Admissions

Admission Policy and Arrangements 2023/2024

All Hallows is a Catholic School under the trusteeship of the Archdiocese of Liverpool. It is
maintained by Lancashire County Council. As a Voluntary Aided School, the Governing Body
is the Admissions Authority and is responsible for taking decisions on applications for
admissions. The co-ordination of admissions arrangements is undertaken by the Local
Authority. For the school’s year commencing September 2023, the Governing Body has set
its admissions number at 178.

Our principal role as a Catholic school is to participate in the mission of the Catholic Church
by providing a framework 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 Catholic in society.
The school asks all parents applying for a place here to respect this ethos and its importance
to the school community. This does not affect the rights of parents who are not of the faith
of this school to apply for and be considered for a place here.

ADMISSIONS TO THE SCHOOL will be determined by the Governing Body. Parents must
complete a Local Authority Preference Form or apply online via the website
www.lancashire.gov.uk/schools. If you wish to have your admission request considered
against that school’s faith/denomination criteria then you should ALSO complete the
Supplementary Information Form (SIF) available directly from the school or via the school
website. All preferences listed will be considered on an equal basis and, where there are
more applications than the number of places available, the OVERSUBSCRIPTION CRITERIA
will be applied:

1.        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 parishes of St Oswald’s, Longton; St Teresa’s, Penwortham; St Mary Magdalen’s, Penwortham; Our Lady & St Gerard’s, Lostock Hall and Our Lady’s, Tarleton.

4.        Other baptised Catholic children.

5.        Other children who have a sibling in the school at the time of admission.

6.        Children attending one of the following Catholic Feeder Primary Schools in the
parishes named in criterion 3 above:
Our Lady & St Gerard’s, Lostock Hall          St Oswald’s, Longton
St Mary Magdalen’s, Penwortham        St Teresa’s, Penwortham

7.        Children from other Christian denominations. Proof of Baptism in the form of a
Baptismal Certificate or confirmation in writing that the applicant is a member of
their Faith community from an appropriate Minister of Religion is required.

8.       Children of other faiths. An appropriate Faith Leader would need to confirm in
writing that the applicant is a member of their faith group.

9.        Other children.

Where there are more applicants for the available places within a category, then the
distance between the Ordnance Survey address points for the school and the home
measured in a straight line will be used as the final determining factor, nearer addresses
having priority over more distant ones. This address point is within the body of the property
and usually located at its centre. Where the cut-off point is for addresses within the same
building, then the single measure between address points will apply and the Local
Authority’s system of a random draw will determine which address(es) receive the offer(s).

Children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs or Education Health Care Plan that
names a school will be offered place without using the admission criteria and will count as
part of the school’s published admission number.

Notes

a.       All applications submitted before the national closing date will be considered equally
and included in the Local Authority initial allocation of school places. Applications
received after the national closing date will be processed in accordance with the
Lancashire admissions scheme for schools detailed in the Lancashire admissions
information booklets.

b.       A Looked After Child is a child who is (a) in the care of a Local Authority, or (b) 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, child arrangements order or special guardianship
order.

c.        For a child to be considered as a Catholic evidence of a Catholic Baptism is required.
Baptism should take place before the closing date for applications.
A Baptised Catholic can also be defined as one who has been baptised by the Rites of
Baptism of one of the various Churches in communion with the See of Rome (cf
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1203). Written evidence of this baptism can be
obtained by recourse to the Baptismal Registers of the church in which the baptism
took place.

Or

A person who has been baptised in a separate ecclesial community and subsequently
received into full communion with the Catholic Church by the Rite of Reception of
Baptised Christians into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church. Written
evidence of their reception into full communion with the Catholic Church can be
obtained by recourse 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.

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 Episcopal Vicar, 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.

d.        “Children of other Christian denominations” means: children who belong to other
churches and ecclesial communities which, acknowledging God’s revelation in Christ,
confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the Scriptures, and, in
obedience to God’s will and in the power of the Holy Spirit commit themselves: to
seek a deepening of their communion with Christ and with one another in the
Church, which is his body; and to fulfil their mission to proclaim the Gospel by
common witness and service in the world to the glory of the one God, Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. An ecclesial community which on principle has no credal statements
in its tradition, is included if it manifests faith in Christ as witnessed to in the
Scriptures and is committed to working in the spirit of the above. All members of
Churches Together in England and of CYTÛN are deemed to be included in the above
definition, as are all other churches and ecclesial communities that are in
membership of any local Churches Together Group (by whatever title) on the above
basis. Other faiths are defined as organisations whose values are based
on faith and/or beliefs, which have a mission based on social values of a
particular faith.

Other faiths are defined as organisations whose values are based on faith and/or
beliefs, which have a mission based on social values of a particular faith.

e.        Home address is considered to be the address where the child normally lives.
Applicants should not state a childminder’s or other relative’s address. It may be
necessary to carry out checks to confirm addresses given are genuine and parents
may therefore be asked to provide documentary evidence of their child’s home
address.

f.        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.

g.        A waiting list for children who have not been offered a place will be kept 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. The waiting list will be retained until at least the end of December of the
relevant year of the admissions process.

h.        For ‘In Year’ applications received outside the normal admissions round, if places are
available they will be offered to those who apply. Direct application to the school can
now be made under this heading. If there are places available but more applicants
than places then the published oversubscription criteria for the relevant year group
will be applied. A waiting list for those who have not been offered a place will be
kept until the end of the relevant academic term.

i.        If a parent wishes their child to be educated out of their normal age group, they
must discuss this with the Headteacher before applying for a place. The decision
rests with the school as admission authority as per para 2.17 of the Admissions Code.
If there is more than one application for an available place reference will be made to
the oversubscription criteria.

j.        If an application for admission has been turned down by the Governing Body,
parents can 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.

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

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