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4 April 2003 |
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Dear Colleague
I would like to thank those headteachers who have contacted me regarding this process with helpful suggestions and comments. Some concerns have been expressed regarding the process for admission to nursery classes initiated this year and I would like to clarify the situation and reassure those expressing concern.
The purposes of the introduction of central administration of nursery class places were as follows:
· to reduce the administrative workload for schools,
· to relieve oversubscribed schools of criticisms of their administration,
· to enable parental preferences to be more effectively managed
· to enable schools with unfilled nursery class places an opportunity to fill these places using the Childcare Information Service.
May I ask any schools having children remaining in their nursery class from this year’s intake to ensure that the names of these children are included on the lists sent to us or are sent separately. These children will be allocated places before the criteria for admission are applied to the lists for your school.
The
process for the administration of the prioritisation of admissions will operate
as follows:
·
All children’s names
will be entered onto a database with all of the information included for each
school. This database will be
confidential and only used for the purposes of allocation of nursery class
places.
·
All of the databases
will be searched for duplicate entries.
·
Where duplicate
entries are discovered, where possible the individual family involved will be
contacted and asked to prioritise the nursery classes involved. Wherever possible, parents will be offered a
place at their preferred nursery class, but in cases of over-subscription,
where a child’s name appears on two lists, the alternative may be offered.
·
Schools whose nursery
classes are under-subscribed, will be returned the list of children to offer
places to and may allocate unfilled places to any late applicants until their
places are full.
·
A list of school
nursery classes having unfilled places will be sent to Childcare Information
service to enable this information to be passed on to parents if requested.
·
Where school nursery
classes are over-subscribed, we will prioritise the lists of children according
to the admissions criteria, using the information sent to us.
·
Where children have
already been allocated places in the nursery class and will be remaining for
the coming year, these children will be automatically allocated a place.
·
Places will be
allocated to children from the prioritised lists up to a maximum of 21 children
per session. The remaining 10 places
may be utilised for children with Special Educational Needs or children whose
parents wish to defer their entry into school and remain in the nursery class.
·
Schools will be
returned prioritised lists of children, with an indication of the children who
may be offered a place, and those who will be sent a letter by the LEA
informing them of their failure to gain a place at their preferred nursery
class. This letter will indicate the
possibility of late places becoming available and give the CIS telephone number
(letter attached)
·
Schools may offer
nursery class places to the children indicated and where places are refused use
the prioritised list to fill up places up to the 21 children per session.
·
The remaining 10
places may be allocated at the beginning of the autumn term, if they have not
already been utilised, by using the prioritised list to offer places.
·
Schools are requested
to maintain their waiting lists , adding subsequent applications for any
January intake of children, and a similar exercise will be repeated in October.
I
hope this information clarifies the procedure for headteachers and administrators
and would be grateful for any feedback on the operation of the process and any
improvements you feel would be beneficial.
Yours sincerely
Anne Dobson
Education Officer (Early Years)