Skip to content ↓

Admissions

 

 

ADMISSIONS ARRANGEMENTS 2024

Open Mornings

For children who will start school in September 2024 we will be running pre-booked open mornings on the following dates.  Bookings must be made by calling the school office on 01892 522958.

We have Open mornings on Thursday 2nd November  and  Tuesday 14th November.

We have also a created a virtual tour of our school which you can see by clicking on the link below:

St Barnabas Virtual Tour - November 2020 - YouTube

If you have any enquiries  about admissions please contact the school office on 01892 522958 or email office@st-barnabas.kent.sch.uk 

Admissions

St Barnabas welcomes applications for admission for all children of statutory school age, irrespective of gender or ethnic background.  The planned admissions number for September 2024 is 30.

The school seeks the support of parents in providing a productive and happy educational experience and all parents/carers are required to sign a home-school agreement in order to provide on-going support.

Entry to the Reception class is at the start of the autumn term (September).

Parents may make an application at any time but the Co-ordinated admission process takes place in January each year with parents/carers required to complete a Common Application Form (CAF) to be returned by a set date. Further information is detailed in the Kent Admissions Booklet, available to all families.

Parents will be notified before the date of entry that a place is available and will be asked to confirm that they intend to accept the placement. Children are invited to attend a programme of transition sessions in school prior to the start date; this will provide an opportunity for children and families to meet with staff and other pupils.

At the beginning of their first term, children attend for morning sessions as part of a staged programme of entry. Arrangements are discussed with families prior to the start of term.

New entrants complete full day sessions in accordance with Kent admission guidelines. St Barnabas’ School will admit 30 children in a full academic year. Where the number of applicants exceeds thirty, children will be admitted in accordance with the criteria listed below. All parents/carers have the right of appeal.

ADMISSIONS CRITERIA

Pupils are admitted to St Barnabas’ in accordance with the following criteria:

  1.  Children placed in Local Authority Care or previously in Local Authority Care - a child under the age of 18 years for whom the local authority provides accommodation by agreement with their parents/carers (Section 22 of the Children Act 1989) or who ceased to be so because they became subject to an adoption, residence or special guardianship order under Part IV of the Act, including those 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 (Paragraph 1.7 of the 2021 School Admissions Code).
  2. Children with at least 1 parent/guardian who is a practising member at St Barnabas’ Church, evidenced by attendance at religious services at least fortnightly  for a period of not less than 6 months preceding the application for a school place. Confirmation of having met this requirement must be provided by completion of a Supplementary Information Form (SIF) which is obtainable from the school office and must be returned to the school, duly signed, by the school application deadline.
  3. Current Family Association. This means children who have siblings in the school at the time of admission. This applies where the family continue to live at the same address as when the sibling was admitted. It must be noted that if they move house before an application for a place for a younger sibling is made, the new property must be within 2 miles of the school, or nearer to the school than the previous property as defined by the distance measurement criterion, (within E. Permanent Residence and Tie Break), in order for this link to be maintained. In this context siblings are defined as children who permanently live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers and sisters, adopted siblings, step brothers or sisters and foster brothers or sisters.
  4. Children who live within the parish boundary and the additional listed addresses - see Appendix 1 and Appendix 1a.
Please see the Admissions Arrangements 2022 document attached for further information and for details about oversubscription criteria.

CASUAL ADMISSIONS

Requests for places may be made at any time. Places will be granted to applicants provided that the admission of a child does not increase the number of children in that year group to a number over and above the standard number.

The exceptions to this are:

1. In Year Fair Access protocol

2. When the child has been permanently excluded from two or more schools

3. When the child is deemed to have challenging behaviour and in the Head teacher’s judgement, the provision of efficient education would be prejudiced by admitting the child, in accordance with Chapter 3 of the School Admissions Code. In such cases a meeting of the Admissions Committee will determine whether a child is offered a place. When a place is not offered, parents will be informed of their right of appeal to an independent panel.

Policy review date: Governing Body Admissions Panel

APPEALS 

If your child is due to start primary, infant or junior school in 2023 you can appeal between 16 April and 14 May 2023 to guarantee that your appeal will be heard by 16 July 2023. For applications made in the normal admissions round, appeals must be heard within 40 school days of the deadline for lodging appeals. For late applications, appeals should be head within 40 school days from the deadline for lodging appeals where possible, or within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.