Admissions

Determined Admission Policy and Arrangements 2021/2022

­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 2021, 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 in the Local Authority Admissions Booklet or the school’s own SIF.  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:

Notes:

a.          All applications will be considered at the same time and after the national closing date
for admissions. Late applications (those received after the closing date) MAY be
considered alongside those received by the closing date under the following
circumstances:

·         the family were unable to complete an application form before the closing date because they moved into the school’s parish area after the issue of application forms OR

·         the family were unable to conform with the admissions timetable because of exceptional circumstances which prevented the applications arriving on time – the circumstances must be given in writing and attached to the application form.

b.          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, residence 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 Vicar General, 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.            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 body reserve the right to request other proofs as fit the individual circumstance. Applicants should not state a childminder’s or other relative’s address.

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 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.

g.            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 will be applied.

h.            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.

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.

Over-subscription Criteria

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 Mary Magdalen’s

St Oswald’s, Longton

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.