Community and Voluntary controlled primary schools admissions policy 2021

For admissions purposes a 'looked after child' or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order including those who appear [to Buckinghamshire Council] to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.

A looked after child is a child who is:

• in the care of a local authority, or
• being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989)

A panel comprising education professionals will consider the applications under this rule on receipt of written information from the parent indicating their reasons for the child attending a particular school.

When making an application parents should send evidence from an independent professional person (this might be a doctor, health visitor, or Education Welfare Officer, for example) who knows about the child and supports the application to the school. It must clearly show why the school is the most suitable and any difficulties if alternate schools were offered.

The panel will consider which children can be considered under this rule prior to each admission round.

‘School staff’ includes:

• teaching staff on a permanent or fixed term contract exceeding 11 months in duration
• all other staff on permanent or fixed term contracts exceeding 11 months in duration for posts of in excess of 15 hours per week

‘Demonstrable skill shortage’ is a post which the school has had difficulty in filling.

An example might be where the school has taken part in a recruitment drive to fill the post either across the country or worldwide and/or where the post was not filled at the first attempt.

There may be additional links where a foundation school, voluntary-aided school or academy also retain or adopt a feeder school rule.

Buckingham Combined School also has a junior intake through Maids Moreton CE Infant School.

However, Maids Moreton CE is currently consulting on a proposal to increase its age range from 4-7 to 4-11 from Sept 21. If this proposal is approved then feeder link is to be removed.

The primary school catchments can be viewed via the Find my child a school place service.

A sibling is a brother or sister.

For admission purposes we mean one of two or more individuals who have one or more parent in common, or any other child (including an adopted or fostered child) who lives at the same address and for whom the parent also has parental responsibility.

In the case of a fostered child, delegated authority is considered in the same way as parental responsibility.

We will only consider a pupil in a primary school as a ‘sibling’ if he or she is attending, in the specified year groups, the school or a linked primary school at the time the allocations are made or, for in-year admissions the time of admission, or the time a place has been formally offered at the school in the operation of the Coordinated Primary Admissions Scheme. In all cases they are expected to still be at the school at the time of proposed admission.

For the definition of parent, see our primary schools guide.

For the normal home address definition, see our primary schools guide.

For the home to school distance definition, see our primary schools guide.

In cases where there is one remaining place and the next child on the waiting list is one of a twin, triplet or other multiple birth group then both twins (or all the siblings in the case of multiple births) will be admitted.

Whilst that child is in the class they will be an excepted pupil under the Schools Admissions (Infant Class Sizes) (England) Regulations 2012 which permit Key Stage 1 class sizes to exceed 30 following the admission of a twin for as long as necessary until a child leaves the class at which point the class size will remain at the lower figure.