Admission Arrangements

The Admissions Policy is as follows:

The Governing Body will consider all applications for admission on an equal basis, with the following set of Admissions/Oversubscription Criteria forming a priority order where there are more applications for admissions than the school has places available:

1. CHILDREN WITH STATEMENTS of Special Educational Needs or Educational Health and Care Plans:

   Where pupils have a Statement of Special Educational Needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) the Hollingworth Trust has a statutory duty to admit those pupils. This means that children with such as Statement or EHCP will be allocated a place before any other places are allocated.

2. CHILDREN IN CARE TO A LOCAL AUTHORITY (Looked-After Children):

   Children who are in public care (“looked after” children as defined by Section 22 (1) of the Children Act 1989), or children who were previously looked after but ceased to be so because they became adopted or became subject to a residence or special guardianship order.

3. CHILDREN WITH EXCEPTIONAL MEDICAL NEEDS OR EXCEPTIONAL WELFARE CONSIDERATIONS WHICH ARE DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO NEWHOUSE ACADEMY:

   Exceptional medical needs must be supported at the same time of application by a letter from a GP, hospital consultant or other medical professional indicating how a pupil’s medical condition relates to the preference for Newhouse Academy.

   Exceptional Welfare consideration (such as children at risk) must be supported at the same time of the application by a letter from a supporting agency (e.g. Social Worker, Family Support Worker) indicating how the circumstances relate to Newhouse Academy.

4. CHILDREN WITH AN OLDER SIBLING ATTENDING NEWHOUSE ACADEMY AT THE TIME OF ADMISSION:

   A sibling is defined as a brother or sister, or step-brother or step-sister living at the same address as the child for whom the application is being made and who are in attendance at the school at the start of the academic year for which admission is being sought. Sibling priority will not be given where the brother/sister or step-brother or step-sister lives at a different address to the child for whom the application is being made. No sibling priority is given to cousins, regardless of their address.

   You may only claim this priority if your child has an older sibling who will be in attendance at the school in the September.

5. CHILDREN ELIGIBLE FOR THE SERVICE PREMIUM:

   Children eligible for admission under this priority are those where:

   • one of their parents is serving in the regular armed forces;

   • one of their parents served in the regular armed forces in the last 3 years;

   • one of their parents died while serving in the armed forces and the pupil is in receipt of a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) and the War Pensions Scheme (WPS).

6. CHILDREN OF STAFF AT THE SCHOOL:

   It is anticipated that this will account for a very small number of places offered and will be reviewed annually by the Governing Body.

   • Where the member of staff must have been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission is made, and/or

   • The member of staff is required to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

7. OTHER CHILDREN:

If applications for the school are in excess of the number of places available the Governors will apply the above criteria, to decide which children should be admitted/offered places. In the event of oversubscription in any of the above categories, applicants living nearest to the school will be given priority. Distance will be measured using the shortest walking route from the front door of the child’s home address (including flats) to the front gates of the Academy, using GPS coordinates of the property from the Ordnance Survey AddressBase database.

Shortest walking distances are calculated using the address supplied on your Local Authority admission form which must be the child’s permanent place of residence. No other address will be used in this calculation. From the provided address we obtain the GPS coordinates of the property from the Ordnance Survey AddressBase database. Using these coordinates we obtain the distance of the shortest walking route to the front gates of the Academy to 3 decimal places using Google Maps APL. If for any reason there is a significant difference in the distance between your properties GPS coordinates and the Google Maps start point, then the Academy will check the reason for this discrepancy and deal with it accordingly and fairly. The Academy does not recognise any cut through or shortcut not mapped by Google Maps.

It is the responsibility of all applicants to state clearly any specific details which relate to any of the above admission criteria. The information should be included on the application form which should be fully completed before submission.

Children living in other authorities must apply to their own Council and name Newhouse Academy, Rochdale.

UNDER THE SCHOOLS ADMISSIONS CODE ALL ADMISSIONS AUTHORITIES ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE AN ‘EQUAL RANKING’ PREFERENCE SYSTEM.