Admissions
Joining Our School
Chosing a Primary School for Foundation Stage (Reception) Intake - The school has open sessions for parents and where you can meet some of the staff and children and see what we have to offer you and your child. If you would like to arrange a visit outside of these scheduled sessions, please contact the school office to arrange a convenient time: (Tel: 231313 or Email informus@st-botolphs.peterborough.sch.uk
We hope you find this booklet contains all the information you need to know about the values, priorities and day-today routines at St Botolph's.
St Botolph’s is designated as a Church of England Primary School within the Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust (DEMAT) and educates children from the age of 4+ to the age of eleven. Children usually start school in the September of the academic year in which they reach five years old. In order to give the children the best possible start to their school life, they are initially admitted on a part-time basis. This allows the children time to settle into school happily and to make the transition from home and pre-school to school, a pleasure for both child and parents.
St Botolph's and DEMAT will comply with all relevant provisions of the Department for Education's schools admission code of practice 2012 (the admissions code), the school Admission Appeals code of practice 2012 (the appeals code) and law on admissions. Reference in the code to admissions authority shall be deemed to be references to the board of DEMAT, the powers and functions or which may be delegated to the local governing body of the school.
All schools in DEMAT will participate in coordinated admission arrangements by the local authority in the relevant geographical location and in respect of other arrangement specified in the admissions code.
The Admissions arrangements for Peterborough Local Authority can be found here:
How Places Are Offered
Arrangements for applications for places at the school will be made in accordance with the relevant LA’s co-ordinated admission arrangements and will be made on the Common Application Form provided and administered by the relevant LA. Parents should apply to the LA in whose area they live, not the LA in whose area the school is, if this is different.
The deadline for submitting applications is 15 January for admission to Reception the following September. The National Offer Date for Reception places is 16 April or the next working day.
Where fewer applications are received than places available, the school will offer places to all those who have applied.
It is always the responsibility of the parent to apply for a school place for their child. The Nursery, Pre-school or Infant school should promote the timeframe and process for school admissions and encourage all parents to complete an application form.
Over-subscription Criteria
The Local Authority will admit children with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or a statement of special educational needs which names a school. This will be in addition to any specific arrangements to specialist provision.
The order of priority for all other children is as follows:
When the school is oversubscribed, after the admission of Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) where the Academy is named, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below:
- Looked after children and previously looked after children including those who appear (to the Admissions Authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
- Sibling: where the child has a sibling in the school or a sibling has already been offered a place at the school, and where the sibling will still be attending the school at the time of admission but not in a specialist unit or a specialist resource base for Hearing Impaired provision or in a nursery/pre-school. Priority will be given, where necessary, to applications where there is the smallest age gap.
- Children of staff recruited to fill a vacant post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage. DEMAT is required to approve the Headteachers’ designation of such posts and confirm the assessment that a member of staff appointed meets the requirements of the shortage. Priority will be limited to one place for each form of entry in any year.
- All other applicants
In cases where there are more applicants within a criterion than there are places available, a straight-line distance measurement between the child’s home and the school will be used to rank applications. The measurement will be taken from the child’s home address which has been notified to the school and other relevant agencies as being the child’s normal place of residence. Priority will be given to those children who live closest to the school. DEMAT will measure the distance by a straight line (‘as the crow flies’). All straight-line distances are calculated electronically using data provided jointly by the Post Office and Ordnance Survey. The data plots the co-ordinates of each property and provides the address-point between which the straight-line distance is measured and reported to three decimal places. Where there is more than one home within a single building (for example apartments) we will measure to a single point within that building irrespective of where those homes are located.
Tie breaker: If DEMAT is unable to distinguish between applicants using the published criteria, including those who live in blocks of flats, places will be offered via a random draw which will be supervised by someone independent of the school.