Admissions

Admissions Procedure
 
St Sidwell’s is a Voluntary Aided Church of England Primary school located in the Diocese of Exeter. It is a thriving, multicultural school and welcomes children from all faiths and ethnic backgrounds. Typically up to a third of our children have English as an additional language and this diversity gives a rich learning experience for all children.
 
We ask all parents applying for a place here to respect our Christian ethos and its importance to the school community. This does not affect the right of parents who are not of the Christian faith to apply for and be considered for a place at our school.
 
As a Voluntary Aided school, the Governing Body is the admission authority and has responsibility for the admission policy. Please read the full policy when considering applying for a place. (N.B. This policy is reviewed annually and may change, so please check that you are referring to the correct policy for the time of admission.) The policy applies to children of school age only.
 
We also welcome applications to the Nursery for children from the age of 3: please contact the school office for information on nursery admissions or click the link below for information Admission to the Nursery.
 
Further information on Devon County's Admissions arrangements can be found here: 
 
https://www.devon.gov.uk/educationandfamilies/school-information/apply-for-a-school-place
 
Admissions Policies 
 
The school's admissions policies should be read in conjunction with the Primary and In-Year Co-ordinated Admissions Schemes and other agreed policies of Devon County Council. All policies and procedures seek to comply with the requirements of the School Admissions Code of Practice.
 
The school has two Supplementary Information Forms (included as an appendix in the admissions policy) which need to be completed by an appropriate professional to provide evidence of social or medical needs or your priest or minister to be used to provide evidence of religious grounds.
 
Starting School
 
Our Reception class is part of a Foundation Stage Unit (FSU) alongside the nursery class. The FSU is staffed by a team of excellent early years practitioners, Mrs Beards and Ms Tong and their teams. The unit was judged to be 'outstanding' by Ofsted in 2012 and has been 'badged' as a high quality provider by the Local Authority.
 
Starting School in Reception
 
We work hard to ensure that starting school is a happy and exciting time for both the children and their families. We try to be flexible and to accommodate individuals’ needs as far as possible.
 
In the summer term prior to starting in Reception, parents are invited to a meeting with Mrs Beards, our Reception teacher, our Headteacher, other school staff,  our school nurse and other adults who may be of help to you. You will learn about the curriculum, day-to-day routines and how to prepare your child for starting school. There will be time for you to ask questions and you will be given our “Welcome Pack” which contains a wealth of information that we hope will be of use and interest to you at this important time. The children will also be invited to spend a session in school so that they can meet their new teacher, other children and become familiar with their new classroom.
 
Parents/carers are encouraged to be very active partners with the school, especially at this important time and you will be welcome in the classroom at the start and finish of the school day to share your child’s experiences.
 

Public Consultation & COVID-19 amendment

Following a period of consultation our 2021-22 admissions policies were determined by the Full Governing Body on February 13 2020.

Due to the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Governing Body in consultation with the Diocese and the Local Authority have agreed a variation to the admissions arrangements for admission to Reception in September 2021, in respect of the over-subscription criteria relating to church attendance. 

The variation agreed is that " In the event that during the period specified for attendance at worship the church has been closed for public worship and has not provided alternative premises for that worship, the requirements of these [admissions] arrangements in relation to attendance will only apply to the period when the church or alternative premises have been available for public worship". 

This request is made in order that parents seeking admission to the school can readily determine what the admissions oversubscription criteria are and how they may be met, and thereby enable the school to deal lawfully, fairly and transparently with admissions matters in the exceptional circumstances of the COVID19 pandemic.

The 2021 policy was varied on 30 October 2020. The variation added the following to the school’s admission arrangements and supplementary information form (SIF):

“In the event that during the period specified for attendance at worship the church has been closed for public worship and has not provided alternative premises for that worship, the requirements of these [admissions] arrangements in relation to attendance will only apply to the period when the church or alternative premises have been available for public worship”.

Consultation on our Admissions policy for 2022-23 

Below you will see a cop of our proposed admissions policy for 2022-23. We are consulting on this between 1 November and 8 January and invite any parent or other person with an interest in our admission arrangements to read the policy and make any comments you wish. You will see where there are changes, the text is in red – either something we propose to add or, if it has a line through it, something we propose to remove.

One of the proposals is to add children who have been adopted from state care outside of England to our oversubscription criterion 1. This is in anticipation that the Department for Education will require this change for all schools as it has just consulted on changes to the School Admissions Code. It is possible that the Department’s timescales may mean that the Code is not amended before the end of February, when we have to formally set our policy. If that is the case, we may have to determine our policy without that change and then alter it later in spring or summer. We are bringing it to your attention though as a change in policy that we expect to have to introduce.

Other than changes in red and dates moving forward a year, the way our policy will work is the same as in the previous year, 2021-22 which you can also see below.

If you have any comments, you can make them to Devon County Council which is co-ordinating the consultation. Further information is at www.devon.gov.uk/admissionarrangements. You will be able to view the proposed policies for all state-funded schools in Devon and the Local Authorities policies there too. 

The consultation ends on 8 January and all policies must be determined by 28 February and published in the same places by 15 March.