissions. The co-ordination of admissions arrangements is undertaken by the Local Authority. Parents must complete a Local Authority Preference Form or apply online.

For the school year commencing September 2024, the Governing Board has set its planned admissions number at 30.

The school’s role is to participate in the mission of the Catholic Church by providing a curriculum, including Catholic religious education and worship, which will help children grow in their understanding of the Good News and in the practice of their faith. The school will help the children develop fully as human beings and prepare them to undertake their responsibilities as Catholics in Society. The school requires all parents applying for a place here to understand and respect this ethos and its importance to the school community. This does not affect the rights of parents who are not of the Catholic faith to apply for a place here.

Admission to the school will be determined made by the Governing Board. Parents must complete a Local Authority Preference Form or apply online via the website. If you wish to have your application considered against the school’s religious criteria then you must ALSO complete the supplementary form which is available from the school.

If there are more applications than the number of places available, the following oversubscription criteria will be applied:

Admission criteria

  1. Baptised Catholic Looked After Children and Baptised Catholic previously Looked After Children.
  2. Baptised Catholic children who have a sibling in the school at the time of admission. And resident in the former Parish of St Joseph
  3. Baptised Catholic children resident in the former parish of St Joseph
  4. Other Baptised Catholic children who have a sibling in the school at the time of admission and resident in another parish
  5. Other baptised Catholic children resident in another parish
  6. Looked After Children and previously Looked After Children.
  7. Other children who have a sibling in the school at the time of admission.
  8. All remaining applicants.

If it is not possible to offer places for all applications within any criterion above, priority will be given to those living closest to the school measured in a straight line from the address point of the child’s home address to the centre point of the school in miles. Distance will be measured by the local authority’s computerised measuring system with those living nearer to the school having priority. In the event of distances being the same for two or more applicants and only one place left to be allocated, a random lottery will be carried out in a public place. This will be supervised by an independent person.

Notes

a. All applications will be considered at the same time and after the closing date for admissions which is 15 January 2024. Applications received after this date will be treated as a late application and will not be considered until after the main allocation of places has taken place.

b. Each Catholic applicant should produce a baptismal certificate with their application. After the closing date for admission, the LA will notify schools of applicants. School will write to parents/carers when they receive this notification to ask for proof of Baptism. Parents/carers will have two weeks to submit this written evidence. Two weeks after the request for evidence, the list will be re-ranked accordingly. 

c. The term ‘sibling’ will be defined as a natural brother or sister, or stepbrother or sister, or foster/adopted brother or sister who live in the same household and which is the child’s genuine main residence.

d. The Governing Board reserve the right to admit children proven with exceptional medical and social needs where admission to the school might best help satisfy those exceptional needs, providing that such application is submitted with appropriate evidence from a doctor or social worker.

e. If an applicant for admission has been turned down by the Governing Board, Parents/carers can appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel. This appeal must be sent in writing to the Clerk to the Governors at the school within 20 days of notification of refusal.

f. A looked after child is a child who is a) in the care of the Local Authority or, been provided with accommodation by a Local authority in the exercise of their Social Services functions under section 22(i) of the Children’s Act 1989. A previously Looked After Child is one who immediately moved on from that status after becoming subject to an adoption, residence or special guardianship order.

  • If there is a situation where only one place is available and the next children to be offered are siblings of a multiple birth, all the siblings will be offered places.
  • The child’s home address is considered to be the child’s parent/carer(s) place of residence, that is to say, where they are normally and regularly living.
  • If parents are separated and the child spends time at each parents’ address, the address which will be used for admission to schools is that of the main carer. The main carer is determined as the parent who is in receipt of child benefit.
  • Children who are not offered a nursery or reception place for the September intakes will be placed on the school’s waiting list. The waiting list will be maintained only for the statutory period (until 31 December). Should any places become available they will be allocated in accordance with the school’s published admission criteria.
  • As children are added to the waiting list, the list will be re-ranked in accordance with the published admission criteria. This means that children can move both up and down the waiting list.
  • After 31 December, if a parent wishes their child to continue to be considered for a school place, they will need to reapply for a place using the procedure for in-year admissions.
  • Looked after children, previously looked after children and children who come under the Fair Access Protocol will take precedence over those on the waiting list.
  • There are no waiting lists for in-year admissions.

g. The admission authority provides for the admission of all children in the September following their fourth birthday. However, where a child has been offered a place at a school the child’s parents/carers can defer the date their child is admitted to the school until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which it was made. Alternatively, where parents wish, children may attend part time until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age.

Parents wishing to take either of the above options should inform their allocated school as soon as a place is offered so that the appropriate arrangements can be made.

Parents may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group, for example if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. Parents should contact the Headteacher of the school concerned in the first instance to discuss an application for admission outside of the normal age group.

In addition, parents of children born between 1 April and 31 August (summer born children) 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 i.e. starting reception a year later than those in their age group. This request should be made to the school admissions team in writing giving reasons for the request.  This should be done at the time the child would usually be expected to apply for a reception place. 

The request will be considered in conjunction with the school and the parent, and the admission authority for the school will decide on whether the child should be offered delayed admission or not.  The decision, and the reasons for it, will be communicated to the parent in writing.  Where a child is offered a place at a school but not in the year group preferred there will be no right of appeal.

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