St John Bosco Catholic Primary School

Admissions

Policies

Forms

Applying for a Place in Reception

Children in Sandwell can start school (Reception) in the September after their fourth birthday.

Sandwell Council’s School Admissions Service publishes information on their website, informing parent/carers on how to start their child at school. However, the responsibility for applying online for a child to start reception class, remains solely with parent/carers.

Information on how to apply for a place can be found on the Sandwell MBC website

When to Apply

Parents can apply for a place in the Autumn of the year before their child turns four years of age. It is important that you apply for a place as soon as possible.  Attendance at our nursery class does not give a child automatic priority for a place.

In-Year Applications (changing schools in the middle of the year)

An application can be made for a place for a child at any time outside the admission round and the child will be admitted where there are available places.  An application should be made following the guidance on the Mid-Year Transfers page of the Sandwell MBC website

As a Catholic School, parents will also need to complete a Supplementary Information Form in addition to the standard application form that is submitted to the local authority. Supplementary Information Forms are available above or a hard copy can be provided on request from the Office Manager.  Supplementary Information Forms must be returned directly to the Office Manager by email or handing them into the school office. If a Supplementary Information Form is not submitted directly to the school this may affect the priority given to the application and could affect the likelihood of your child being offered a place.

The local authority will forward your application to the school for consideration by the governors.

Where there are places available but more applications than places, the published oversubscription criteria, as set out in the admission arrangements for the current academic year, will be applied. The full admission arrangements can be accessed by contacting the school office. Parents are advised to read the admission arrangements carefully before making their application.

If there are no places available, the local authority will notify you of this decision on behalf of the governors and the child will be added to the waiting list.  Please see the admission arrangements for more details regarding waiting lists.

You will be advised of the outcome of your application in writing as soon as possible.  Applicants must be informed of the outcome of their application within 15 school days of its receipt, but the aim is to notify applicants of the outcome of their application within 10 school days of its receipt.

You have the right to appeal to an independent appeal panel if your application is unsuccessful.

If you have any questions in relation to in-year admissions please contact our Office Manager by email. You may also wish to discuss in-year applications with the local authority by emailing: midyear_admissions@sandwell.gov.uk

Open Evenings

Twice per year, we hold an open evening for prospective parents to have a look around school and meet some of the staff. These are held in the Autumn term for prospective Reception parents and in the Summer term for prospective for Nursery parents.

Please see our Diary Dates page for dates/times of these events.

 

Feeder School

Our main feeder school is Stuart Bathurst Catholic High School which is also part of the St John Bosco MAC.

A summary of life at Stuart Bathurst: We are a Catholic School for all, and as such we will recognise and celebrate your child’s uniqueness, value their success and encourage them to “do and be of their best” at all times. We have worked hard to ensure that our pupils have access to first-class teaching from subject specialists. Our teaching staff engender a passion for learning by imparting excellent knowledge through a clear, well-planned and structured delivery of a broad and balanced curriculum.

For more information, please see the Stuart Bathurst Catholic High School website

Which Local Authority?

We follow the admission procedure laid down by Sandwell Local Authority which handles all applications for us on our behalf.

The application form for admission to school is a very important document, and has to be filled in online. You must make sure you fill it in as accurately and fully as possible. If you don’t do this, you may not end up with the choice of school you wanted. You may even end up being allocated a school place several miles away.

You apply via the Local Authority you live in, even if the school you wish to apply to is not in the same authority. For example, St. John Bosco Catholic Primary is a Sandwell school, but a parent who lives in the Walsall Council area may wish to apply to the school. In this case the parent would apply via Walsall Council.

The Local Authorities co-ordinate applications together.

If you are unsure which authority you fall into visit Find Your Local Council and use the postcode lookup, which will tell you what Council authority you live in.

If you don’t feel confident in applying for a school place on your own, the school can support you complete an application form. Contact the school office and ask to make an appointment with our Office Manager who will be able to help you.

Further information on the Admissions process can be found on the following web pages: