If you would like your child to attend our school, please see full details of our admission arrangements below.

Policy & Procedure

Milton Keynes Council co-ordinates admission for entry into school and produces an information pack for parents.

A place at nursery does not automatically guarantee a place at the school.  A separate application and supporting document must be made at 4+.

St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School was founded by the Catholic Church to provide education for children of Catholic families.  Whenever there are more applications than places available, priority will be given to Catholic children in accordance with the oversubscription criteria listed below.  The school is conducted by its governing body as part of the Catholic Church in accordance with its trust deed and instrument of government and seeks at all times to be a witness to Our Lord Jesus Christ.

As a Catholic school, we aim to provide a Catholic education for all our pupils. At a Catholic school, Catholic doctrine and practice permeate every aspect of the school’s activity.  It is essential that the Catholic character of the school’s education be fully supported by all families in the school.  We therefore hope that all parents will give their full, unreserved and positive support for the aims and ethos of the school.  This does not affect the right of an applicant who is not Catholic to apply for and be admitted to a place at the school in accordance with the admission arrangements.

The governing body is the admissions authority and has responsibility for admissions to this school.  The local authority undertakes the co-ordination of admission arrangements during the normal admission round.  The governing body has set its admission number at 50 pupils to be admitted to the reception year in the school year which begins September 2023.

Multiple Births

In cases where there is one remaining place available and the next child on the waiting list is one of a twin, triplet or other multiple birth groups, both twins would be admitted (or all siblings in the case of multiple births) even if this goes above the admission number for the school, or takes any class above the threshold of 30, in line with infant class size legislation.

Pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (see note 1)

The admission of pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is dealt with by a completely separate procedure.  Children with an EHCP that names the school must be admitted.  Where this takes place before the allocation of places under these arrangements this will reduce the number of places available to other children.

Oversubscription Criteria

Where there are more applications for places than the number of places available, places will be offered according to the following order of priority.

1. Catholic looked after and previously looked after children (see notes 2&3)
2. Other looked after and previously looked after children (see note 2)
3. Baptised Catholic children with a Certificate of Catholic practice who are resident in the parishes of St Mary Magdalene, St Francis de Sales and St Edward the Confessor (see notes 3,4 & 8) who have a brother or sister (see note 5) attending St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School at the time of admission
4. Baptised Catholic children with a Certificate of Catholic practice who are resident in the parishes of St Mary Magdalene, St Francis de Sales and St Edward the Confessor
5. Baptised Catholic children with a Certificate of Catholic practice who are resident in other parishes in Milton Keynes
6. Other baptised Catholic children
7. Any other Christian children with a reference from their minister of religion
8. Other children whose parents are supportive of the Catholic ethos of St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School

Tie break

Priority will be given to siblings of children who are attending our school at the admission date for the child involved.

Children living closest to the school determined by the shortest distance.  Distances are calculated on the basis of a straight-line measurement between the front door of the child’s home address (including the community entrance to flats) and the main entrance of the school using the local authority’s computerised measuring system on the following basis.  In the event of distances being the same for two or more children where this would be determine the last place to be allocated, random allocation will be carried out and supervised by a person independent of the school.  All the names will be entered into a hat and the required number of names will be drawn out.

Application Procedures and Timetable

To apply for a place at this school in the normal admission round, you must complete a Common Application Form available from the local authority in which you live.  You are also requested to complete a school admission form.  The school admission form should be returned to the school office to Mrs Cox.

You will be advised of the outcome of your application on 16^th April or the next working day, by the local authority on our behalf.  If you are unsuccessful (unless your child gained a place at a school you ranked higher) you will be informed of the reasons, related to the oversubscription criteria listed above and you have the right of appeal to an independent appeal panel.

If you do not provide the information required in the school admission form and return it by the closing date, together with all supporting documentation, your child will not be placed in criteria 1 and 3 to 9, and this is likely to affect your child’s chance of being offered a place.

All applications which are submitted on time will be considered at the same time and after the closing date for admissions which is 15^th January or the next working day.

Late applications

Late applications will be administered in accordance with your home local authority primary co-ordinated admissions scheme.  You are encouraged to ensure that your application is received on time.

Admission of children below compulsory school age and deferred entry

A child is entitled to a full-time place in the September following their fourth birthday.  A child’s parents may defer the date at which their child, below compulsory school age, is admitted to school, until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age, or beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which an offer was made.  A child may take up a part-time place until later in the school year, but not beyond the point at which the child reaches compulsory school age.  Upon receipt of the offer of a place a parent should notify the school, as soon as possible, that they wish to either defer their child’s entry to the school or take up a part-time place.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

A request may be made for a child to be admitted outside of their normal age group, for example, if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems, such as ill health.  In addition, the parents of a summer born child ie a child born between 1^st April and 31^st August, may request that the child be admitted out of their normal age group, to reception rather than Year 1.

Any such request should be made in writing to Mrs Jones c/o the school at the same time as the admission application is made.  The governing body will make its decision about the request based on the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child.  In addition to taking into account the view of the headteacher, including the headteacher’s statutory responsibility for the internal organisation, management and control of the school, the governing body will take into account the views of the parents and of appropriate medical and education professionals, as appropriate.

Waiting lists

In addition to their right of appeal, unsuccessful children will be offered the opportunity to be placed on a waiting list.  The waiting list will be maintained in order of the oversubscription criteria set out above and not in the order in which applications are received or added to the list.  Waiting lists for admissions will operate throughout the school year.

Inclusion in the school’s waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available.

In-year applicants

An application can be made for a place for a child at any time outside the admission round and the child will be admitted where there are available places.  Application should be made to the school by contacting Mrs Cox in the school office.

Where there are places available but more applications than places, the published oversubscription criteria, as set out above, will be applied.

If there are no places available, the child will be added to the waiting list (see above).

You will be advised of the outcome of your application in writing, and you have the right of appeal to an independent appeal panel.

Fair Access Protocol

The school is committed to taking its fair share of children who are vulnerable and/or hard to place, as set out in locally agreed protocols.  Accordingly, outside the normal admission round the governing body is empowered to give absolute priority to a child where admission is requested under any locally agreed protocol.  The governing body has this power, even when admitting the child would mean exceeding the published admission number (subject to the infant class size expectations).

Nursery

For children attending the school’s nursery, application to the reception class of the school must be made in the normal way, to the home local authority.  Attendance at the school’s nursery does not automatically guarantee that a place will be offered at the school.

The governing body reserves the right to withdraw the offer of a place or, where a child is already attending the school the place itself, where it is satisfied that the offer or place was obtained by deception.

NOTES

These notes form part of the oversubscription criteria

1.  An Education, Health and Care Plan is a plan made by the local authority under section 37 of the Children and Families Act 2014, specifying the special educational provision required for a child.

2.  A ‘looked after child’ has the same meaning as in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989, and means any child who is (a) in the care of a local authority or (b) being provided with accommodation by them in the exercise of their social services functions (eg children with foster parents) at the time of making application to the school or (c) children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.

3.  A ‘previously looked after child’ is a child who was looked after, but ceased to be so because he or she was adopted, or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order.

4.  ‘Catholic’ means a member of a Church in full communion with the See of Rome.  This includes the Eastern Catholic Churches.  This will normally be evidenced by a certificate of baptism in a Catholic Church or a certificate of reception into the full communion of the Catholic Church. For the purposes of this policy, it includes a looked after child living with a family where at least one of the parents is Catholic.

For a child to be treated as Catholic, evidence of Catholic baptism or reception into the Church will be required.  Those who have difficulty obtaining written evidence of baptism should contact their Parish Priest (who, after consulting with the Diocese, will decide how the question of baptism is to be resolved and how written evidence is to be produced in accordance with the law of the Church).

5.  ‘Certificate of Catholic Practice’ means a certificate issued by the family’s parish priest (or the priest in charge of the church where the family attends mass) in the form laid down by the Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales.  It will be issued if the priest is satisfied that at least one Catholic parent or carer (along with the child, if he or she is over seven years old) have (expect when it was impossible to do so) attended mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation for at least five year (or, in the case of a child, since the age of seven, if shorter).  It will also be issued when the practice has been continuous since being received into the Church if that occurred less than five years ago.  It is expected that most Certificates will be issued on the basis of attendance.  A Certificate may also be issued by the priest when attendance is interrupted by exceptional circumstances which excuse from the obligation to attend on that occasion or occasions.

6.  ‘Brother or sister’ includes:

1. All natural brothers or sisters, half brothers or sisters, adopted brother or sisters, stepbrothers or sisters, foster brothers or sisters, whether or not they are living at the same address; and
2. The child of a parent’s partner where that child lives for at least part of the week in the same family unit at the same home address as the child who is the subject of the application.

7.  A ‘parent’ means all natural parents, any person who is not a parent but has parental responsibility for a child, and any person who has care of a child.

8.  To demonstrate an exceptional social, medical or pastoral need of the child which can be most appropriately met at this school, the governing body will require compelling written evidence from an appropriate professional, such as a social worker, doctor or priest.

9.  A child’s “home address” refers to the address where the child usually lives with a parent or carer and will be the address provided in the Common Application Form (CAF).  Where parents have shared responsibility for a child, and the child lives for part of the week with each parent, the home address will be the address given in the CAF, provided that the child resides at that address for any part of the school week.

Appeals information:

Admission appeals will be arranged by the school.  Appeals forms are available from the school office and should be lodged with the Admissions Clerk c/o school office.

You will receive 14 days notice of your appeal hearing.
 

Decision letters sent within 5 school days whenever possible.