A statement of special educational needs is the document that sets out a child’s need and all the special help he or she should have.
The Local Authority will make a statement when it decides that all the special help a child needs cannot reasonably be provided within the resources normally available to a school.
A ‘looked after child’ is a child who is in the care of a Local Authority or provided with accommodation by that authority.
You can indicate a preference for a particular school if your child has a significant medical or psychological condition, which makes it essential he or she attends the preferred school rather than any other.
You need to tick the relevant box on the application form and attach written evidence e.g. from a doctor or psychologist. All applications received under this category are considered by a multi-disciplinary team of the LA.
These are schools that are within the catchment area of the school applied for. A full list can be found on the following pages:
Distance from home to school will be measured by public roads and footpaths, from the point where the applicant’s home meets the public highway to the nearest entrance gate to the school site.
For multi occupancy dwellings, the entrance to the property is the communal entrance to the building. Any dispute in relation to this definition will be determined by the Admissions Manager at the LA, whose decision will be final.
A sibling is a brother or sister, including half, step or foster brother or sister, living at the same address within the same family unit.
Children who are part of twins, triplets etc will only be given special consideration if they are involved in a ‘tie-break’ situation.
For example, if there is one place available but the next two children on the list are twins, schools will be asked to take both children. This would also apply to non-twin siblings who are in the same year group.
In all other circumstances multiple birth children will be considered in the same way as any other children.
Where parents have shared responsibility for a child, each for part of the week and they live at different addresses, the address that should be used for admission purposes is that where the child lives for the majority of the school week and is registered with other agencies.
Most children go to school with their own age group. However, there is a tiny minority of children who are admitted outside their normal age group because they are exceptionally gifted or because they may have experienced problems or missed part of the school year.
The LA practice is that, when it comes to transferring school, if the child is working outside his/her normal year group, you will need to discuss this with the child’s current head teacher to determine whether it would be detrimental to the child’s education to be placed in the chronological year group.
The Published Admission Number (PAN) is the number of pupils that can be accommodated in a school's buildings.
The Number on Roll (NOR) are the number of pupils who are enrolled to attend a school.
The number of on-time applications is the number of applications for a school place that are submitted before the closing date.
These are any applications that are submitted after the closing date.
Southampton City Council
