Admission Arrangements

Admissions

Bond's administrative staff will be able to answer any questions parents may have about admissions. Bond is a Community Primary School which means that all decisions about admissions are made by the Local Authority, following the agreed admissions policy for all Merton community schools.

Applications for entry in 2019/2020 will be ranked against the following factors:

1. Looked after children or previously looked after children (see notes on looked after children below)
2. Where there are professionally supported medical reasons or exceptional social reasons why a child should attend a particular school (see notes on medical and social reasons below)
3. Children of permanent teaching staff (see notes on permanent teaching staff below)
4. Where a sibling is already in the main school at the time of admission (see notes on siblings below)
5. Straight line distance between the child’s home address and the main school (see notes on distance below)

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, or special guardianship order, immediately following having been looked after.

Medical or 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 Admissions Team will consider if the evidence provided demonstrates that the child must attend a particular school and cannot reasonably attend an alternative school. Please note that your child’s current (or most recently attended) school may be contacted for further information and may be sent a copy of your request. The information you provide may also be shared with an independent appeals panel should this be necessary. Applicants will not be individually advised if their application has been prioritised under this criterion.

Please note that letters cannot be accepted from yourself or from other members of your family, nor from your health visitor. Merton does not consider childminding or parents' working arrangements as evidence of social need.

Permanent teaching staff

Children of permanent teaching staff will be prioritised in the admission arrangements in either or both of the following circumstances:

1. where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or
2. the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

Siblings

Sibling refers to brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step brother or sister, or the child of the parent/carer’s partner, and in every case, who is living as part of the same family unit at the same address, Monday to Friday.

Distance measurement

All distances will be measured by the computerised Geographical Information System maintained by Merton Admissions team. It should be noted that the computerised system measures from a start point plotted within the property at which the applicant lives to the main school reception entrance and calculates this measurement.

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 to Primary School (Reception) will be the child’s address at the closing date for application. Changes of address up to 8 February 2019 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. Any offer is conditional upon the child living at the appropriate address on the relevant date. Parents have a responsibility to notify the Local Authority 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 3 years 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 authority will investigate whether the place should be withdrawn if the pupil is not resident at the application address at the time of the September entry point.
• The authority 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.

Where more than one applicant has the same straight line distance measurement and distance is the determining factor, rank order will be determined by random allocation.

Detailed information regarding the admissions arrangements can be found via the link below