Co-ordinated Admission Arrangements
All local authorities are required by regulations in the School Standards and Framework Act 1988 to have co-ordinated admissions for all schools within its area for each academic year.
Co-ordination establishes a mechanism that ensures that, as far as practical, every child living in a local authority area who has applied in the normal admissions round receives one and only one offer of a school place on the same day.
The Local Authority co-ordinates the admission arrangements for all schools within Darlington Borough.
This includes receiving all the application forms and, on behalf of governors of Voluntary Aided schools as well as for Community schools, then writing to parents/carers informing them which school place has been allocated.
Applications for Reception Places 2009/10
Parents/carers have the right to express a preference for a school(s) within Darlington Authority. If your child was born between 1st September 2004 and 31st August 2005 you must complete a PSA (primary school application). You can request a PSA from the Admissions Section at the Town Hall or from a primary school in Darlington Authority, forms should be returned to the Admissions Section no later than FRIDAY 14TH NOVEMBER 2008. Forms received after 14th November 2008 (late applications) will only be considered in exceptional circumstances e.g. families who have moved into the area after the closing date. These applications will be considered upto and including Friday 16th January 2009.
Where a family intends to move into the Borough, a request for a school place based on the new address cannot be considered until a letter is provided from a licensed conveyancer or solicitor confirming exchange of contracts.
All other applications will only be considered once the process for allocating places has been applied to those applications received by the deadline.
The PSA should also be completed even if your child has a Statement of Special Educational Needs or is currently undergoing a Statutory Assessment. Before completing and returning the PSA you are strongly advised to read the Authority’s primary admissions brochure ‘Primary Education 2009’ which is available from nurseries, primary schools and the Local Authority from September 2008. You may also wish to obtain a copy of the schools prospectus from the Head Teacher(s) of the school(s) you are considering. You can also find reports about schools on the website of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) at: www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports and annual school performance tables can be found at www.dcsf.gov.uk/performancetables.
The Local Authority acts as the admissions authority or on behalf of the admissions authority of voluntary aided schools, for the Borough; we will make a single offer of a school place for the academic year 2009/10, to parents who have expressed a preference for their child to be admitted to a maintained school within Darlington. Although all applications will be considered on an equal weighting basis, should a child be eligible for a place at more than one school parents/carers are requested to rank their order of preference on the PAF in order that only one offer will be made. The relevant admissions criteria will be applied to all schools that are oversubscribed either by the Local Authority or by the Governing Body of the school.
Most children attend the nearest appropriate school from their home address. However, some parents/carers may wish their children to attend a different school. The Authority will comply with parental requests where a place is available in the requested school. It is however a good idea to list more than one school. If you only give one preference and we cannot offer your child a place at that school, there may be few schools left with places available, should you choose to go through the appeals process and are not successful.
The Authority will aim to issue decision letters during March 2009. You are required to reply to the offer within 7 days of receipt of the letter, otherwise the Authority will look to withdraw the offer of the place. Should your child be unsuccessful in gaining a place at your preferred school(s), parent/carers will receive a single offer of a school place at the nearest school to the parental address with available places.
Please remember to return your PSA by Friday 14th November 2008.