School Admission Arrangements for 2018/19

Overview

Overview

Proposed changes to the admission criteria for Rochdale Borough Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools.

Background

The following changes are proposed to the Admission Policies for the Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools:

1. Introduction of separate Admission Policies for Secondary schools and Primary schools;
2. Introduction of an Admission Policy in respect of In Year Admissions and Transfers;
3. Clarification to the criterion related to pupils with strong church connections for voluntary controlled schools;

Proposals:

Rochdale Local Authority proposes to introduce two separate admission policies for Primary and Secondary Schools to take account of the faith criterion which is only relevant to Primary Schools.

Rochdale Local Authority plans to introduce a separate Policy for In Year Admissions to change current In Year admission arrangements by changing the following criterion:

Children with a sibling

A sibling is defined as a brother or sister, step-brother or step-sister, and half-brother or half-sister. A sibling must be living at the same address and not be a cousin or other relative.

This criterion will apply to children who already have a sibling currently in attendance at the preferred school and also to children who have a sibling applying for a place at the preferred school that can be offered a place but are not currently on roll.

And also to introduce a new criterion:

Children without a school place

Children eligible for priority under this category are those where:

• The child has recently moved to the Rochdale Borough and has not been allocated a school place or who have moved within the Rochdale Borough within the last 2 calendar months of the date of application; and
• There is no alternate school with a place available in the requested Year Group within the statutory walking distance of the home address.

Walking distances are defined as up to 2 miles for children aged under 8 and up to 3 miles for children aged 8 and over.