Admissions
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.