Gorsley Goffs admission arrangements for Admission to the Reception Class

Please follow this link to Herefordshire School Admissions for further information: https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/schools-education/primary-school-admissions

The following applies to admission to the Reception Class, for children joining the School in September.

Reception Class children will normally be admitted once a year, in the September term at the start of the school year.

A school year runs from September 1st to August 31st. Children will be offered admission to the Reception Class if they have had their fourth birthday in the School Year before entry.

The Local Authority (LA) must receive applications for entry to the School by the date stated in the parents information pack. This is usually in late January. Should the number of applications become greater than 30, then selection criteria are applied in the following priority order:

1: Looked after children and previously looked after children who have since been adopted, or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order including those children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.

2: Children living within the defined catchment area* of Gorsley School

3: Children who would still have a sibling** at Gorsley School at the time of admission.

4: Children with exceptional medical, social or compassionate grounds for admission and whose parents can show that entry to Gorsley Goffs Primary School is necessary for the well-being of their child. Parents are required to produce a medical certificate or appropriate information preferably from an independent source.

5: Children who live nearest to Gorsley School. Distance is measured by the shortest available walking route (using road and/or made up footpath) using the nearest network node from the property address point to the nearest network node at the main school entrance gate.

We are mindful that some of the children will be very young and offer, on application to the Headteacher, an option to defer entry until the following January. However, we do encourage children to start at the same time in September as this helps with friendships, independence and social skills.

Opportunities for the children to visit their new class are arranged in the half term prior to their actual starting date.

During the first two weeks of the Autumn Term the children can attend for half days if necessary.

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 (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school. 2This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see section 12 adoption orders) and children who were adopted under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (see section 46 adoption orders). 3A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society. 3aChild arrangements orders are defined in s.8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by s.12 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22nd April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order. 4See Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 which defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians). *In order to determine the relevant catchment area, the home address of a child is defined as the only or main permanent residential address, at the closing date for applications, where the child usually resides and which is the usual address of the parent/carer with main responsibility for the child. If arrangements are such that a child resides at two addresses for equal amounts of time, then parents must decide which address to use for admissions purposes. Where more than one parent submits an application for a child, or where there is a parent not in agreement with the preferences, the Local Authority may not be able to process any application until agreement over the preferences is reached. Failure to ensure agreement prior to submission, may result in a delay in any application being processed and in some instances, where agreement cannot be reached we may not be able to proceed until a legal resolution has been sought and the courts determine which parent can make the final decision on schooling Copies of catchment area maps, if required are available from the LA, or can be viewed in schools. To find the catchment school for a postcode please visit https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/schools-education/find school. ***A sibling connection refers to a brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step brother or sister, or a child of the parents/carer’s partner, and in every case the child must be living in the same family unit at the same address. Distance is measured by the shortest available walking route using a road and/or made up footpath using the nearest node on the transport network to the property point. The effect of this is to take you to the front door and not take into consideration other entrances (such as rear garden gates/ short cuts). This is particularly pertinent in a rural area like Herefordshire where rural properties can have multiple access points.