SCHOOL ADMISSIONS; PRIMARY TRANSFER 2017

Introduction

The 18^th April 2017 is National Allocation Day when parents/carers of children throughout England will learn which primary school place has been offered to their child for September 2017. Parents of children moving from infant to junior school will also hear the outcome of their application on this date.

Those parents/carers who applied for a school place on-line will receive an email confirming the school place after 9:00am on 18^th April 2016 - others will receive a letter.

The Process

The closing date for primary school applications was 15^th January 2017 and parents/carers in Gloucestershire were given the opportunity to apply for up to five schools.

Allocations of school places are determined by the level of preference stated by the parent and the oversubscription criteria for schools; where too many children request places at particular schools.

Where a parent’s/carer’s preferred schools are unable to offer places to their child, the child will be offered a place at the nearest school to the home address which has places available

2017/2018 Allocations

This year 6978 children will be offered a place in one of Gloucestershire’s primary schools – 88 of these living in a neighbouring county. In addition, 69 Gloucestershire children will also be offered a place at their preferred school in a neighbouring county. 

96% of parents/carers who have submitted applications have been offered places at one of their preferred schools and 88% have been offered their first preference school.

Through the school place planning process, additional capacity has been created in a number of schools across the county to meet localised increase in demand for places for September – resulting from an increase in pupil numbers and housing growth. This particularly affects the districts of Cheltenham and Gloucester. Even though individual schools may be oversubscribed, there are schools with space in every district.

Advice for parents/carers

Those parent/carer’s who were allocated their first preference school and who applied on-line will not receive a letter or paper reply form and can simply accept their place on-line. All other parents will receive a reply form with their allocation letter and it is important that they return these to the Co-ordinated Admissions Team. 

Some parents will be anxious that their child has not been offered their preferred school. Places at some schools will become available after the initial allocation so there is a second stage of allocations where we may be able to reconsider their preferences.

This happens when some parents refuse the school place offered (moving out of the area or attending independent school etc.) so we are able to offer that place to the child at the top of the waiting list.

If parents would like their preferences to be reconsidered in this way, they should state this on the reply form. Since we cannot guarantee that a place at the preferred school will become available, we strongly recommend that parents/carers who ask for reconsideration also accept the school place offered to them initially - this will not affect reconsideration of their preferred school, but will ensure that they have the certainty of a school place for their child in September.

The results of this reconsideration will be sent to parents/carers after 16^th May 2017.  It is therefore recommended that only those who are still unhappy with their child’s school allocation after this date contact the Co-ordinated Admissions team.  Parents/carers have a third opportunity to secure their preferred choice by means of a formal appeal and will receive information about this process with their final decision letter.

If you are contacted by any parent after the initial allocation on 18^th April, it would be helpful if you could outline this process and explain that the Co-ordinated Admissions team will endeavour to reconsider parental preferences, where possible, during the second round of allocations (between 2^nd May – 16^th May 2017). 

If Members have any questions regarding the admissions process please contact:

Sam Roberts, Senior Manager for Access to Learning on 01452 425529 sam.roberts@gloucestershire.gov.uk , or 

Stewart King, Lead Commissioner for Education on 01452 328488

stewart.king@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Parents should be advised to contact Co-ordinated Admissions staff within the Access to Learning Team at Shire Hall, Westgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 2TP, t: 01452 425407 or email: school.admissions@gloucestershire.gov.uk.