Applications for places at Whitehorse Manor Junior School are handled by the school office in accordance with Croydon Council procedures.  Parental preference is the overriding factor in the school’s allocation of school places.  The school will not choose which pupils are to be admitted.  When the school is over-subscribed, places will be allocated by a non-selective process which is as fair as possible.

Allocating Places

If the number of first preferences is smaller than or equal to the number of places at a school, all first preference applicants will be offered a place.

If the number of first preferences for a school is larger than the number of places, the allocations will be made in the following order:

Siblings

Children with siblings who will be in the school at the time of enrolment of the new pupil;
(separate infant and junior schools on the same site count as one school for this purpose)
(sibling priority also applies to pupils, other than brothers and sisters, who are part of the same family unit and who are resident at the same address)

Medical

Pupils with serious medical reasons for needing to attend the particular school; these must be verified by the family doctor and declared at the time of application if known at that time;
(For primary school admissions, the medical condition of a parent may also be taken into account.) Decisions on priority of admission on medical grounds will be made on the basis of recommendations received from the Authority’s Medical Adviser.

Geographical Grounds

Places are then allocated on the basis of two geographical measurements, taken by the shortest reasonable and lit walking routes:

• from the pupil’s home to the school;
• from the pupil’s home to the nearest alternative community school at which a place can be made available ;

(those for whom the journey to the nearest alternative community school would be unreasonable and those closest to the preferred school will be offered places up to the school’s admission limit)

Pupils with Statements of Special Educational Needs

Pupils with statements which indicate that mainstream schooling is appropriate will usually be allocated places before the process for non-statemented pupils in the same age group is conducted.

This does not mean that parents of statemented pupils can choose their school. The policy provides for the application to be considered before the main allocation process begins so that early and meaningful consultation can take place about the named school. Only where agreement is reached on the named school will the place be allocated before the normal admissions process begins for other applicants. Wherever possible, when agreement is not reached and where the pupil cannot qualify for a place at the preferred community school under the normal admissions policy, a place at the school will be held pending the decision of the SEN Appeals Tribunal.

‘Mid year’ Admissions

The process described above is that used for dealing with large numbers of children of the same age entering school at the same time – at ages 4 and 11 (note: children transferring from "feeder" infant schools to linked junior schools have priority of admission). Many applications have to be processed individually at other times as pupils transfer between schools for whatever reason. For these pupils, parents will be advised which schools are known to have places and a statement of preference will be invited. If the preferred school has a place available it will be allocated. If the school is full the nearest alternative school with a place will be offered and the applicant will be placed on the "waiting list" of the preferred school.

Waiting Lists

Parents may request that their application is kept on file until a place at a preferred school becomes available. The pupil must remain on the roll of another school at this time. When a place becomes available in an otherwise full school, all current applications for a place in the year group will be considered equally.

The Council will not, therefore, maintain ordered waiting lists for schools. Information can be provided to parents about the order of priority of applications for a school being held at a particular time but no guarantee can be given that higher priority applications will not be received by the time a place becomes available.

Full details of admission arrangements are available from Croydon Council.