If you wish to apply for a place in our Primary or Secondary Phase, you must make the application through your local council (where you pay your Council Tax). Most applicants will come under BCP Council using the following link – Applying for a school place

The deadline for Secondary applications is 31 October 2022 and for Primary 15 January 2023. All applications must be made to the council and Supplementary religious documentation received by the school before the deadline in order to be considered with the on-time applications.

Please note the school will only accept ORIGINAL paper copies of religious documentation. Please do not email these documents as they will not be considered with your child’s application.

Please be aware that the Secondary school will be closed for half-term between 24-28 October 2022. Main reception will be open for access to our secure admissions box where religious documentation can be submitted and will be returned once processed.

If you are considering making an application for your child to delay their entry into Reception year please refer to our Summer Born Babies policy

If you wish to apply to join St Peter's in September 2023, please refer to the appropriate policy below

Primary Admissions Policy	Primary Supplementary Information Form (SIF)
Secondary Admissions Policy	Secondary Supplementary Information Form (SIF)

You can change your child's school during the academic year if:

• You have recently moved to the area

• You are not happy with your child's current school

STEP ONE — Contact Admissions at BCP Council

To change your child's school during the academic year, you will need to make an in-year application online with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council regardless of your current address.

To apply online with BCP Council please apply here

STEP TWO — Contact Admissions at St Peter’s Catholic School

If your child falls into one of our faith categories in addition to completing the in-year application with BCP council, you will also need to complete a 2022-2023 Supplementary Information Form (SIF) which you should return to us directly, along with your child’s original baptism or Holy communion certificate.

Primary Supplementary Information Form (SIF) 2022/2023

Secondary Supplementary Information Form (SIF) 2022/2023

For more information please refer to the appropriate policy below Primary Admissions Policy 2022/2023 Secondary Admissions Policy 2022-2023

Once the above steps have been completed, you will be informed whether there is a space available for your child. If not, you will be placed on our waiting list, and contacted if a space becomes available.

In order for your child to remain on the waiting list for 2023-2024 you will need to reapply from 1 May 2023, repeating steps one and two above (with Primary 2023-2024 SIF or Secondary 2023-2024 SIF form). You will not need to supply certificates again.

STEP THREE — If you are refused a place and wish to appeal

Please refer to the following link Frequently Asked Questions document which should hopefully answer any question you might have as to any possible next steps.

If having read the document, you believe you have grounds to appeal against the decision not to offer a place to your child, you can appeal online here.

Infant class sizes for Reception, Year 1 or Year 2 are limited to no more than 30 pupils. An appeal for an infant class where an extra child would take the class over 30 pupils will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances, as the powers of the Appeal Panel are limited by legislation.

The appeal hearing will take place virtually and the final decision of the Panel is legally binding on all parties.

If you are unable to access either the Frequently Asked Questions or the appeals form, a copy of either can be made available from the School. 

admissions@st-peters.bournemouth.sch.uk

If your application for St Peter's is refused you have the right of appeal against this decision to an independent Appeal Panel. This is known as a school admission appeal. This is governed by legislation produced by the Department for Education (DfE).

You can only appeal against a refusal of a place, so please don’t contact the school or Local Authority about an appeal until you receive a formal refusal letter or email.

Please click here for more information on how to lodge an appeal with BCP Council.

For September entry appeals, no appeals can be heard until after the specified closing date. They are normally heard from May through to July on weekdays during term-time only. If you lodge your appeal after the deadline, it might be that it is not possible to hear your appeal until after the start of the new school year in September.

If you wish to make an appeal for immediate entry, you will need to lodge your appeal as soon as possible. 

It is worth noting that in the local area, many popular schools receive multiple appeals for entry in September. Unless it is proven that the school has spare teachers, budget and/or classrooms to take all the children appealing, any successful appeals will mean adding just some of the children appealing to existing classes and be limited to the children with the most need to attend the school concerned. The school are unable to keep spaces back to allocate at appeals.

If you lodge an appeal, and it is not successful, your place on the waiting list is unaffected.

Please visit our  Frequently Asked Questions for more information regarding the appeal process.

In order for your application to be considered in one of our faith categories please see below the ranking order and which documents are required. This process is the same for the main Year R / 7 point of entry each year and In year applications

Please note the school cannot accept emailed or photocopies of certificates or SIF forms. ORIGINAL documents must be sent / delivered directly to the school.

A full explanation of these categories can be found in our admissions policy.

Oversubscription Criteria

Category	Practice	Documents required
1 Catholic Looked After Children
1	Catholic looked after/ previously looked after child	Original Baptism and/or Holy Communion Certificate Adoption certificate or evidence of looked after status.
2 Catholic
2.1	Catholic with sibling on roll at St Peter's and weekly attending catholic mass	SIF Form Original Baptism and/or Holy Communion Certificate
2.2	Catholic without sibling on roll at St Peter's and weekly attending catholic mass	SIF Form Original Baptism and/or Holy Communion Certificate
2.3	Catholic with sibling on roll at St Peter's and attending catholic mass monthly	SIF Form Original Baptism and/or Holy Communion Certificate
2.4	Catholic without sibling on roll at St Peter's and attending catholic mass monthly	SIF Form Original Baptism and/or Holy Communion Certificate
2.5	Catholic with sibling on roll at St Peter's and attending catholic mass less than monthly or not at all	SIF Form Original Baptism and/or Holy Communion Certificate
2.6	Catholic without sibling on roll at St Peter's and attending catholic mass less than monthly or not at all	SIF Form Original Baptism and/or Holy Communion Certificate
2.7	Catholic with sibling on roll at St Peter's	Original Baptism and/or Holy Communion Certificate
2.8	Catholic without sibling on roll at St Peter's	Original Baptism and/or Holy Communion Certificate
3 All other looked after children
3	All other looked after children/previously looked after children	Adoption certificate or document proving looked after status.
4 Children of Staff
4.1	Child of Staff member with a sibling on roll at St Peter's	Proof of employment
4.2	Child of Staff member without a sibling on roll at St Peter's	Proof of employment
5 Christian
5.1	Children of other Christian traditions who are practising Christians with a sibling on roll at St Peter's	SIF Form Original Baptism and/or Holy Communion Certificate
5.2	Children of other Christian traditions who are practising Christians without a sibling on roll at St Peter's	SIF Form Original Baptism and/or Holy Communion Certificate
6 Other Faiths
6.1	Children who are practising members of other faith traditions other than the Christian faith Sibling with a sibling on roll at St Peter's	SIF Form Evidence of membership
6.2	Children who are practising members of other faith traditions other than the Christian faith Sibling without a sibling on roll at St Peter's	SIF Form Evidence of membership
7 Non-Faith
7.1	Other children with a sibling on roll at St Peter's	N/A
7.2	Other children without a sibling on roll at St Peter's	N/A

It is a legal requirement that an Admissions Authority gives notice of any proposed variations to its admissions arrangements. 

Following the granting of parliamentary approval to the Admissions Code 2021*, the Governing Board of St Peter’s Catholic Voluntary Academy Trust (as its own Admissions Authority) hereby gives notice of a proposed variation to the determined Admissions Policy for September 2021-22 and 2022-23.

This variation was approved by the Board of Governors on 19 July 2021. A consultation is not required for the purposes of this amendment, but we offer notice of the following changes-

1. Giving the same priority to children who have been adopted from state care outside of England (IAPLAC) as to Previously Looked After (PLAC) 

• The 2021 School Admissions Code requires children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted- to be given equal first priority in admission arrangements, alongside looked after children (LAC) and children who were previously looked after by English local authorities (PLAC). These children are referred to as internationally adopted previously looked after children – “IAPLAC”.
• It is therefore intended to extend the highest admissions priority to IAPLAC by including Catholic IAPLAC applicants in Category 1 and other IAPLAC applicants in Category 3.
• The definition of previously looked after children within the Admissions Policy will therefore be amended to include those children who appear (to the Governing Board) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.

2. Catholic Faith applicants who provide the required Baptismal Certificate before the published submission deadline will be treated as falling into that category regardless of the submission of a Supplementary Information Form (SIF) detailing evidence of practice of the faith.

• Paragraph 2.4 of 2021 School Admissions Code states that an applicant must not be given additional priority solely on the basis of having completed a supplementary form. (SIF).
• If an applicant has provided the Baptismal Certificate but no SIF they will fall into the faith category but will rank below applicants who have submitted a SIF.

The revised Admissions Policy and associated Supplementary Information Form for September 2021-22 and September 2022-23 admissions years will be published to view on the school website. Hard copies can be obtained from the school office on request.

N Sharp, Chair of Governing Board, St Peter’s Catholic Voluntary Academy Trust

*Regulation 19 of the School Admissions Regulations 2012.

 (1) This regulation prescribes for the purposes of section 88E(9)(b) the circumstances in which an admission authority may vary the admission arrangements they have determined for a particular academic year.

 (2) An admission authority may vary the admission arrangements under which pupils are to be admitted to school to the extent that such variation is necessary to give effect to any of the following— (a) the School Admissions Code.