10.2 Admissions

Policy statement

It is our intention to make our setting accessible to children and families from all sections of the local community. We aim to ensure that all sections of our community have access to the setting through open, fair and clearly communicated procedures.

Procedures

• We ensure that the existence of our setting is widely advertised in places accessible to all sections of the community.

• We ensure that information about our setting is accessible, in written and spoken form.

• To ensure a fair decision is made when offering a child a place, we have a points system in operation.

  Our policy regarding the allocation of places using the points system consider the following:

  1) The position of the child on the waiting list when ordered by the date the child was officially added via our admissions process.

  2) Whether the child has a sibling attending Hanney Preschool or St James School ( -8 points)

  3) Whether the child will be 3 years old by 1st September therefore only having 1 school year remaining prior to starting a compulsory primary school setting. (-3 points)

  4) Whether the child's main residential address is outside of the catchment area (East and west Hanney, Charney Basset, Lyford and Garford) (+10 points if outside catchment)

  Those with the lowest number of points will be offered a place before those with a higher number. The number of sessions offered will depend on the availability of places at that time.

  All children will be treated equally and fairly at all times.

  Hanney Pre-School reserves the right to change this policy at any time to ensure allocation of places remains fair to all applicants.

• We keep a place vacant, if this is financially viable, to accommodate an emergency admission.
• We describe our setting and its practices in terms that make it clear that it welcomes both fathers and mothers, other relations and other carers, including childminders.
• We describe our setting and its practices in terms of how it treats each child and their family, having regard to their needs arising from their gender, special educational needs, disabilities, social background, religion and ethnicity or from English being a newly acquired additional language.
• We describe our setting and its practices in terms of how it enables children and/or parents with disabilities to take part in the life of the setting.
• We monitor the gender and ethnic background of children joining the group to ensure that where possible our intake is representative of social diversity.
• We make our Valuing Diversity and Promoting Equality Policy widely known.
• We consult with families about the opening times of the setting to ensure we accommodate a broad range of family needs.
• Where possible we are flexible about attendance patterns to accommodate the needs of individual children and families, providing these do not disrupt the pattern of continuity in the setting that provides stability for all the children.

It is important that we make parents aware that by attending Hanney Pre-School it does not guarantee the child a place at St James School – Hanney Pre-School is an independent setting.