Admissions criteria for entry September 2023

Updated November 2022 www.eani.org.uk/admissions

St Thérèse’s Primary School, Lenamore 1 Heather Road East Galliagh Derry BT48 8NX

Tel No: 028 7135 9759 Fax No: 028 7135 4544 E-mail: kboyd257@c2kni.net Maintained Primary School

Enrolment No: 420

Admissions No: 60

PRINCIPAL: Mrs K Boyd

CHAIR OF BOARD OF GOVERNORS: Mrs Marian Quinn

RESPECTIVE FUNCTIONS OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS AND PRINCIPAL IN RELATION TO ADMISSIONS

The following criteria will be applied, in the order set down, by the Board of Governors of St Thérèse’s Primary School in selecting children normally resident in Northern Ireland at the time of their proposed admission to Year 1 in September.

Priority at all times will be given to pupils, regarded by the Board of Governors, on the basis of supporting evidence by parents/guardians and/or statutory agencies, as having special circumstances, (Educational, medical, social, security factors or other problems), which would make it desirable that the applicant attend St Thérèse’s Primary School rather than another primary school.

ADMISSIONS CRITERIA – YEAR 1 During the admissions procedure when applying the criteria punctual applications will be considered before late applications are considered. The application procedure opens on 10 January 2023 at 12noon (GMT) and an application submitted by the closing date of 27 January 2023 at 12noon (GMT) will be treated as a punctual application.

An application received after 12noon (GMT) on 27 January 2023 and up to 4 pm on 31 January 2023 will be treated as a late application, this is also the last date and time for processing a change of preference in exceptional circumstances. After 4 pm on 31 January 2023 no applications will be processed until after the close of procedure on 27 April 2023.

Priority will be given to children who will have attained compulsory school age at the time of their proposed admission, including those children whose parents deferred their admission to primary school in September 2022 as defined by the new School Age (NI) Act (both groups to be treated equally). Priority will be given to children resident in Northern Ireland at the time of their proposed admission to the school before those who are not so resident.

1 Children who normally reside within the Parish of the Three Patrons (St Patrick’s, St Brigid’s & St Joseph’s).

2 Children from other areas in N Ireland. In the event of over-subscriptions in any of the criteria, taken in order, the following Sub-Criteria taken in order, will be applied: -

(a) children who have brothers/sisters, half-brothers/sisters, foster or adopted children with identical addresses presently enrolled at the school.

(b) children who are a Looked After Child (LAC).

(c) other children of compulsory school age residing in other areas. If over-subscribed in any one of the

Sub-Criteria, taken in order, final selection will be on the basis of the closeness of the home to the school as measured by the shortest distance in a straight line from the family home to the front door of the school. In the event of equality of distance, the final selection will be according to the chronological order of the ages of the children, i.e. the oldest first (established by date of birth as entered on a Birth Certificate).

YEAR 1 ADMISSIONS – AFTER THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR Children who apply to enter the school during the academic year will be considered using the same criteria as for Admissions criteria for entry September 2023 Updated November 2022 www.eani.org.uk/admissions

Year 1. DUTY TO VERIFY The Board of Governors reserves the right to require such supplementary evidence as it may determine to support or verify information on any application. If the requested evidence is not provided to the Board of Governors by the deadline given, this will result in the withdrawal of an offer of a place.

Similarly, if information is supplied which appears to be false or misleading in any material way, the offer of a place will be withdrawn.

This is in addition to the standard requirement to provide an original birth certificate to verify a child’s age (Photocopies will not be accepted). WAITING LIST POLICY Should a vacancy arise after placement letters have been issued, all applications for admission to Primary 1 that were initially refused, new applications, late applications and applications where new information has been provided will be treated equally and the published criteria applied.

This waiting list will be in place until the end of the academic year. The school will contact parents in writing if a child gains a place in the school by this method.

A child’s name will be automatically added to the list. Parents should contact the school if they wish for their child to be removed from the list.

ADMISSIONS CRITERIA – YEARS 2-7 Pupils will be considered for enrolment provided that: (i) the school would not exceed its enrolment number as determined by the Department of Education; and (ii) this will not compromise the maximum class size recommended by the Department of Education; and (iii) in the opinion of the Board of Governors their admission would not prejudice the efficient use of the school's resources. If, at the time of the consideration of the application, there are more eligible applicants than places available then the Admissions Criteria for entry to Year 1 of pupils of compulsory school age will be applied.

Applications and Admissions to Primary 1 Year Total Applications Total Admissions

              2020/2021            44               44

             2021/2022             48               48

             2022/2023             56                56