Management Information Sheet
In-year Admissions Update
In February 2009 the then DCSF introduced a new legal duty on Local Authorities to co-ordinate all in-year admissions (excluding statemented pupils).
The Admissions Team included information on this in both the 2009 (MI 16/09) and 2010 (MI 5/10 - 9/1/10) admission consultation exercises to ensure that schools were aware of the impending change and were able to comment on the proposed scheme in Norfolk.
The proposals and consultation comments were considered by Norfolk Admissions Forum and Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel at meetings in March. The final scheme was considered and approved by Norfolk County Council Cabinet on 6 April 2010.
Approved In-year admissions scheme to apply for all requests received on or after 1 September 2010:
Parents must be offered the opportunity to express up to 3 preferences and schools will be provided with in-year application forms for parents. These can also be downloaded from the County Council website and obtained from the Admissions Team at County Hall in Norwich.
All completed applications must be forwarded to the Admissions Team who will check availability of places with the school(s) requested before responding to the parent.
As required by the legislation, all decisions regarding the preference must be made by the Local Authority.
For children new to area or without a school place applications will be considered on a weekly basis to ensure that children are admitted to school as quickly as possible. Norfolk's Fair Access Scheme will be used where a family cannot gain a place at a preferred school and where no local school place is available. This may require schools to admit pupils into a year group that is already at or above the Published Admission Limit.
In all other cases applications will be considered after each half term for possible admission at the beginning of the following term if places are available. Decisions will be sent to parents in the second half of each term.
In all cases parents will be offered the right of appeal if any preference is refused, as required by admissions legislation.
No schools will hold waiting lists.
Only one application will be considered each academic year unless the parent can provide evidence of a material change in their circumstances.
Full documentation and copies of in-year application forms will be sent to all schools later this term.
The Schools Forum consulted on and approved the proposal that from September 2010 the AWPA would be clawed back from those schools that unlawfully admit pupils in year by not following the in-year admissions scheme as described above. This will apply in any case where the parents application had not been passed to the County Council Admissions Team and the application had not been dealt with in accordance with the scheme and timetable for determining the admission.
Richard Snowden
Head of Pupil Support
The Admissions Team included information on this in both the 2009 (MI 16/09) and 2010 (MI 5/10 - 9/1/10) admission consultation exercises to ensure that schools were aware of the impending change and were able to comment on the proposed scheme in Norfolk.
The proposals and consultation comments were considered by Norfolk Admissions Forum and Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel at meetings in March. The final scheme was considered and approved by Norfolk County Council Cabinet on 6 April 2010.
Approved In-year admissions scheme to apply for all requests received on or after 1 September 2010:
Parents must be offered the opportunity to express up to 3 preferences and schools will be provided with in-year application forms for parents. These can also be downloaded from the County Council website and obtained from the Admissions Team at County Hall in Norwich.
All completed applications must be forwarded to the Admissions Team who will check availability of places with the school(s) requested before responding to the parent.
As required by the legislation, all decisions regarding the preference must be made by the Local Authority.
For children new to area or without a school place applications will be considered on a weekly basis to ensure that children are admitted to school as quickly as possible. Norfolk's Fair Access Scheme will be used where a family cannot gain a place at a preferred school and where no local school place is available. This may require schools to admit pupils into a year group that is already at or above the Published Admission Limit.
In all other cases applications will be considered after each half term for possible admission at the beginning of the following term if places are available. Decisions will be sent to parents in the second half of each term.
In all cases parents will be offered the right of appeal if any preference is refused, as required by admissions legislation.
No schools will hold waiting lists.
Only one application will be considered each academic year unless the parent can provide evidence of a material change in their circumstances.
Full documentation and copies of in-year application forms will be sent to all schools later this term.
The Schools Forum consulted on and approved the proposal that from September 2010 the AWPA would be clawed back from those schools that unlawfully admit pupils in year by not following the in-year admissions scheme as described above. This will apply in any case where the parents application had not been passed to the County Council Admissions Team and the application had not been dealt with in accordance with the scheme and timetable for determining the admission.
Richard Snowden
Head of Pupil Support