Waiting list and faith school admissions criteria and

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We live in a town with separate junior schools. The church infant school turned from an infant to an all through primary school last year. Lots of children left the church school and went to the local.junior school.

So fast forward to this year and the church school are expecting a similar exodus. As the hurch school.doesn't have a PAN you have to apply to.go on the waiting list which I have done.

However chatting to a friend and she said she's been.told she stands a better chance of a place if she can prove church attendance. the schools admission criteria stipulate church attendance at least twice a month for the 18 months preceeding the application.

When I said to her but you haven't gone twice a month etc she said buy I reckon I can get Father X to.sign to say she has!

I've asked the school what evidence they need for.a church place and they've come.back and said they don't -they jyst rely on the clergy to sign the letter.the church the school is affiliated to doesn't have a register.

The church has 30 church places and 30 open places.so I have also.queried how they will.allocate any waiting list places between the.two lists. Eg are they going to.g 50/50 or will it depend on the status of.children that leave.

They've come back with a totally non commital response and basically said they don't know they usually try to go with status of the child that has left.

We are currently 3rd.on the list for an open place but that can obviously change.

So my questions.for any assigns experts.is
Firstly can the school delegate it's strict church attendance policy and how is it proven if there is no register. Is if for me prove or for them to disprove?

and secondly how should they allocate waiting list places in order to comply their admissions criteria.

Thanks a lot

[prh47bridge]

the hurch school.doesn'te a PAN you have to apply to.go on the waiting list

Yes it does have a PAN. If no other PAN is set for Y3, the PAN for Reception applies. From the rest of your post it sounds like PAN is 60 and it is full up at the moment.

the church the school is affiliated to doesn't have a register

That could lead to successful appeals if people think that priority is being given to people who shouldn't get it or not being given to people who should. If attendance is key the church should be keeping a record.

I have also.queried how they will.allocate any waiting list places between the.two lists

If someone who was awarded a faith place leaves they must fill the place from the waiting list for faith places. If there is no-one in that waiting list they must fill it with someone from the non-faith waiting list. The position for a non-faith pupil leaving is similar, looking at the non-faith waiting list first.

If a faith place is occupied by a non-faith pupil (because there weren't enough faith applicants at the time they entered), when they leave priority will go to those on the faith waiting list.

Firstly can the school delegate it's strict church attendance policy and how is it proven if there is no register. Is if for me prove or for them to disprove?

The school has no choice but to delegate its church attendance policy. They cannot police church attendance. However, if the church does not keep a register they are in a weak position if faced with appeals arguing that the admission arrangements have not been correctly administered. Regardless of the rights and wrong, it won't help you at the moment. It may allow a successful appeal if your child misses out on a place they should have got due to the failure to police church attendance properly but, as you are currently 3rd on the open list, that seems unlikely.

how should they allocate waiting list places in order to comply their admissions criteria.

See my comments above. If all the non-faith pupils leave and take up places at the primary school you should get a place. If they stay put and the faith pupils leave you will only get a place if there aren't enough children on the faith waiting list to fill all the places.

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Are you sure the church doesn't have a register? Just because the parent isn't signing it doesn't necessarily mean the vicar or church warden doesn't have one. We are well aware who starts coming to church for secondary applications for example, but we are a small church.

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Thanks to you both.

I'm.absolutely sure the church doesn't have a register I went on Sunday to double check there is a huge crowd that go circa 200 people and there is no way they can keep a tally on the attendance.

I think I'll have to wait and see what happens but.it is useful to know that the church attendance issue could.be used as a possible appeal point.

[Emeleth]

This situation sounds very like my DC's school - it's not in Reigate is it?

If it is, and you are currently 3rd on the open list I'd say you stand a very good chance of getting offered a place. From what I've heard, although not everyone has made up their mind yet and quite a lot of children are staying (more than last year as there's a lot more certainty now), many are still moving to be with older siblings so there should be quite a few spaces coming up.

Again if it is the school I'm thinking of, in terms of the church places I think you're right that there's not a register (although not 100% as we're on an open place) but from what I've heard the vicar seems to know everyone and will know if you've been going for the right amount of time.

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You have very good powers of deduction!!

I think the issue with the church attendance is the policy clearly says at least twice.a month for 18 months. So as far as I know that has to be rigidly applied so for example going three times a month for 16 months doesn't fulfill the criteria. without a register how is it proven? The criteria doesnt say ' you go to church for a while and the vicar knows.who you are',

As you say hopefully it will be OK but it's a very long.wait to find out.....