Question about 'in year' transfers from other areas...

[happyglamper]

Hi, hopefully admissions, PRH or soemone will be able to shed some light on this one - hypothetically, a child has left a class of 30 and moved out of area to another school, their place has been filled from the waiting list and they move back into area and want to rejoin the class.

Do they have any automatic 'right' to do so, or as I would have thought have to go through the normal in year transfer process and be allocated a place in a school where there is space? This would affect a yr 1/2 class, would infant class size come into play as there would then be 31 in the class?
Many Thanks

Once they are off roll they have the same status as any other child applying to the school, and will have to wait their turn for a place or take one at another school.

As soon as they have been removed from the school register then they are no longer a pupil at the school and the place can be filled by another pupil.
If they then want to come back to the school then they are in the same position as anybody else applying for that school place. If there are 30 in the year 1/2 class then it is an infant regs case and the only way to win an appeal is by proving a mistake was made, which is highly unlikely in an in-year admission situation.
Let me guess, the pupil has been let back in by the school as they only have a term to do as a year 2 pupil and then the infant class size regs will not apply.

Thanks for your replies, the class is y1, so they will have another yr in the Infant Class size regs. It is however a VA school and they managed to get away with 32 in reception/term 1 of yr 1 due to 1 appeal & 1 admin error.
My understanding (knowing absolutely bugger all about it!) is that if there is an exception the school have to address it to get the class back to the legal limit, so if they do add another, surely they are acting in breach of the regs?
Also is there any correlation between the total size of KS1 and the class size regs - this yr it is R26, yr 1 30, yr2 30 total KS1 = 86, next year it will be yr 2 30, yr1 26, yr r 24 = 80.

Hope that makes sense, gin sinking in....

Your understanding is broadly correct.

Some children are "excepted", which basically means they don't count towards the class size limit. A child admitted following a successful appeal is excepted, as is a child admitted following an error.

Under the old admissions code they were excepted only for the remainder of the school year in which they were admitted. So these children were no longer excepted by the time they were in Y1 and the school was required to take "qualifying measures", which basically means they needed another teacher. They did not have to split the class in two - it is enough under the regulations to have two teachers in the class. Also, as you say, the school should not admit any more children until the year is back down to 30 pupil.

The new admissions code changes things a little in that an excepted child remains excepted throughout their time in infants so the school does not have to employ an additional teacher. However, they still should not admit any more children until the year is back down to 30 pupils.

Assuming this is a genuine situation, the pupil concerned must be admitted if they have a statement of SEN naming the school, or they are in care, or there is no other school place available within a reasonable distance, or they persuade an appeal panel to admit. If none of those things applies it sounds like the pupil should not have been admitted.

As prh47bridge says. Coming back (say) from 6 months travelling is not one of the reasons for which a child can be given a place as an 'excepted pupil'.

Resurrecting this as just found out today that the governing body has agreed to let the child back into the school - class size will be 31 and he is a very disruptive child from previous experience. Feeling somewhat disheartened by the ability of some people to get what they want at the detriment of the majority.... Will be discussing concerns with Head, anything else to do?

Nothing else can be done because the governing body have made a decision. It might well be the wrong decision in terms of the admissions code and in terms of the reaction of other parents but that is a decision reached.
The head will if they have any sense stay out of this and just thank you for your concerns. If you want to take it further then it is the chair of the governing body that you should address the issue to.
The parent concerned has applied in good faith and been give a place. As such they are not to blame and the place can in my opinion not be removed from the child.
I suppose the LA could get involved and demand that the school take on an extra teacher but I suspect that is very unlikely to happen.
The alternative if this pupil is very disruptive is that the child has an SEN statement, in which case if the school is named they have an absolute right to a place and for the class to be 31 strong as they will be treated as an excepted pupil.

Thanks Admission, thought that would be the case.