Making Your Application (First Schools)
Applying for a place in a maintained nursery.
If you wish to apply for a place in a Nursery at a maintained school please contact the school concerned for an information leaflet and admissions form. Please note the closing date for these applications is 12.00 o'clock midday on 11 January 2008.
Applying for a place in Reception.
Applications for places in the Reception Year in September 2008 must be made on the application form which is used by all schools within the Borough of Poole and must be received by 12.00 o'clock midday on 11 January 2008.
Alternatively you can apply on-line until the published closing date.
If there are any changes to the information you have provided you must notify The School Admissions Team in writing before the published closing date even if you have made an on-line application.
Home address.
The local authority will consider that a child's home address is the address at which he/she lives during the school week. Where a child lives at more than one address during the school week the local authority will consider the home address as being where the prime carer resides. The "prime carer" is the person in whose name Child Benefit payments for the individual child are made.
Applications for children of multiple births.
If there are insufficient places to accommodate all the children of a multiple birth (i.e. twins, triplets etc) the parents of the children will be asked to nominate the child or children to take up the available number of places.
Late applications.
Applications received after the published closing date for admission in September 2008 will be considered after all on-time applications have been processed. The on-line facility will not be available after the published closing date.
Waiting lists.
The local authority operates waiting lists on behalf of those admission authorities which have them. The length of time an applicant has been on a waiting list is not taken into consideration when a place becomes available. Places are offered as and when they become available using the oversubscription criteria set out in the school's published admissions policy.
Children Looked After.
School admissions authorities are required to place Children Looked After as their overriding priority when admitting pupils. "Child Looked After " means any child who is the care of a local authority in accordance with Section 22 of the Children Act 1989.
Deferred entry.
Children born between 1 September 2003 and the 29 February 2004 will attend part-time in September 2008 moving to full time attendance after the Autumn half term. Parents of children born between 1 March 2004 and 31 August 2004 can defer entry to the Reception Year until the start of Spring term in January 2009, at which time the child will attend full-time. A place that has been offered will be kept available for those parents wishing to defer their child's entry.
Distance criterion.
All school admission authorities have to establish how they will deal with applicants of equal merit for a school place. All Poole admission authorities use a distance measurement to decide between applicants of equal merit.
The distance is measured by a Geographical Information System using the shortest, safest and practicable walking route using the centre line of public roads and footpaths from a point outside the centre of the pupil's home address to a point opposite the nearest school gate that is for the use of pupils. If there are insufficient places to accommodate all applicants and the distance criterion is used, applicants living in the same block of flats eligible for the remaining places random allocation will be used. Applicants will have their names drawn as lots to see who should be offered the place(s). The person drawing the names will be an officer within Children and Young People's Integrated Services who has no involvement in the school admissions process.
For information on the curriculum and assessment in the Foundation Stage (Nursery and Reception), Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) Key Stage 2 (Years 3 -6) please contact your local first, combined or primary school or Children & Young People's Strategy, Quality and Improvement Service on 01202 633091.
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