The terms and abbreviations used below can be unfamiliar to those not previously involved in the education system. These explanations should help but if you require further clarification please phone 0191 277 4133.
Academies are independently managed, all-ability schools set up by sponsors from business, faith or voluntary groups in partnership with the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the local authority.
The body responsible for setting and applying a school’s admission arrangements. For community or voluntary controlled schools, this is Newcastle City Council; for voluntary aided schools, this is the school governing body.
The overall procedure, practices and oversubscription criteria used in deciding the allocation of school places, including any means used to determine whether a school place is to be offered.
These are the rules that decide which children will be given priority where there are more applications than places.
The number of school places offered in normal year of entry (reception).
This is the child’s permanent address where he or she resides with a person with parental responsibility or with a parent (as defined in Section 576 of the Education Act 1996).
The form parents complete and submit to local authorities listing their preferred choices of schools when applying for a school place.
These schools are maintained fully by the local authority (LA). The LA is the admission authority and it is responsible for determining the admission arrangements and for allocating school places.
These schools cover the reception to Year 4 age groups (4 to 9 years). Many will also take younger children into designated nursery classes.
These are bodies responsible for conducting schools with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement.
A child’s home local authority is the local authority in which they live.
This means that there have been more applications than there are available places.
Regulations limit the size of an infant class (i.e. a class in which the majority of children will reach the age of 5, 6 and 7 during the school year) to 30 pupils per school teacher.
This includes all those people who have parental responsibility for a child who fall under the definition of “parent” as set out in Section 576 of the Education Act 1996.
The mother of a child always has parental responsibility. The father also has parental responsibility if named on the birth certificate or by agreement with the mother, or by court order. Parents do not lose parental responsibility if they divorce. In relation to school admissions, this applies to the role of choosing and providing for the child's education.
The school you would most like your child to attend.
These schools cover the reception to Year 6 age groups (4 to 11 year olds). Many will also take younger children into designated nursery classes. The term primary is also used to include first schools.
All children in England between the ages of five and 16 are entitled to a free place at a state school. State schools all receive funding from local authorities. They all follow the National Curriculum and are regularly inspected by Ofsted. There are four main types of state schools – community, foundation, voluntary aided and voluntary controlled. Academies are also state schools but have different funding arrangements.
A legal document issued by the local authority specifying the particular needs, resources and provision required to support the child, and can include a named school that is suitable for providing education for that child.
This means that there have been fewer applications than there are available places within the admission number.
In Newcastle these schools are either Church of England or Catholic and responsibility for management is shared between the LA and the church but with the church playing a greater role.
The governing body is the admission authority and it is responsible for determining the admission arrangements. These will be different from those used by the LA. The governors are also responsible for allocating school places but the home LA offers places at the school on behalf of the governors. Voluntary aided schools participate in the co-ordinated admission arrangements within the area of their home LA.
The only VC school in Newcastle is All Saints College. Management is shared between the LA and the Church of England. As with community schools the LA is the admission authority and it is responsible for determining the admission arrangements and for allocating school places.