St Teresa's RC Primary School, Irlam

School details

Address:

Clarendon Road
Irlam
M44 5ZA

Telephone: 0161 777 8203

Email: stteresas.rcprimaryschool@salford.gov.uk

Headteacher: Ms S Burgess

School type: Voluntary aided

Total number of places for nursery: This school manages its own nursery admissions.  Please contact the school for further details

Total number of places for reception: 30

Total applications received by offer day for reception: 44

Breakdown of reception offers at offer day (17 April 2023): All applicants in categories 1-7 to a distance of 0.069 miles.

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

Total reception vacancies: 0

Admission policy

St Teresa’s R.C. Primary School is a Roman Catholic Primary School in the trusteeship of the Diocese of Salford. It is maintained by Salford Local Authority and is a Voluntary Aided School.

The school’s Governing Body is the Admissions Authority and is responsible for taking decisions on applications for admissions. The coordination of admissions arrangements is undertaken by the Local Authority for our Reception class and by the school for the Nursery class.

For the school year, commencing September 2024, the Governing body 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 to 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 made by the Governing Body, in accordance with the stated parental preferences it receives, subject to the following set of criteria, which will be used to form a priority order in the case of there being more applications than places available.

If there are fewer than 30 applications, all applicants will be offered places. If there are more applications than the number of places available, the following oversubscription criteria will be applied. The governors will admit all children who have an education health care plan in which the school is named. In the event of oversubscription for the remaining places they will be allocated by use of the following criteria applied in order:

Admission criteria

  1. Baptised Looked After Children and previously Looked After Children.
  2. Baptised Catholic children who have a sibling in the school at the time of admission.
  3. Baptised Catholic children resident in the parish of St Teresa’s.
  4. Looked after Children and Previously Looked After Children.
  5. Other children who have a sibling in the school at the time of admission.
  6. Other baptised Catholic children.
  7. All remaining applicants.

The governing body is the admissions authority. The admissions committee is comprised of the following governors; Chair of governors, two additional governors and headteacher.

Each Roman Catholic applicant must produce a baptismal certificate. The criteria of being a baptised Catholic, is that of being baptised on, or before the deadline date for applications in January.

Parents should check whether they are residents within the Parish borders (a map is available in the school office and on the school website). The school catchment for the parish of St Teresa of Avila is from the point where Astley Road crosses Wigan – Salford District boundary, South along Astley Road, Roscoe Road, Fairhills Road and by a bee-line to the Manchester Ship Canal. Then West along Salford – Trafford District boundary and North along Warrington – Salford District boundary and East along Wigan – Salford District boundary to the point where it crosses Astley Road. All applicants will be required to follow LA recommendations and provide proof of address, by supplying original proof of residence at the point of application. At the point of offer, you will be asked to provide such information.

Governors will comply with class size limits in Key stage 1.

In the course of allocating places for children within 1 to 7 of the above criteria, it is possible that the school’s admission number will be reached before all the children within that criterion have been allocated places. If that happens all of the children within that criterion (but not children in higher criteria whose places will be assured) will be ranked according to distance from the school. Priority is given to children who live nearest the school. The distance is measured in a straight line from the address point of the child’s home address to the centre point of the school. 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 2 or more applicants and only one place left to be allocated, a random lottery will be carried out in a public place. All names will be entered into a hat and the required number of names will be drawn out.

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. A Looked After Child is a child who is (i) in the care of a Local Authority, or (ii) being provided with accommodation by a Local Authority in the exercise of their Social Services functions (under section 22(1) of the Children 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. Included in this definition are those children who appear (to the governing body) to have been in state care outside of England and who ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.

c. For a child to be considered as a Catholic evidence of a Catholic Baptism or reception into the Catholic Church is required. Written evidence of reception into the Catholic Church can be obtained by referring to the Register of Receptions, or in some cases a sub-section of the Baptismal Registers of the Church in which the Rite of Reception took place. If, for example, a child has been baptised in the Church of England and the parents are subsequently admitted to the Catholic Church through the RCIA programme, the child must also be admitted to the Church by the Rite of Reception.

  • The Governing Body will require written evidence in the form of a Certificate of Reception before applications for school places can be considered for categories of ‘Baptised Catholics’. A Certificate of Reception is to include full name, date of birth, date of reception and parent(s) name(s). The certificate must also show that it is copied from the records kept by the place of reception.
  • Those who have difficulty obtaining written evidence of baptism for a good reason, may still be considered as baptised Catholics but only after they have been referred to the parish priest who, after consulting with the [appropriate diocesan authority] will decide how the question of baptism is to be resolved and how written evidence is to be produced in accordance with the law of the Church.
  • After the closing date for admission, the LA will then 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.

d. Home address is considered to be the address where the child normally lives. Where care is split and a child moves between two addresses, the household in receipt of the child benefit would normally be the address used but the admission authority body reserves the right to request other evidence as fit the individual circumstance. Applicants should not state the address of another relative or person who has daily care of the child.

e. ‘Sibling’ is defined in these arrangements as full, half or step brothers and sisters, adopted and foster brothers and sisters who are living at the same address and are part of the same family unit. This does not include cousins or other family relationships.

f. A waiting list for children who have not been offered a place will be kept until the 31 December of the application year and will be ranked according to the Admission Criteria. The waiting list does not consider the date the application was received or the length of time a child's name has been on the waiting list. This means that a child's position on the list may change if another applicant is refused a place and their child has higher priority in the admissions criteria.

g. For ‘In Year’ applications received outside the normal admissions round, if places are available they will be offered to those who apply. Applications need to be made through the Local Authority. If there are places available but more applicants than places, then the published oversubscription criteria will be applied.

h. If an application for admission has been turned down by the Governing Body, parents may appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel. Parents must be allowed at least twenty school days from the date of notification that their application was unsuccessful to submit that appeal. Parents must give reasons for appealing in writing and the decision of the Appeals Panel is binding on the Governors. Please note that there are no appeals for Nursery places.

i. The Governing Body reserve the right to withdraw the offer of a school place where false evidence is received in relation to the application.

j. It is the duty of governors to comply with regulations on class size limits for children aged between rising five and seven. The Governing Body may exceed the regulations for twins and children from multiple births where one of the children is the 30th child admitted. This also applies to in-year applicants who are looked after/previously looked after, children of UK service personnel or children who move into the area for whom there is no other school available within a reasonable distance.

k. Parents may request that the date their child is admitted to school is deferred to later in the school year. However, the child must start school before the end of that school year. If a parent wishes their child to be educated out of their normal school year (kept back a year), they must discuss this with the school before applying. However, the final decision on this rests with the Headteacher and Governing Body.

l. Parents may request that their child attend school part-time until he/she reaches his/her fifth birthday.

Admissions to the Nursery Class

Admissions to the Nursery class are explained in the School Prospectus and closely follow the LA arrangements. As from September 2014, the school became its own admissions authority for nursery applications. As such, all applications are made directly to the school and not on the online authority website. Opportunity to list up to five Nursery schools in preference order is given. All applications are administered using the Admissions criteria stated above at the closing date of applications.

It has been agreed with Governors and Nursery staff that we will admit up to a maximum of 30 children into the Nursery, on the assumption that all Health and Safety requirements have been met.

When seeking a place in Nursery, time spent on the request list is not a criterion of admission.

On making an application to the school a detailed form will be filled in and you will be requested to supply supporting documents in the form of; Birth certificate, Baptismal certificate.

The closing date for the nursery applications is 15 January 2024 and places will be allocated on 16 April 2024. Parents will have two weeks to respond to the offer of a place. They will need to provide proof of residence at the given home address on the allocation date.

Unsuccessful applications will also be informed and there will be an option to remain on the School waiting list.

Any requests received after the closing date will be treated as a late application and will be placed on the School waiting list in priority order according to the published admissions criteria.

There is no right to appeal for a Nursery place.

Attendance in the Nursery does not guarantee a place in the Reception class.

Admissions to the Reception Class

Admissions to the Reception class are explained in the School Prospectus and follow the LA arrangements. All applications are made online on the Salford authority website using the online application form.

If online access is unavailable paper applications are also accepted. All applications are administered using the Admissions criteria stated above at the closing date of applications. The online application requests that you list up to five schools in preference order.

It has been agreed with Governors that we will admit up to a maximum of 30 children into the Reception class, on the assumption that all Health and Safety requirements have been met.

The closing date for the reception applications is 15 January 2024 and places will be allocated on 16 April 2024. Parents will have two weeks to respond to the offer of a place. They will need to provide proof of residence at the given home address on the allocation date and also show an original copy of the Birth certificate and Baptismal certificate where applicable. This needs to be taken to the School Office. School will inform the authority of any child not taking up their offer of a place.

Any requests received after the closing date will be treated as a late application by the authority and will be placed on a waiting list in priority order according to the published admissions criteria.

In-year applications

In year applications for all year groups should be made directly to the Local Authority.

The authority will contact the school to request a school place. The published criteria for admissions will be followed. If there are places available but more applicants than places, then the published oversubscription criteria will be applied.

A waiting list for children who have not been offered a place will be kept and will be ranked according to the admissions criteria. Each time a child is added to the list this will require the waiting list to be ranked again in line with the criteria – Priority will not be given to children based on the date their application was received.

The waiting list expires after 20 days after which time a reapplication will be required, except in the case of an application for a Reception place when the waiting list will expire on the 31 December 2024.

In year fair access protocols

Each local authority is required to prepare and agree with the majority of schools a ‘fair access protocol’ the purpose of which is to ensure that the most vulnerable and hard to place children (as defined in the protocol) requiring places outside the normal admissions cycle are offered school places as quickly as possible.

By virtue of section 96 of the School Standards and Framework Act, 1998, the local authority retains a very broad power to direct schools to admit what were in 1998 described as ‘hard to place’ children. The purpose of the protocol is to ensure that this power of direction is used fairly and according to agreed criteria. It must include arrangements for monitoring so it can be demonstrated that schools are being treated equitably.

It is therefore in the interests of schools to co-operate with the local authority in carrying out this challenging and sometimes controversial duty.

The fair access protocol is not required to take account of the faith designation of the school (although some do) or of class size legislation.

Governing boards must not refuse to admit a child thought to be potentially disruptive or likely to exhibit challenging behaviour.

The fair access protocol must not require a school automatically to admit another child with challenging behaviour to replace a child excluded from the school.

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