Applications for places at Spencer Nursery School

Spencer Nursery School Admission Arrangements for Entry in 2023/2024 and 2024/2025

All places offered are on an all year round (51 weeks of the year) basis.

Entry to Nursery

The offer available is as detailed below:

a) Ladybirds (provision for children aged from 3 months to 2 years and a term)

PRIVATE FUNDED CHILDCARE ONLY – FULL FEES APPLY.

12 full day places are available from 8am-6pm on a year-round basis, for between 2 and 5 days a week (this will be reviewed when the government's free childcare offer is extended to include children from age 9 months of eligible working families in September 2024)

b) Bumblebees (provision for children aged 2 years and a term to 3 years and a term)

PRIVATE FUNDED CHILDCARE ONLY – FULL FEES APPLY.

12 full day places are available from 8am-6pm on an a year-round basis, for between 2 and 5 days a week (from April 2024, some eligible working families may find that they are eligible for a total of 15 hours free childcare funding, where they meet the government's criteria for this, and this is accounted for within our fee structure).

c) Fireflies (provision for children aged 3 years until the 31st August of the year that they will begin Reception in the September)

PRIVATE FUNDED EDUCATION AND CHILDCARE – children are entitled to either 15 hours Free Education Funding or 30 hours Extended Entitlement Funding from the term after they are 3 years of age and this is accounted for within our fee structure.

8 places a day are available on an 8am-4pm basis, for between 3 and 5 days a week.

16 places a day are available on an 8am-6pm basis, for between 3 and 5 days a week.

All places are offered on a year-round basis.

Admissions are considered on a termly basis, where there is place availability. Where a child might be eligible to join at the start of the spring or summer term, but no places are available, the school will maintain a child’s name on the waiting list until the subsequent term, or the start of the next autumn term.

Attendance at Spencer Nursery School does not give priority for a place in Reception at Hackbridge Primary School in our federation and a separate application for a starting school/Reception place must be made directly to the London Borough of Sutton.

Applications

Applications for nursery places at Spencer Nursery School must be made directly to the school using the school’s nursery application form. Forms are available for download from the school’s website or a paper copy can be collected from the school office. Forms must be returned with the non-refundable £10.00 administration fee.

Parents/Carers should ensure that they indicate on their application form which type of provision they are applying for by ticking in the box next to the provision type that they wish their child to be considered for a place in.

Applications to start nursery in 2023/24 must be made between 2nd September 2022 and 15 January 2023.

Applications to start nursery in 2024/25 must be made between 2nd September 2023 and 15 January 2024.

Any applications received after this date will be considered ‘late’.

There may be some vacancies for children to start in the 2023/2024 academic year. Please check availability with the School Office.

Admissions and Oversubscription Criteria for Nursery

Ladybirds and Bumblebees

Waiting lists are in operation for places within these rooms. New applications will be ranked according to the date which they are received.

Once a place becomes available, families are contacted by telephone and an offer is made. If the first family contacted turns down the place, the next family on the waiting list is contacted until the place is filled.

It is advisable to place your name on the waiting list as early as possible due to the high demand for places in Ladybirds. Many families choose to apply for a place when they are expecting. Please be aware that if you apply when you are expecting, we would not contact you with regards to a place until you have informed us of the baby's actual date of birth and their legal name.

Fireflies

In Fireflies, 4 year old children will be considered before 3 year old children, after which priority will be given on the basis of

a) Looked after children or previously looked after children (see note 1).

b) Where there are professionally supported medical reasons or exceptional social reasons why a child should attend a particular nursery (see note 2).

c) Oldest eligible children at the point of offer for the category (see notes 3).

Where oversubscription occurs in categories (a)-(c) above, the following criterion (d) will be applied as a tie-breaker.

d) Straight Line distance between the child’s home address and Spencer Nursery School (see note 4).

Where oversubscription occurs in categories (a)-(c) above, the subsequent criterion will be applied as a tie-breaker. If oversubscription occurs in category (d), and home to school distance is equal, rank order will be randomly generated.

Children who are not accommodated for a place will remain on the waiting list until a place becomes available. Families are welcome to get in contact with the school to find out if there is any progress.

Cautionary Note: - Although Spencer Nursery School will try to allocate places in the next rooms for children who attend Ladybirds and/or Bumblebees, there is no guarantee of a place for when your child is due to transition. Individual advice will be given to all families.

Notes

1) Looked After Children or Previously Looked After Children

A looked after child is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see definition in section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989). A previously looked after child is a child who was adopted, or subject to a residence order, a child arrangements order, or special guardianship order, immediately following having been looked after.

2) Professionally Supported Medical Reasons or Exceptional Social Reasons

Applicants wishing to be considered under this criterion must supply professional evidence supporting their case at the time of application. Providing evidence does not guarantee priority under this criterion; the school will consider if the evidence provided demonstrates that the child must attend a particular school and cannot reasonably attend an alternative school.

Applicants will not be individually advised if their application has been prioritised under this criterion.

3) Oldest eligible children at the point of offer for the category

At the point of offer for each category (which is May for children eligible to start in the September; November for children eligible to start in January and February for children eligible to start in April), children on the waiting list will be ranked according to their date of birth and available places offered to the oldest children first, until no further vacancies remain.

If oversubscription occurs in category (c) where children on the waiting list have the same date of birth, but only one vacancy remains, category (d) will then also be applied.

If oversubscription occurs in category (d), and home to school distance is equal, rank order will be randomly generated.

Please be aware that as all children are ranked by their date of birth on the waiting list, with oldest children first, a child's position on the waiting list can change at any time.

4) Straight Line Distance

Distances will be measured in a straight line from the child's home address, with those living closer to the school receiving the higher priority. All distances will be measured using Distance.to and what3words to calculates the distance as the crow flies between a child’s home address and the school.

The child’s home address excludes any business, relative’s or childminder’s address and must be the applicant’s normal place of residence. If there is a genuine equal share custody arrangement between the two parents, the address that will be used will normally be the address of the parent who is claiming Child Benefit for the child, however all available evidence will be considered.

The address to be used for the initial allocation of places will be the child’s address at the closing date for application. Changes of address up to dates stated in the scheme may be considered if there are exceptional reasons behind the change, such as if a family has just moved to the area, or has returned from abroad. The address to be used for waiting lists, after the initial allocation, and for mid-term admissions will be the child’s current address. Any offer is conditional upon the child living at the appropriate address on the relevant date. Parents have a responsibility to notify the school of any change of address.

Please note:

Applicants in short term rented accommodation may be asked to provide evidence of their current and former housing arrangements.

Where an applicant has ownership of a property, that should be used for the purposes of school admission and the applicant must provide evidence and reasons for the use of any other address.

Where an applicant rents a property and has ownership of an alternative property, the rented property will only be used for admission purposes if the child has been resident away from the owned property for a period of 18 months or more at the closing date for applications.

Any applicant who moves from a rented or temporary address in advance of their child taking up their school place may have their place withdrawn if it is found the family have returned to an address already in their ownership.

The school will investigate whether the place should be withdrawn if the pupil is not resident at the application address at the time of the entry point.

The school will always investigate a case where the application address has previously been used to gain a school place fraudulently.

Where it is found an address has been used for the purposes of admission where the child is not ordinarily resident, the application and any place offered will be withdrawn.

An offer found to have been gained fraudulently will be withdrawn. This may also be the case where the child has started the school.

In some cases, places may not be withdrawn once a child has been attending the school for a term or more. In these circumstances future sibling applications will not be given sibling priority for places and will be considered under the next appropriate criterion.

Waiting Lists

In Ladybirds and Bumblebees, the waiting lists will operate according to application date received ranking.

In Fireflies, the ranking and oversubscription criteria shown above will apply and without regard to the date the application was received or when a child’s name was added to the waiting list. Children with education, health and care plans will take priority over children on a waiting list, as directed by the local authority.

Children applying for nursery who are not offered a place for the year in which they have applied will be automatically added to the school’s waiting list for that year. Nursery waiting lists will be reviewed before being carried forward to the next academic year, to confirm which autumn and spring born children wish to be considered for a place in the next academic year.