Foundation Stage/Reception
If you would like your child to attend our school please see full details our admissions arrangements below.
Blackburn with Darwen Local Authority manages primary admissions and the process is now done on line. Further information about the application process can be found on this by clicking the link below:
https://www.blackburn.gov.uk/index.php/schools-and-education/school-admissions
Formal offers of places are sent out in accordance with the LA’s policy and national timetable in April. The school has places for 60 children in Reception and Key Stage One.
The current admission number is 420 children. The school also has a hearing impaired resourced provision which can accommodate an additional 20 hearing impaired or deaf pupils.
Admission Criteria
Admission policy for community and voluntary controlled infant and primary schools.
Children with a statement for special educational needs, educational health care plan (EHC) and individual pupil resourcing agreements (IPRAs) for whom the preferred school is named in the statement will be admitted first. If the demand for places at LDPS is greater than the number of places available, all applicants who have named the school as 1st, 2nd or 3rd preference will be considered equally agianst the local authority's admission policy, in the priority order below:
(a) Children in care (looked after children) and children who were previously 'looked after', but immediately after being looked after were adopted or became subject to a residency/child arrangement or special guardianship order. 'Looked after' means that the child was either in the care of the local authority or being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services function then;
(b) Children with an older sibling (sibling means a brother or sister, half-brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, or the child of the parent/carer's partner. and in every case, the child should be living in the same family unit at the same address) who will be attending the school when the younger child starts. This does not apply to cousins. Then;
(c) Children with proven exceptional medical, social or welfare needs which are directly relevant to the school concerned. Appropriate evidence from a doctor, social worker or other professional must be provided. The evidence must explain why the preferred school is the most suitable and what difficulties wuld be caused if the child has to attend another school. Consideration may also be given where one or both parents/carers or the child has a disability that may make travel to a school further away more difficult, then;
(d) The geographical criteria is:
Remaining places will be offered to children who live nearest to the preferred school. The distance will be measured in a straight line between the home front door and the main gate of the school using the local authority's computerised mapping system.
NOTE: If category (a), (b) or (c) is oversubscribed, category (d) will be used as a ‘tiebreaker’.
If after applying category (d), it is not possible to decide on the child/children to be offered admission, (for example two children living in the same block of flats or in the same house) the local authority will then use random allocation to decide which of the children in offered a place.
Where there are twins, etc wanting admission and there is only a single place left within the admission number, then the Council will exercise as much flexibility as possible within the requirements of infant class sizes. In exceptional circumstances/cases we are now able to offer places for both twins and all triplets, even when this means breaching infant class size limits. This may also apply to siblings who are in the same year group.
Contact for September Admissions
The Admissions Team can be contacted by e.mail: admissions@blackburn.gov.uk or by telephone on 01254 666605
Applications can be made by following this link: https://www.blackburn.gov.uk/index.php/schools-and-education/school-admissions
Fraudulent Applications
If a school place is offered and this is then found to have been based upon fraudulent or inaccurate information then it may be withdrawn. This can apply even where a child has started at Lower Darwen Primary School.
Admissions to the rest of the school (In year admissions)
Please enquire at the Local Authority's Admissions Department. We no longer can transfer children unless we have been contacted by the Admissions Team.
In year admissions are also administered by the local authority. The school currently provides places for 60 children in each year group.
At the foot of the page is a link to the local authority's co-ordinated admissions arrangements with key dates and other information. This information can be accessed by clicking the link.
Admissions to High School
Children from Lower Darwen Primary School may express a preference for any of the local high schools. There are good links with all local secondary schools and liaison is promoted through visits by children, exchange of teaching staff, the use of facilities and teaching expertise. In the Autumn term, the admission to high schools begins. This process is done on line and applications must be submitted on line to the local authority by the end of November. More information can be found on the link below.
https://www.blackburn.gov.uk/index.php/schools-and-education/school-admissions
Places are then allocated in the Spring term by the local authority and parents notified at the beginning of March.
Protocol for In year admissions
Where parents or carers request an In year transfer they should be informed that the transfer date is the beginning of the next school term and that pupil should continue to access his/her existing school until that date.
However, there will be exceptions, for example;
The local authority contact for these admissions is The Fair Access team. They can be contacted by e.mail: fair.access@blackburn.gov.uk or by telephone on 01254 666605
Monitoring
This policy will be monitored by the governing body and reviewed every year, or earlier in the light of any changed circumstances, either in our school or in the local area. The policy will also be subject to a Equality Impact Assessment to ensure that we comply with our Public Sector Equality Duty. The policy will always take due note of guidance provided by the local authority.