Admissions Policy for Yew Tree Community School

 

 

School Admissions

The academy has adopted the Birmingham Local Educations Authority Policy on Admissions and the Admissions Criteria for Local Authority Nursery Classes. In addition the school has purchased the appeals service from the Local Authority.

 

Local Authority Criteria for Nursery Admissions

Maintained Primary Schools with a nursery class should offer their places to all children on a part-time basis first. If capacity exists after all children have been offered a place, those children identified as meeting the criteria for a fulltime place should be offered the place on a full-time basis. (Refer to new criteria in the attached document: Nursery application form).

 

Where a nursery has more applications for free entitlement places than there are places available, the following criteria shall apply:

  1. Children meeting the criteria for the allocation of a full-time place (see the new criteria in the attached document: Nursery application form)
  2. Children (siblings) with an older brother or sister already at the school (or at a linked school on the same or nearby site) who will still be in attendance at the time the sibling enters the school (subject to age restrictions below).

Siblings are considered to be those children who live at the same address and either:

  1. have one or both natural parents in common;
  2. are related by a parent’s marriage;
  3. are adopted or fostered by a common parent.
  4. Children who live nearest to the school.

 

Within each of these categories, priority is given to those who live nearest to the school, by straight-line measurement to one fixed point in the school.

 

Local Authority Policy for the Admission of Pupils

The Authority has a general duty to secure the economic, efficient and effective use of its resources, and must make provision for children of school age in this context.

 

Section 92 of the Schools Standards and Framework Act 1998 requires the Authority to publish each year the number of pupils that it is intended to admit to each school in the age group in which pupils are normally admitted.

 

In determining school’s admission limits the Authority has regard to the capacity of the school, alternative places available at other schools and its general responsibilities in the use of its resources. Admission limits are normally based on classes of 30 pupils. The agreed policy of the Authority, Advisors and the Teachers’ Association is that class sizes should be kept as small as possible within the constraints under which we have to work. It is considered educationally undesirable for classes to exceed 30, particularly when there are suitable

places available at neighbouring schools. Excessive class sizes can impose strain on both staff and resources particularly at the Reception stage. It is the Authority’s policy to admit children at the start of the year in which they are five, which does place considerable pressure on teachers of such young children.

 

Yew Tree Community School is a 2 form entry school and when places are oversubscribed, we follow the Birmingham Local Education Authority Guidance on Admissions, and places are offered based on the following order of priorities outlined in the table below.

Current Admission Arrangements

Proposed Birmingham School Admission Criteria September 2021

School name Yew Tree Community School
School address Yew Tree Community School, Yew Tree Road, Birmingham, B6 6RX
Head Teacher Mr S Islam Tel no: 0121 464 2967
Admission Number 60

 

Criteria
  1. Looked after or previously looked after children.
 
  1. Children with a brother or a sister already at the school who will still be in attendance in September 2021
 
  1. Children who live nearest the school.
  Within each of these categories, priority is given to those who live nearest the school, calculated on the basis of a straight-line measurement between home and school.
Children with a statement of special educational needs/EHC Plan Any child with a statement of special educational needs/Education Health and Care Plan is required to be admitted to the academy that is named in the statement/plan. This gives such children overall priority for admission to the named academy. This is not an oversubscription criterion.
Looked after or previously looked after children A Looked After Child is a child who is in the care of a local authority or is being provided with accommodation by a local authority as set out in s22(1) of the Children Act 1989. A Previously Looked After Child is a child who immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, special guardianship or child arrangements order.

In the case of previously looked after children, admission authorities may request a copy of the adoption order, child arrangements order or special guardianship order and a letter from the local authority that last looked after the child confirming that he or she was looked after immediately prior to that order being made..
Sibling Siblings (brothers or sisters) are considered to be those children who live at the same address and either:

i. have one or both natural parents in common;

or         ii. are related by a parent’s marriage;

or         iii. are adopted or fostered by a common parent.

Unrelated children living at the same address, whose parents are living as partners, are also considered to be siblings.

Children not adopted or fostered or related by a parent’s marriage or with one natural parent in common, who are brought together as a family by a same sex civil partnership and who are living at the same address, are also considered to be siblings.
Distance Distances are calculated on the basis of a straight-line measurement between the applicant’s home address from the centre of the school. The Local Authority uses a computerised system, which measures all distances in metres. Ordnance Survey supply the co-ordinates that are used to plot an applicant’s home address and the address of the school.
Shared Responsibility Where parents have shared responsibility for a child, and the child lives with both parents for part of the week, then the main residence will be determined as the address where the child lives the majority of the week. Parents may be requested to supply documentary evidence to support the address used.
Final Qualifier In a very small number of cases it may not be possible to decide between the applications of those pupils who are the final qualifiers for a place, when applying the published admission criteria.

For example, this may occur when children in the same year group live at the same address, or if the distance between the home and academy is exactly the same, for example, blocks of flats. If there is no other way of separating the application according to the admissions criteria and to admit both or all of the children would cause the Published Admission Number for the child’s year group to be exceeded, the Local Authority will use a computerised system to randomly select the child to be offered the final place.

In the event of this occurring with twins or other multiple birth applicants, schools will be asked to admit over their Published Admission Number to accommodate the pupils.
Waiting Lists Waiting lists will not be fixed following the offer of places. They are subject to change. This means that a child’s waiting list position during the year could go up or down. Any applicants will be added to the school’s list in accordance with the order of priority for offering places. Waiting lists will be maintained until the end of each academic year.
Appeals Appeals are administered by the Local Authority for this Academy.  Parents who wish to appeal against the decision to refuse their child admission should contact the School Admissions and Fair Access Service on 0121 303 1888 to request an appeal form. Appeals will be heard by an independent panel.
In Year Applications Applications made outside the normal admissions round (in-year admissions) should be made directly to the school. Parents/carers can apply for a place for their child at any time and to any school. On receipt of an in-year application, the school will notify the local authority of both the application and its outcome, to allow the local authority to keep up to date with figures on the availability of school places in Birmingham.

* No supplementary information form is used at Yew Tree Community School