Bishop Aldhelm's CE

Primary School

Loved by God; United in Learning

Admissions

Are You Considering a Place at Our School?

Our website provides information about many aspects of our school and we are always pleased to meet parents/carers who are considering sending their child to our school and to show them around. If you wish to do this please contact our school office to make an appointment.

Our Admissions Policies detail the ethos of our school and list the oversubscription criteria which we use if there are more applications for places than we have available. They also explain how to apply for a place at our school.

We are a Church of England School and three of the oversubscription criteria are for children who regularly go to church and worship there. If you decide to apply for a place on this basis you must also submit a Supplementary Information Form. The Form is designed by the Borough of Poole and contains, in one Form, all the oversubscription criteria used by all the Poole schools (different schools have different criteria).

The Supplementary Information Form can be downloaded from this page.  Alternatively, you are welcome to collect a paper copy from our school reception.  Please feel welcome to contact us if you want any guidance about this process.

The Borough of Poole’s School Admissions Team produces a Parents’/Carers’ Guide to School Admissions each year. This details all of the schools in Poole and has the oversubscription criteria for each of them. This document can be accessed on the Borough of Poole website (http://www.boroughofpoole.com/education-and-learning/school-and-colleges/school-admissions/) or viewed at the Admissions Team office in the Dolphin Centre in Poole (telephone 01202 261936).

https://www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/Schools-and-learning/School-admissions/School-admissions.aspx

Admissions Policy for 2023-2024

The Admissions Policy is open for consultation.  Monday 22nd November 2021 - 14th January 2022. Please contact the school with questions.  Consultation Policy is attached below.

Admissions Policy for 2022-2023

The Admissions Policy and Supplementary Information Form for 2022-2023 are applicable for parents/carers applying for a place for their child/children during the 2022-2023 school year which their child will take up between 1st September 2022 and 31st August 2023.

Supplementary Information Form

Admission Appeals

Primary School Age places – Year R, Year 3 and Middle school – September 2023

 

Offer letters posted to parents/carers on

National Offer Day by Local Authority                                           17 April 2023

 

Deadline for acceptance of offer

By parent/carer                                                                              2 May 2023

 

Deadline for lodging an on-time admission appeal                       19 May 2023

 

Appeal Hearing Dates                                                                   Between 20 June and 30 July 2023

 

GENERAL

  • Appeals lodged after these dates will be heard within 40 school days of the appeal deadline or 30 school days of being lodged, whichever is the later date.
  • You will receive at least 10 school days’ notice of your appeal hearing date.  School days do not include school holidays, inset days, bank holidays or weekends.
  • Appeals are heard during the daytime on weekdays and are not normally heard during school holidays.  Where there are multiple appeals for places at the same school, the hearings may go over a number of days.
  • The school’s case will be made available to parents and Panel members at least 5 school days before the start of the appeal hearing.
  • Additional evidence may be submitted up to 5 working days before the hearing.
  • Any additional evidence received after this date might not be considered at the appeal hearing.  The Appeal Panel must decide whether it should be considered taking into account its significance and the effect of a possible need to adjourn the hearing
  • Following the hearing, decision letters will be sent, where possible, within 5 school days of the end of the hearing.  During busy periods, such as main entry, full decision letters may take longer than this, so the Clerk will send a brief decision summary email in the interim.
  • Appeal hearings for in-year places will be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.

      A children wishing to join Year Foundation a year later than the normal year group join it)

As a general rule the school considers that children attending the school should normally be placed with their own age group, and be educated for the majority of the time with their age peer group. The school believes that this is in the best interests of the child. Parents do however from time to time seek places for children in a lower or higher age group. Such requests may be made for a variety of reasons, for example where a child has moved to the area from abroad, or has missed schooling due to illness, or has a marked talent or ability. In these cases differentiation of the curriculum and/or additional support within their age group should usually address the particular circumstances.

The School Admissions Code requires school admission authorities to provide for the admission of all children in the September following their fourth birthday. Parents can request that their child attends part-time until they reach compulsory school age, or that the date their child is admitted to school is deferred until later in the same academic year or, in the case of summer born children (ie those born between 1 April and 31 August), that their child is admitted to Year Foundation one year later than their chronological age would normally determine. However again, as a general rule, the school does not encourage delayed admission as it does not believe that this is in the best interests of the child unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The School Admissions Code requires admission authorities to consider such requests and to take account of the circumstances of each case. The approach that we take is set out in our ‘Policy For Responding To Parental Requests For Admission To A Year Group Different To That Determined By Their Date Of Birth, Including Delayed Admission To Reception For Summer Born Children’.