A Secondary School Place

How places are offered Needs Team on 01635 519713. Applying for • Each of your preferences will be considered with Home to School Transport regard to the school’s over-subscription rules. Parents are responsible for making sure that their • Each admission authority, including other children get to and from school at the appropriate times a secondary councils and boroughs will use their own over- each day. Your child may receive free transport to the subscription rules to rank the applications. They closest school if there is no available walking route or will tell us if a place can be offered. you are 3 miles or more from the school. You can check school place which school is closest using the school checker at: • By applying the rules for each school to each www.westberks.gov.uk/catchment . application, a list is produced for each school For September 2021 that provides the order in which places will be To receive free transport you must be eligible and apply Closing date for applications offered. For example, if 200 applications are once you have been offered a school place. Transport 31 October 2020 received for a school, applicants will be ranked is only provided for the purpose of attending school at from 1 – 200. the beginning of the day and returning home at the end • All schools have an admission number. For of each day. The full transport policy and application is example, if the admission number was 150 pupils available at: www.westberks/schooltransport and there were 200 applicants, the first 150 applicants from the ranked list can be offered a Free Transport is not provided to your catchment place. school if it is not the closest available. • If more than one school place can be offered, we will look at the order of your preferences and Where a child is not entitled to free home to school offer your child a place at the school that you transport, but there are seats available on existing have listed highest. school buses, you may be able to pay for a seat. • We will give each child only one offer of a place. Apply from 20 April to 19 June for a fare paying We will let you know the school place we are seat (currently £804 per year – subject to change): offering by email if you apply using the online www.westberks.gov.uk/farepaying application (emailed forms are not considered as an online application) and request to be notified by email on 01 March 2021. We post a letter on the Children who receive free school meals or the 1st (2nd class) if you request to be notified that way highest level of working tax credit may be entitled to free transport to their closest 3 schools over 2 or use the alternative application form. Contact details miles from their home. Admissions Team, West St House, Newbury RG14 1BZ Special Educational Needs Office hours - 8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Thursday, Many children with special educational needs go 8.30am to 4.30pm Friday to a local school and have some extra support to Free School Meals To apply online go to Call: 01635 551111 Email: [email protected] help them. If your child has (or you expect them to www.westberks.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals. have) an EHC Plan you should contact the Special WBC/EDU/NW/0819 This leaflet gives a quick summary of the process. Will my child be offered a You can apply online at For more information on school admissions, school place? www.westberks.gov.uk/secondaryadmissions up to 31 October 2020. If you live outside of including information on each school in West West Berkshire (e.g. Reading), you must fill in the Berkshire, go to Your child will be offered a place but not necessarily at a form from your local Council by their deadline. www.westberks.gov.uk/secondaryadmissions school you apply for, especially if you don’t include your catchment school as a preference. You can name up to three schools that you would There is a detailed Admissions Guide for Parents like your child to go to and rank them in order of This is a high birth rate year. preference. The school that you name first should on the website which you should read.The guide includes answers to frequently asked questions, be the one you would most like your child to go There are high numbers of children living in all to. such as what to do if you are moving house. A catchment areas so fewer spaces in schools for non- reference copy will also be available to read at the catchment applicants who apply. You should consider You can apply for any type of school, either in Council Offices, West Street, Newbury, RG14 1BZ. making your catchment school one of your preferred West Berkshire or elsewhere, except fee-paying schools or risk being allocated a school some distance schools. Do not apply for fee-paying schools in from home. No transport assistance will be available if this way. Making an application for a you don’t include your closest school as a preference. school place If your West Berkshire Catchment School is your If you plan to list a Voluntary-Aided, Foundation, preferred school there are generally enough spaces. Free school or an Academy in your application, If your child is already in Year 6, you should apply for you should read the over-subscription rules for a place at Secondary school. However Catchment numbers in Trinity school exceed that school carefully. It is important to do this the schools capacity. because schools of this type may use different Before you decide on the most appropriate school rules to allocate their school places. They may for your child, get as much information as possible. We advise Trinity school catchment area applicants who want you to provide supplementary evidence. You should arrange to visit schools, including your were only considering applying for Trinity school (and catchment area school. Schools have pre-arranged live in the Eastern, Northern or Western area of the A summary of the over-subscription rules for days in the Autumn term for this purpose. Schools catchment) to include 2nd and 3rd preferences each school in West Berkshire can be found in the that may include John O’Gaunt School, The Downs Secondary school guide on our website at Each school has a prospectus and most schools School, Kennet School or Park House School. www.westberks.gov.uk/secondaryadmissions have a website. These are often good places to start getting to know the school: The advice we provide is based on experience but we still can’t guarantee that a preference will be offered Remember – Apply on Time the school’s aims and objectives because we can’t be certain of all applicant’s preference reasons. If you do not apply by the deadline you may disadvantage your child and this could affect • standards and other achievements What you need to do your chances of getting a preferred school • out of school activities and clubs place for your child. • information on policies such as behaviour A child’s parent/carer must make the application. and discipline If you live in West Berkshire you must fill in the West Berkshire Application Form. .

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