An overview of our Admissions Policy 

St James CofE Primary School offers 30 places in each year group from Reception to Year 6.  Children joining in Reception are normally admitted in the Autumn term, in September.

Applying for a place 

Parents who would like to apply for a place in our Reception class should complete an online Common Application Form (CAF) from their Local Authority naming St James CofE Primary School. This form needs to be submitted to your local authority by 15^th January 2024.  (For Haringey residents, this is Haringey Admissions Services).

Legal requirements

We follow the DfE statutory guidance for admissions.  The Governing body oversees our admissions process.

Admissions criteria

In the event of there being more applications for our Reception class than places, in reaching a decision concerning admission of a child to the Reception class, the Governors will apply the following criteria below, which are listed in order of priority.

Looked after or previously looked after children.

Priority will be given to children who are looked after or who have been previously looked, including those children who appear (to the admissions authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.  Previously looked after children are children who were looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to an adoption, child arrangements or special guardianship order). 

Siblings.

The term ‘brother or sister’ includes foster brothers and sisters, half brothers and sisters or step brothers and sisters, adopted siblings and other children living permanently at the same ddress.  It does not include other relations.  The sibling must reside at the same address as the child applying for a place.

Remaining Places

The remaining places will be allocated equally between

• applicants attending a place of worship (faith based*) and
• distance from school, regardless of background or faith (community based)

If the remainder is an odd number the extra place will go to a faith based placement. If there are insufficient faith based applicants the remaining places will go to community based applicants.

*Faith based applicants allocated in the following order:

Children whose parent(s) or guardians attend church for public worship at least once a month for 12 months.  Allocation of places will be ranked with priority given tot hose from St James Church, Muswell Hill, London N10 and then based on distance of church from school.   

Please note: the school’s Supplementary Information Form (SIF) only needs to be completed if you are applying under faith based criteria. The SIF needs to be returned directly to school via email, in person or post by 15th January 2024.   You can download a SIF here.  Once we have received this from you, we will write to the minister(s) named on the form asking for confirmation of that you are known to the church.   The Governors reserve the right to seek clarification of a minister’s status. 

Children with Educational Health Care Plans

Children with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan where St James CofE Primary School is the named school will be admitted to the school. The priority order of the oversubscription criteria does not apply to these pupils.

Notes to the admissions criteria:

Distanced based criteria

Within each of the criteria, when deciding between applicants who have equal entitlement, the Governors will give first priority to the children whose main permanent address is closest to the school as measured from in a straight line from the school gate to the Ordinance Survey point of the child’s home address, using a computerised mapping system as determined by Haringey Admissions.  Where more than one child has the same distance random allocation, independently monitored, will be used.

We currently have children attending St James from the following postcodes: N10, N8, N22, N12, N11, N3, N2, N6, N7, NW3, N15, N17. 

Deferred Entry

Children will normally be admitted to the Reception Year in the September following their fourth birthday. Parents can request to defer their child’s entry to Reception until later in the school year but not beyond the point the child reaches compulsory school age nor beyond the beginning of the final term of the Reception year. Parents who request for their child to delay entry, may also request for their child to attend part time. Parents will need to meet with the Head to discuss their request. The school will hold any deferred place for the child. A child reaches compulsory school age on the prescribed day following their fifth birthday (or on their fifth birthday if it falls on a prescribed day). The prescribed days are 31 December, 31 March and 31 August.

Delayed Entry – Admission out of normal age group – Summer born children

For children whose fifth birthday falls between 1 April 2024 and 31 August 2024, parents who do not wish for them to start in school year 2024-2025, but to be admitted in September 2025 for school year 2025-2026 should discuss deferred admission with the school at an early stage.

We will consider all requests and decisions will be made on the circumstances of each case and the best interest of the child. Parental views, academic achievement, social and emotional development and where relevant, medical views will be taken into consideration. The views of the school’s head teacher will be taken into account and the reasons for the decision will be clearly set out.

Parents who decide not to apply for a Reception place in the school but to apply for a Year 1 place in September 2025 should be aware that the Year 1 group may have no vacancies as it could be full of children transferring from the Reception Year group. Alternatively, they may decide to apply in the normal round (no later than 15^th January 2025) for a Reception class place in September 2025, but would need to supply strong supporting reasons for seeking a place outside the normal year group and apply via the protocol outlined above. For additional information on admission of children outside their normal age group, please contact the School Office. Parents may ask to be put on the school’s register of interest at any time before this. This will mean that parents will receive up to date admission criteria.  However, it will not give any priority in admission.

Receiving a place

Parents will normally be notified by their local authority of the outcome of their application on or about Tuesday 16^th April 2024. The names of unsuccessful applicants will be placed on a numbered waiting list until the beginning of the school year for which they have applied.  After this date details of unsuccessful applicants will be held on file and will be contacted if a place becomes available.