admissions policies - can any committee members help?

[misshardbroom]

Our preschool (I'm Chair of the committee) is vastly oversubscribed, and so far we've managed to cope by offering a greater number of children fewer sessions (e.g. the 3-4 age group have 3 sessions each week). However, the numbers for next year are so great that it's doubtful whether we can even offer as many sessions as this.

Can any committee members help? I'm wondering what admissions policies you have in place, how many children you even put on your waiting list, etc.

Any thoughts would be gratefully received.

[misshardbroom]

Sorry - should have included this in the OP... we have space for 20 children in each session, and can run 9 sessions each week.

If we offered each child 4 sessions, this works out as 45 children. However, how do we decide how many of those 45 should be in their preschool year (e.g. this year, those who will turn 4 by 31/08/09); and how many places should be for 'just turned 3' y.o.?

[Littlefish]

At dd's nursery, the over 3s have precedence over the 2-3s.

Basically, they offer the places to any over 3s and then if there are any left, they offer them to the under 3s.

There are other pre-schools in the area who only offer children 3 terms of pre-school, ie. will only take them for the year before they start school regardless of whether they have funding for 3, 4 or 5 terms.

[bumpybecky]

We're not lucky enought to be full, let alone have a waiting list!

I think we'd give priority to funded children (as they bring in more money and you won't need to chase them for cash each week.....). After that I'm not sure how it'd work. Much would depend on other preschools (are there any?) and whether the lower schools were one entry per year or termly entry.

Sounds very complicated!

[littlerach]

Ours is complicated!!

Those starting school in the next year generally take precedence.

Those who have a sibling at the primary school would be next.

WE trey and offer a minimum of 3 for the first criteria.

Quite a lot of our children go to a nursery as well.

[geogteach]

I have been chair for the last 3 years and we have rewritten ours to (hopefully) make it more straightforward!
Children start in the term they turn 3 (pay fees for one term then on grant, we charge fees at the same rate as grant so not to make a loss on these children)
They start with 2 afternoon sessions.
After a term they are given the option of a third session.
In the pre school year all children are offered 4 sessions. for autumn and spring borns this is 4 mornings, for summer borns 3 mornings and one afternoon.
This means we nolonger have mixed age sessions which works better for staff ratios.
In autumn we open all mornings and 3 afternoons, then 4 afternoons after christmas and then 10 sessions in the final term.
Our waiting list closes 6 months before the date of entry, to give the admissions person time to allocate places and keyworkers and give parents sufficient notice that they have (or have not) got a place.
Places are allocated to siblings of children who have been to pre school and then by distance.
We are very over subscribed and this system has worked well as it is transparent and largely mirrors that of the school most children go on to. It also means that all children are offered the same as previously there was a very odd mix of mornings and afternoons and summer born children tended to miss out. however it is much less flexible which does not suit some parents.
Hope this helps, feel free to ask if not.

[CarGirl]

I would focus on giving the rising reception children places and then the next oldest as they will be eligible for funding.

You may find that the credit crunch helps by parents not wanting places until their child gets funding.

I think in part your decision should consider if their is adequate provision in the area and it's just that your pre-school is favoured. If there isn't enough places in the area generally def concentrate on giving the rising reception children the places.

[ramonaquimby]

seems like you've got lots of advice/good practice here -

I'm a trustee at dd's preschool and this is our admissions criteria -

1. looked after children
2. statemented children
3. children with siblings at the primary school
4. distance from school

should also say all children go 5 days a week, no children are admitted for a part time place (they can go part time but would be expected to pay for 5 days)

and

all children admitted are 3 or 4 years old - ie in their 'pre school' year.

[CarGirl]

"no children are admitted for a part time place"

If you are an grant setting (whatever it is now called) I don't think you are permitted to do that. Parents have the right to use their 5 sessions per week and you are not permitted to charge anything for the 2.5 hours, you can charge them for extra services but these are optional.

[CarGirl]

can use their 5 funded sessions per week across 2 or more settings.

[ramonaquimby]

didn't know that - pretty sure there are no children that go less than 5 days a week at the preschool, will check it out at nxt mtg

[Littlefish]

Cargirl - you can use the funded sessions across settings as long as the settings are not LEA. If they are LEA then you can only use the sessions at that place.

Ramona - is yours LEA? In which case, presumably the school is funding the afternoon sessions.

[geogteach]

I forgot looked after children, they go first for us too.

[wheresthehamster]

i'm amazed that everyone tries to replicate schools' admission rules. Whatever happened to a waiting list? First come, first served. I feel sorry for anyone in the sticks trying to get a place as you all seem to have distance as a criteria!

[VanillaPumpkin]

Ours goes as follows:

The eldest child on the waiting list.

Children moving into area who are 4.

Children in need.

Children from the local area on the waiting list.

Then time on the list....

We have some children who only got 4 places when they were expecting 5. This caused a bit of a problem, but this is why we have the policy and it is given out in the welcome pack and freely available.

Good Luck!

[geogteach]

We moved away from a first on the list system as it disadvantaged people moving to the area. Pre school was a bit of a white middleclass clique of people in the know rather than reflecting the local community which includes lots of new immigrants who may only move to the area in the year their child is new to start.

[Olihan]

AFAIK ours goes entirely on age. We're rural so distance is pointless.

Children who are due to start school in the next academic year get 5 sessions, children who are younger get 2 sessions. The older ones get priority over the younger ones, regardless of how long the younger ones have been on the list.

I think we can accept more children because the 2.9 to 3yos (so will be there more than a year) only do morning sessions. The rising 5's can do all day sessions but not just afternoons.

We do all 5 mornings and 3 all-day sessions. So older ones could do 3 mornings and 1 all day, or 2 all day and 1 morning so it frees up extra morning places. Does that make any sense at all?

[IdrisTheDragon]

I don't know what system our pre-school has - I might ask and find out.

[BonsoirAnna]

Why don't you just run it on a two-year programme basis, with four sessions per week for one year for the 2-3 year olds and five sessions per week for one year for the 3-4 year olds? You have an intake of 20 children per year. Your business is then to decide on the criteria you apply for admissions in year 1.

[CarGirl]

Littlefish I assumed it wasn't an LEA one because if it were they wouldn't be charging at all and Ramon said they were rising reception 3 & 4 years olds?

We currently do a proper waiting first come first served list but it's something we're thinking about changing but mainly because we will have to change how we operate in Sep 2010 when we move to 9 3 hour sessions.

[Littlefish]

Good point CarGirl!

[CarGirl]

our committee & supervisor got all cross when I put into our handbook about the funding, how it works etc until I pointed out to them it wasn't optional we HAVE to be clear and transparent about what parents are entitled to.

Ofsted & the government have made it such hard work it's a nightmare!

I think we are leaning towards offering the rising reception year as many sessions as possible becausing having the fewer children doing maximum sessions is less key working for the staff! Ours is in a denseley populated area and we are become more and more of a feeder pre-school to the school next door, we are a 24 place setting and the school only take 30.

[misshardbroom]

Thanks to everyone for these suggestions - glad we're not the only ones with a complicated situation!

Am going away to think about it now before my head melts, but will probably be back with more questions!

[nappyaddict]

I'm a bit confused. I thought you had to be able to offer 5 sessions to receive funded places?

[nappyaddict]

Also if it is a LEA nursery do they have to attend all 5 sessions?

[VanillaPumpkin]

LEA nurseries want you to attend all five sessions yes. Other settings just claim for the sessions used. You can choose different settings if you want.