Admissions

To Mainstream School:

From September 1997, in accordance with the LEA’s Admission Policy, there has been one main intake into Reception, i.e. in September.   Parents and new admissions are invited in June to look round the school and meet the staff.   All children from the Nursery class spend several sessions in their “new” classes before entering mainstream school.

For more information, please click the link below.

Bradford Schools Admissions

Long Lee Primary Nursery Admissions Policy

Parents are informed that they should contact the LA to find out more about admissions to Community schools as Long Lee follows LA guidelines.

To Nursery:

 Our aims are:

• To ensure access and entitlement to the benefits of high quality child centered nursery education on a fair and equitable basis.
• To establish an admissions policy governed by clearly defined criteria that may be articulated to parents and other professionals.
• To ensure, as far as possible, that all children who gain a place will fully benefit from nursery education and so we will make the very best of our resources.
• To provide high quality child centered nursery education to children and families in our local community.

We provide and allocate nursery places at Long Lee Primary School using the following admissions policy. This policy refers to applications for the 2023-2024 academic year, however if your child is eligible to start Nursery earlier you should contact the school directly as places may well be available.

Sessions available

• Places offered in Nursery are on a part-time basis (15 hours) and are offered either over 5 mornings or 5 afternoons across the course of a school year.
• Where spaces are available, and parents qualify, there will be the opportunity for parents to access the “Extended Entitlement” allowing full-time (30 hours) offered over 5 mornings plus 5 afternoons.
• Where 30 hours “Extended Entitlement” has been offered, there will be a charge of £4 per session to cover a lunchtime stay payable in accordance with the Nursery’s Charging Policy. If your child is at school over a lunch time, then a packed lunch can be provided from home or alternatively you can pay 1/2 termly in advance for school meals, the charge of £4 per session is in addition to the cost of the meal. In the event of absence, sickness or holidays refunds will be deducted from the bill for the following term.

For the academic year 2023 – 2024 the Nursery offer is:

• 12 x 30 hour places
• 14 x 5 mornings
• 14 x 5 afternoons

Responsibility for admissions to the Nursery

Responsibility for making decisions regarding admissions to the school’s nursery class lies with the Headteacher and Governors of the school. The Headteacher is also responsible for the day to day administrative arrangements that need to be made to ensure that the requirements of this policy are followed.

All children, subject to the availability of places, will normally start school nursery no earlier than the start of term following their third birthday. At Long Lee Primary School, we have 5 intakes over the year, November, January, February, April and May. However, we may need to delay your child’s start beyond the relevant term in circumstances where the school have induction procedures to follow to enable your child to be successfully integrated with others and get used to school life. Places at nursery are offered based on the criteria as detailed below.

The criteria

Priority for a nursery place will be given to;

1. Looked after children, children on the child protection register or those who are thought to be at risk of abuse or neglect. (Examples may include children who are active cases for social care colleagues and children on the child protection register).
2. Children with exceptional, medical, social and educational needs identified by health, education or social care colleagues. Evidence should accompany applications. (Examples may include children identified by the preschool assessment service as having special educational needs, or as requiring assessment to decide if they have such needs; children who have needs identified by medical professionals; children living in families considered to be exceptionally disadvantaged in relation to the usual circumstances for the area; children who have limited or no access to English speaking environments.)
3. A child’s date of birth. Places will be issued on a date of birth order and so may take precedence over names which may have been on a waiting list for a longer period of time.

Application Process

• Parents requiring a place for their child should complete the Nursery Application Form (below)
• Parents will be informed of the outcome of their application in the half-term prior to being admitted.
• The school will reserve spaces for children of staff who require a nursery place during the academic year
• It should be noted that admission to the school’s nursery class does NOT constitute admission to Long Lee Primary, nor does attendance at the Nursery give priority to admission to the school. Applications for Reception class should be completed online to the authority. 
• Decisions will be final and there is no right of appeal. 
• Parents who accept a place will be expected to commit to taking up the place for the rest of the academic year and to ensure very good attendance.

Waiting list

Once places have been allocated, and where it is not possible to offer some children a place in the nursery class because it is full, a child will be added to a waiting list.

Any places that then become available will be offered from the waiting list in accordance with the school’s criteria for admissions (see above). Places will be offered on a termly basis.

Parents may choose not to accept the offer of a place for their child but they must indicate whether they wish their child’s name to remain on the waiting list for admission in the following term. They will then be considered for a nursery place along with any other eligible children. This may mean that a place is no longer available and a place with another provider may need to be sought.

Transition

• Home visits will be arranged for children before they are due to start Nursery. Two members of the school staff will attend the home visits.
• Children will be offered an opportunity to attend a stay and play session with their parents before taking up their place.

Attendance and Loss of a Nursery Place

• If attendance and punctuality is poor or erratic the nursery teacher will talk to parents and remind them that for the child to benefit fully from nursery education, attendance needs to be regular and punctual. This conversation will be recorded and dated in the child's folder.
• Where attendance is not good (nb: below 90% will be considered a possible concern) then the place may need to be reviewed if there is not sufficient reason for the absence.
• Parents may be called in to meet a senior member of staff if attendance is a concern. Following the meeting, if there is no sustained improvement in attendance within an agreed period, then the child may lose their place. Parents will be notified of the loss of place in writing.
• If a child is absent for a period of three weeks without any contact from the parents and the school has been unable to make contact within this time, the child may lose their place and it may be offered to someone else. This will be decided by the Headteacher, and a letter explaining the situation will be sent to the parents.

Transfers from Nursery into School

• All parents and carers must be made aware that a place in the nursery does
not guarantee a place in the school and that they must still go through the correct Bradford Admissions Procedure.
• The Nursery staff will liaise closely with colleagues in Reception classes to plan for a smooth transition to their chosen or allocated school.
• Nursery staff will send on reports and other agreed records to the school admitting the pupil as appropriate.
• Children moving into the school Reception class will visit in small transition groups during the end of the summer term.
• Children attending other schools will have all records passed onto the school and staff at the new school will be offered opportunities to visit children in the nursery.

Right of appeal

As nursery provision is non statutory the school’s decision will be final and there is no formal right of appeal. However, the Headteacher will be happy to discuss any concerns parents may have about the allocation of places.

Who will receive 30 hour free childcare?

The government has set out the eligibility criteria for this additional entitlement:

• Both parents are working (or sole parent in a lone parent family) and each parent/carer earns on average:

a weekly minimum salary equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage (NMW) (for under 25 yr olds) or national living wage (NLW) (if over 25 yrs old), and

less than £100,000 per year

Or

• Both parents are employed but one or both parents is temporarily away from the workplace on parental, maternity, paternity or adoption leave or statutory sick pay, or
• One parent is employed & the other parent has substantial caring responsibilities based on specific benefits received for caring, or
• One parent is employed & one parent is disabled or incapacitated based on receipt of specific benefits.

Additional Information

• You do not need to actually work 16 hours per week, but your earnings must equal at least 16 hours work at minimum wage / national living wage. This equates to a minimum income requirement for a parent/carer over the age of 25 of £115.20 a week, or for 21-24 year olds of £107.20 a week.
• A parent/carer will be eligible if they expect (on average) to earn this amount over the coming three months: for example, for a parent/carer who is on a zero-hours contract, they will qualify if on average they work two weeks out of every three, and when they are working they get 25 hours of work at the minimum wage.
• ‘Parent’ means a person who has parental responsibility for the child. In cases where a parent has remarried or is living with a partner, the step-parent or partner must also meet the earning threshold.
• Foster carers are only eligible for the extended entitlement for their own children (if they meet the criteria); they are not eligible for children that they foster.

How can I check if I am eligible for the additional entitlement?

In the first instance, you can check whether you could be eligible for a range of government childcare offers, including 30 hours free childcare via Childcare Choices at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk or the Childcare Calculator at https://www.gov.uk/childcare-calculator. If you could be eligible for 30 hours and/or Tax- Free Childcare, you will be directed to the digital childcare service to apply.

Parents will not need to apply through the digital childcare service if they only want to claim the universal 15 hours entitlement for three and four year olds.

Please be reassured if you don’t want to use Tax-Free Childcare you should still apply via the digital childcare service to apply for the extended entitlement only. If you are receiving financial support through tax credits and only want to take up 30 hours, you can choose not to apply for Tax-Free Childcare (and keep your tax credits) as part of your application.

How do I apply for 30 hours if I am eligible?

As part of the application process, you will be asked to enter personal details including your name, address and National Insurance number and the same details for your partner (if you have one). You will also be asked whether you expect to meet the income requirements over the coming three months and whether you are in receipt of any relevant benefits. This information will help HMRC decide whether you (and your child) are eligible for 30 hours. Please note that only HMRC can decide if you (and your child) are eligible. At the start of the application process, you will create a Government Gateway account if you don’t already have one. If you encounter any problems with the application process or accessing the childcare account, you should direct your queries to the Childcare Service Customer Interaction Centre on 0300 123 4097.

At the end of the application process, you will have a childcare service account. In the “secure messages” and “30 hours free childcare” section of your account, you will receive messages regarding your eligibility as well as your eligibility code (multiple births such as twins are issued an individual code for each child). If you are eligible for 30 hours, you will be given an 11 digit ‘eligibility code’ for your child. These codes normally start with ‘5000’. However, there are a small number of cases where parents might have a temporary code starting with ‘11’. Please note that these codes can only be issued by HMRC. School is not able to issue codes to parents.

You must then bring this code (along with your National Insurance number and child’s date of birth) to school to verify your eligibility, reserve your 30 hours place and discuss how you will take up the hours for your child. Without all of these details, we will not be able to offer you a 30 hour place.

You will be prompted every three months to reconfirm the details you entered on your application are still accurate. This is to check that you are still eligible. You will be prompted, via text message and/or email, four weeks before your reconfirmation deadline and again two weeks before the deadline if you still haven’t reconfirmed. If your circumstances have changed, you will log into your childcare service account, amend your details and then resubmit your details. If your circumstances have not changed, you only need to reconfirm their details.

Please note that if you miss the reconfirmation deadline, you will receive a message telling you that your eligibility has lapsed. You must contact school without delay if you receive such a message.

If you need assistance to apply (or you do not have access to the internet), you can call the Childcare Service Customer Interaction Centre on 0300 123 4097 and apply over the phone. Parents that complete their original application over the phone will need to phone the Customer Interaction Centre to reconfirm their eligibility.

If you have any questions regarding our offer from September 2018 or for further details of how to apply to check eligibility, please contact the school office. 

Please note all places are subject to availability, date of birth and entitlement restrictions, see admission policy for more details.

3&4 Year Olds Extended Entitlement- 30 Hours :: Bradford ... bso.bradford.gov.uk This page will have the latest information on the 30 hours childcare - extended entitlement. All documents, information and presentations from events will be posted here.

Are you looking for support with childcare costs?

Childcare Choices brings together all the government childcare offers in one place for the first time. The new Childcare Choices website makes it easy to find out what’s on offer.

Use the Childcare Calculator at www.gov.uk/childcare-calculator to see what offers are available to support you and your family.

Check what help you could get with childcare costs - GOV.UK www.gov.uk Check what help you might be able to get with childcare schemes like tax credits, Tax-Free Childcare, childcare vouchers and free childcare or education for 2 to 4-year-olds

As well as current schemes, Childcare Choices introduces Tax-Free Childcare and 30 hours.

To find out more about the new and existing offers, and how they can help you, go to the Childcare Choices website today at www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Childcare Choices | Vouchers, Tax Credits and More | Help with Costs | GOV.UK www.childcarechoices.gov.uk All about Government help with childcare costs, including 15 to 30 hours free childcare, Tax-Free Childcare, tax credits, Universal Credit, vouchers and support while you study