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Section 3 How to apply for a place in the first year of entry at
upper/high school
Making an application for transfer if
you live in Suffolk Timetable for upper/high school
applications
Making an application for a voluntary-aided school
Moving house
Child who lives at two addresses
Applying for a school outside Suffolk
Making an application for a Suffolk
upper/high school if you live outside Suffolk
What will happen if I don’t make an application? Applications made
after the closing date
Making an application for transfer if you live in Suffolk
If your child is in their final year at a primary school for 5
to 11-year-olds or a junior or middle school in Suffolk, you will
be sent a letter and Common Application Form (CAF1) when it is time
to move schools. The letter will tell you:
• How to apply for a school place
• Your child’s Unique Identifier (UID), which will help you if
you prefer to apply online; and
• Which is your next catchment school
You must make an application, even if you want a place
at the catchment school. You can apply
online, or
complete a paper CAF1. Applications must be received by the closing
date of Friday 7 November 2008.
If you have completed a CAF1, take or send it to your child’s
current school or local Area Office by that date.
If your child is not currently attending a Suffolk school,
please contact your local Area Office for a CAF1 application form,
or you can download a CAF1 from
www.suffolk.gov.uk/admissionstoschools.
The Admissions Team will be able to tell you what the catchment
school is for your address.
If you make an online application please do not send in a
duplicate CAF1. If you make a second application because you want
to change your preferences before the closing date, the application
received nearest to the closing date will be taken as your final
decision.
You can apply for up to three schools on the CAF1 in order of
preference, naming the school you most want your child to go to as
the first preference.
It is a good idea to arrange to visit your catchment school and
any other schools you are thinking about before you make a
decision. The headteacher will be happy to make arrangements to
show you around and answer your questions. There may also be open
evenings that you can go to. You may also want to seek help from a
School Preference Adviser
(see
section 6).
To help you judge whether or not your application for a school
place in the entry year might be successful, we have included in
the Schools List in
Section
13 details of on time applications for the 2008-2009 school
year. Please note that if you only apply for schools that
have previously had more applications than places, there is a
possibility that you will not be offered a place at any of
them.
You need to think about how you are going to get your child to
school when making your application – please read
section
12 for information about school transport.
We will check allegations of false addresses or other false
information given on the CAF1 or SIF and will withdraw offers of
places if we find that details were deliberately false or
misleading.
There is more information about applying for a school place
below. There is an application checklist to help you in
Section
4.
Timetable for upper and high school applications
• The closing date for applications is Friday 7 November
2008
• If there is a good reason for your application being late, we
will consider it along with the applications made on time provided
we receive it by Monday 26 January 2009
• We will post you an offer of a school place on Monday
2 March 2009. The letter will explain what you need to do
next. If you applied online you will also receive an email on this
date offering a school place
• If you want to refuse this offer, you must tell us by
Friday 20 March 2009
• We will consider all other late applications after
Monday 2 March 2009
If you do not take up the place at the start of the term in
which it has been offered the place may be withdrawn. If you need
to delay your child’s admission for a good reason you must let us
know before the term begins.
Further information about applying for a school place
I want to apply for a voluntary-aided
school
If one of your preferences is for a voluntary-aided school, this
must be included in your application. You can apply online or on a
CAF1 and in either case you should also get a Supplementary
Information Form (SIF) direct from the voluntary-aided school. You
should fill in the SIF and take or send it back to the
voluntary-aided school. Please note that the SIF is not an
application form, but it is used to provide extra information. It
is important to make sure that the school receives a SIF as without
it your application for a school place may be considered after all
other applications with a SIF. This means your child may not get a
place at the school.
What happens if I move house?
If you are moving to a new address and want that address to be
considered as your child’s ‘ordinarily resident’ address, you must
give us written evidence by the closing date that
you are legally committed to the move and that it will take place
before your child is due to start at the school you have applied
for. Examples of this evidence could be proof of exchange of
contracts, a signed letting agreement or a letter from your
commanding officer confirming your new address. Please contact your
local Area Office for more details.
If you make a catchment application, then move out of the
catchment area before the closing date and still want the same
school, you must let us know, as your application will then have to
be dealt with as an out-catchment application.
If you have made an application for your catchment school by the
closing date and then move out of the catchment area after the
closing date, your application will still be considered as a
catchment application. If you accept the offer of this place you
will usually have to get your child to and from school and pay for
any transport needed. Please read the School Transport section in
Section
12 for more information.
My child lives at two addresses – which one will you
consider?
Where a child lives with separated parents who have shared
responsibility, each for part of the week, the ordinarily resident
address will be considered to be the address that the child lives
at for most of the week (excluding weekends and school holidays).
We will require evidence to support this at the time of the
application. In cases where the child spends an equal proportion of
the week with both parents, evidence of the main contact address
will be required to support the application.
I want to apply for a school outside Suffolk
If one or more of your preferences is for a school that is not
in Suffolk, you should include it on your Suffolk online
application or CAF1. You should not fill in a separate application
form for another council. Suffolk County Council will liaise with
the council in which your preferred school is situated and will
write to let you know the decision of that council.
If one of your preferences is for a selective school in Essex,
you must:
• put the school as a preference on your online application or
CAF1 and return the CAF1 form to your local Area Office, not to
your child’s school;
• contact the school direct for details about the timetable for
its selection arrangements;
• contact the Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex (CSSE)
direct
on 01245 348257 for a Supplementary Information Form (SIF) or
you can complete a SIF online at
www.csse.org.uk from
September 2008. In either case the SIF should be submitted to the
CSSE by Monday 3 November 2008.
I live outside Suffolk – how do I apply for a place in a
Suffolk school?
If you wish to apply for a school place in Suffolk in the normal
admissions round and you do not live in Suffolk you should contact
the council where you live for information on how to apply. They
will liaise with us and they will then write to you to let you know
our decision on your application. If your home council allows you
to express more than three preferences, Suffolk County Council will
offer or refuse a place to all fourth preferences and lower by
reference to the admissions oversubscription criteria, not the
ranking of the preference.
The contact details and closing dates for applications for our
neighbouring county councils are as follows:
Cambridgeshire County Council
The Admissions Team
Box No: ELH1505
Castle Court
Castle Hill
Cambridge
CB3 0AP
Phone: Admissions Team South (Cambridge City and South Cambs) 01223
699200/699201
Admissions Team North (East Cambs, Fenland and Huntingdonshire)
01223 699202/699203
Website:
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Closing date: Friday 7 November 2008
Essex County Council
School Admissions and Transport
Schools, Children and Families Directorate
PO Box 4261
Chelmsford
CM1 1GS
Phone: 0845 603 2200
Email:
admissions@essex.gov.uk
Website:
www.essex.gov.uk
Closing date: Monday 27 October 2008
Norfolk County Council
Children’s Services
Admissions
County Hall
Martineau Lane
Norwich
NR1 2DL
Phone: 0844 8008001
Email:
admissions@norfolk.gov.uk
Website:
www.norfolk.gov.uk
Closing date: Friday 14 November 2008
What will happen if I don’t make an application?
If you do not make an application for a place at an upper or
high school, then we will decide where to offer your child a school
place. This will be in a school which has a place available after
we have looked at all other applications.
What happens if I send in my application after the closing
date?
Sometimes there are good reasons why an application is made
after the closing date. For example, a family may have just moved
into the area or is returning from abroad, or there may be
exceptional circumstances, which have made it impossible to apply
by the closing date. We will deal with these applications as if
they were on time if we get them by Monday 26 January
2009 and we are provided with evidence at the same time
that exceptional circumstances apply.
Otherwise, if we get your application after the closing date, we
will look at it, but normally only after we have offered school
places for the applications we received on time. This will be after
Monday 2 March 2009. If the school you have
applied for is very popular, this could mean all the places have
been offered already. If so, we will try to meet your second or
third preference, or we will offer you a place at your catchment
school if a place is available. If there are no places available at
your preferred schools or in your catchment school we will offer
you a place at the next nearest school that has places available
with regard to the efficient use of resources. We will use the
admissions oversubscription criteria in
Section
7 to decide who gets a place.
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