Bryan Slater Director of Education	Distribution
	Nursery Schools and All schools with nursery classes

This document needs your action as detailed below:

ACTION	Title	Process for admissions to nursery classes for January 2005
	Summary of contents	Guidance for the submission of waiting lists for allocation of nursery class places for January 2005
	Associated documents	· Guidance for headteachers on the arrangements for admission to nursery schools and nursery classes for January 2005 · Phoenix Software – admissions to nursery classes
	Date	30.09.04
	Summary of action required	Follow instructions given in the guidance to send waiting lists to early years team for administration.
	To be completed by	15.10.04
	LEA Contact	Sue Brown	(	01603 223462
	E-mail address	Sue.brown.edu@norfolk.gov.uk
	Norfolk Self Review reference	5. How well does the school care for its pupils? 6. How well does the school work in partnership with parents? 7. How well is the school led and managed? 8. How well does the school use its resources?
	Document reference	MI 179/04

Admissions to Nursery Classes 2004-2005

Guidance for headteachers on the arrangements for admission to nursery classes for January 2005.

You will by now have an idea of the number of vacant places remaining in your nursery class, which may be filled in January 2005.

We will collect the data electronically and guidance on how to do this is included with this letter. You are requested to provide a list of all children currently attending the nursery class together with a waiting list of children whose birthdates fall between 1.09.2000 and 31.12.2001 immediately after Friday 15^th October 2004. These will be passed on to the Early Years and Childcare Department for administration.

In response to concerns raised by schools, the first rule for admission to nursery classes at community and voluntary controlled schools has been changed with effect from September 2004 to read:

“Children with independently verified evidence of additional need”.

Where a school wishes to prioritise a child according to this rule, the headteacher will be expected to keep on file, for future verification, the evidence used to support the application. At present it is not possible to collect this information electronically. Where schools have a child or children on their waiting lists with independently verified evidence of additional needs, they are asked to e-mail this information to Sue Brown in the Early Years Department, giving the following information in respect of each child:

Name Date of birth Nature of evidence held on file

(E.g. SEN Statement, health visitor or speech therapy report, letter of support from a social worker etc.) It is not necessary to send the evidence to the early year’s team.

The above information should be e-mailed to:

Sue Brown Administrative Assistant 01603 223462

Sue.brown.edu@norfolk.gov.uk

Where a nursery class is able to accommodate all of the children on the list, the school will be returned the list of children to whom places in the nursery class may be offered. Schools should inform parents of this offer by letter on Friday 12 November.

When children are offered places in a nursery class, it would be helpful to point out to parents in the letter that transport to and from early education provision is not available. Similarly a place at the nursery class does not guarantee a place in the school, neither is there an expectation that the child offered a place should apply for a place that school. An example of a letter is attached.

Where a nursery class is oversubscribed, the Early Years and Childcare Department will prioritise the applicants according to the admissions criteria. The school will be sent a list of the children who may be offered a place in the nursery class, by letter on Friday 12^th November and a prioritised list of applicants who may be offered places if any places become vacant. If required, the Early Years and Childcare Department will send letters to unsuccessful applicants suggesting alternative options.

Where a school receives a request for a place in the nursery class after Friday the 15 October, the information should be kept on file at the school and sent to the Early Years Department for allocation.

If there are any further queries please contact:

Sue Brown Administrative Assistant 01603 223462

Sue.brown.edu@norfolk.gov.uk