Offwell Primary School
Be well; Learn well; Live well; Offwell

Admissions

If you are interested in your child joining us, either in our main intake into Reception or at any other time, please do come along and visit us. If you would like to make an appointment to visit, please contact the headteacher here at the school.

If we can make a place available to you then we will. If not, you would have the right to appeal to a panel that is independent of the school and we would place your child’s name on a waiting list for vacancies.

Devon County Council is responsible for our admissions policy because we are a Voluntary Controlled school. The policy is reviewed every year in the Council’s annual consultation in December and January. This welcomes the views of our local community.

If we can make a place available to you then we will. If not, you would have the right to appeal to a panel that is independent of the school and Devon and we would place your child’s name on a waiting list for vacancies.

If we have a vacancy then all children are welcome to join us. If we are oversubscribed, we still welcome all children but give priority to particular groups: children who are looked after by the local authority, children with an exceptional need to come to our school, children who live in our catchment, children with siblings already here and children who live closer to us. These oversubscription criteria are only used when we are oversubscribed. For full details of our admission arrangements, please look at Devon’s co-ordinated admissions schemes as they constitute our policy.

We take part in the co-ordinated admissions schemes of Devon County Council which help parents to make applications for admission to school. Parents can apply through Devon for in-year admissions and through the local authority where the child lives for the normal round of admissions.

For in-year admissions in any academic year, appeals must be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.

For appeals at the normal round of admissions to Reception, appeals will be heard within 40 school days of the deadline for lodging appeals. For the 2015-16 intake, this is 18 May 2015. Where the application was not made in time for a decision to be made on 16 April 2015, appeals will be heard within that 40 day period or, if that is not possible, within 30 days of the appeal being lodged.

If you would like your child to come to Offwell School, it is very helpful if you inform us of this as soon as possible. We can then ensure you are kept up to date with any relevant information and we can incorporate your child into any future planning. Application should be made by January of the academic year before your child is due to join primary school. You will be notified at the end of March as to whether or not the application is successful.

We also have a Foundation Stage Unit at Offwell School where children can be admitted during the term in which they turn 3. Please see the designated web page for further information.

Once your child has been offered a place at Offwell, you will be contacted with further information regarding an Information Evening, transition & induction programmes, home visits and pre-school transition information and visits. If you decide upon a part time option, the offer of these hours will be full time on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday every week. This decision has been made by the Governing Body to ensure a balance of the Early Years’ Curriculum and to be inclusive for children travelling to/fro school on the School Bus.

When your child starts school, an Admission Form must be completed. This can be obtained from the School Administrator, along with other necessary paperwork. It is vital you inform the school immediately of any changes in home circumstances or address, both before and after your child has started school.

If you would like further information, please contact us in school on 01404 831417 or Devon’s Admissions Service on 0345 155 1019 or go to:

Please note that wording was added to policies in June 2014 to make provision for the phasing out of Statements of Special Educational Needs, to be replaced by Education, Health and Care Plans under the Children and Families Act 2014 and to remove a limitation to eligibility as children formerly in Care to only those adopted after 31 December 2005. Wording was amended in February 2015 to reflect the change from residency orders to child arrangements orders.