Admissions
St. Wilfrid’s is a Roman Catholic Primary School under the trusteeship of the Diocese of Salford and is maintained by Lancashire Local Education Authority. As a Voluntary Aided School, the School’s Governing Body is the Admissions Authority and is responsible for taking decisions on applications for admissions.
In-year Applications for school places
We co-ordinate In Year Admissions in-house each school year from 1st September until 31st August. In the first instance we suggest you call school on 01772-782394 and speak to our Headteacher, Mr John McHugh.
School will consider applications for every age group based on our admissions criteria (see below). These are our ‘over-subscription criteria’ and strictly followed to offer places if we have more applicants than places.
Applying for place at our school during the school year (In-Year Admissions)
In Year Admissions are admissions to school that take place outside the normal admissions rounds (ie for a Primary School in Reception)
If you are new to the area and require a school place or if you already reside in the area and you want to move your child from their current local school to our school, your application should be made directly to our school and the child will be admitted where there are available places.
To apply for a place, please complete our In-Year Admissions form (click this link) and return to bursar@longridge-st-wilfrids.lancs.sch.uk
If you would like your application to be considered under our faith criteria, in addition to the In Year Admissions form, please also complete our faith reference form (click this link).
Copies of both forms are available in this Admissions section of our website or from the school office upon request.
If you have any questions in relation to in-year admissions, please contact us either by email to bursar@longridge-st-wilfrids.lancs.sch.uk or by phone on 01772-782394.
You may ring the school office to confirm that your form has been received.
Your application will be acknowledged upon receipt and we will advise you of the outcome within a maximum of 15 school days.
Where places are available, but we have more applications than places, our published oversubscription criteria will be applied, to ensure the correct child/children are offered the places.
If there are no places available, the child will be added to the waiting list and you have the right of appeal. Please see below for appeal information. Please note, that the waiting list does NOT guarantee a place at our school and if your child is currently not in education you should either make an appeal to our school and/or apply for a place at an alternative school.
Further information on how to apply for a local school can be found on the Lancashire County Council website: https://www.lancashire.gov.uk/children-education-families/schools/apply-for-a-school-place/changing-schools-during-the-school-year
Appeals
The school’s admission appeals are supported by Lancashire County Council. If the Governing body cannot offer a school place, parents have the right to make an appeal. This appeal should be submitted using the link below within twenty days of refusal of admission. The appeal provides you with an opportunity to explain why you wish to register your child at our school. The appeal forms and advice on how to complete them is available on the Lancashire County Council website:
Lancashire County Council will contact you in respect of your appeal application and inform you of the arrangements. The outcome of the appeal will be notified to you in writing. The decision of the Independent Appeal Panel is binding to all parties, ie the family and the school. Please note that this right of appeal against the Governors’ decision does not prevent you from making an appeal in respect of any other school.
First-time Reception starters
Parents of children who are starting school for the first time into our Reception Class have to apply through Lancashire County Council. Please visit the link below to find out about our school’s admission arrangements through our local authority;
Please note that in addition to filling in the county application form, applicants should also obtain directly from school and return directly to school a Supplementary Admission Form, a copy of which is below and available by clicking here.
Please contact school directly for further details.
Current Admissions Policy for this school year
Please find below a copy of the current determined admission arrangements for this school as determined by the Governors for the school year 2022/2023.
Longridge St. Wilfrid’s R.C. Primary School
Determined Admissions Policy 2022/23
School No. 06/069
St. Wilfrid’s is a Roman Catholic Primary School under the trusteeship of the Diocese of Salford and is maintained by the Lancashire Local Education Authority. As a Voluntary Aided School, the School’s Governing Body is the Admissions Authority and is responsible for taking decisions on applications for admissions. For the school year commencing September 2022, the Governing Body has set its planned admissions number at 30. Admission to the school will be made by the Governing Body. All preferences listed on the Local Authority Preference Form will be considered on an equal basis with the following set of ADMISSIONS CRITERIA forming a priority order where there are more applications for admissions than the school has places available.
1. Priority will be given to Roman Catholic children who are ‘looked after (LAC) and previously looked after children (PLAC) and children as internationally adopted previously looked after children (IAPLAC)’ over all other Roman Catholic applicants. This includes children who were looked after but ceased to be so because they became adopted or became subject to a Child Arrangement Order or Special guardianship Order.
2. Roman Catholic children who will have a sibling attending the school at the time of admission and resident in the parish of St. Wilfrid’s.
3. Other Roman Catholic children who are resident in the parish of St. Wilfrid’s.
4. Roman Catholic children who will have a sibling attending the school at the time of admission and are resident in another parish.
5. Other Roman Catholic children resident in another parish.
6. Priority will be given to all other children who are ‘looked after (LAC) and previously looked after children (PLAC) and children as internationally adopted previously looked after children (IAPLAC). ’ who are not Roman Catholic over all other applicants who are not Roman Catholic. This includes children who were looked after but ceased to be so because they became adopted or became subject to a Child Arrangement Order or Special guardianship Order.
7. Any non Roman Catholic children with siblings at the school.
8. Any other children.
Longridge St. Wilfrid’s R.C. Primary School
NOTES:
a. All applicants will be considered at the same time and after the closing date for admissions (15th January 2022) which is as determined by the Local Authority.
b. All Catholic applicants will be required to produce baptismal certificates.
c. It is the duty of governors to comply with class size limits at Key Stage 1.
d. If in any category there are more applications than places available, priority will be given on the basis of distance from home to school by a straight line measure. Measurement will be from the centre of the school building to the centre of the applicant’s home address. In the event of a tied measurement between address points the Local Authority’s system of a random draw will determine which address(es) receive the offer(s).
e. Where a child lives with parents with shared responsibility, each for part of the week, the address used will be will normally be the one where the child wakes up for the majority of Monday to Friday mornings. If there is any doubt about this, then the address of the Child Benefit recipient will be used. Parents may be asked to show evidence of the claim that is being made for the address used.
f. Sibling is defined as a brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step brother or sister, foster brother or sister or the child of the parent/carer’s partner where the child for whom the school place is sought is living in the same family unit at the same address as that sibling.
g. Multiple Births. In the event of twins and children from multiple births, where one of the children is the 30th child admitted, the governing body will exercise its right to exceed KS1 class size regulations.
h. A waiting list for children who have not been offered a place will be kept and will be ranked according to the Admission Criteria. Parents will be informed of their child’s position on the waiting list which will not be operated for longer than the end of the Autumn term.
i. For ‘In Year’ applications received outside the normal admissions round and if places are available then children qualifying under the published criteria will be admitted. If there are places available but more applicants than places then the published over-subscription criteria will be applied. ‘In Year’ and late applications will be treated as per the co-ordinated arrangements published by the Local Authority.
j. Deferred Admissions – If your child is due to start school during the next academic year, it is important that you apply for a place for September. If your child’s fifth birthday is between the months of September and December, then, if you wish it, admission may be deferred until January; if it is between January and April, then admission may be deferred until the start of the summer term though it is likely to be in your child’s interest to start no later than January. You may also request that your child attend school part time until he/she reaches his/her fifth birthday.
Parents may ask to defer accessing an offered place with a child’s reception year until the first day of term after a fifth birthday. If your child’s fifth birthday is between April and August then they can start school the following September. The expectation would be that parents have decided that the child will miss the full reception year and they would have to apply for Year 1 places (if any remained available). Requests for full year deferral with a retained reception start will be considered individually. Parents would be expected to provide substantial and exceptional evidence of the need for this to happen (personal views and reference to national research will not suffice). Further information is on the Local Authority web site at www.lancashire.gov.uk/schools (primary admission information for parents).
k. Late Applications received after the closing date 15th January 2022 will be treated as late applications. Only in special circumstances, and where appropriate evidence is provided, will applications received after the closing date (but offers of places have been made) be considered alongside those received on time.
l. If an application for admission has been turned down by the Governing Body, parents can appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel. This appeal should be sent in writing to the Clerk to the Governors at the school within 14 days of notification of refusal. The date of notification will be two working days after posting by first class post. The parents must give their reasons for appealing in writing and the decision of the Appeals Panel is binding on all parties.
m. The Governing Body reserve the right to withdraw the offer of a school place where false evidence is received in relation to baptism, sibling connections or place of residence
n. Criteria updated June 2021 in line with the 2021 School Admissions Code (the Code) requires children who appear (to the admission authority) tohave been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted to be given equal first priority in admission arrangements, alongside looked after children (LAC) and children who were previously looked after by English local authorities (PLAC). This advice refers to these children as internationally adopted previously looked after children – “IAPLAC”