St. Philip's is a Voluntary Aided Church of England Primary School situated in the Hulme area of Manchester located near to Manchester city center and the universities of Manchester.
St Philip’s Church of England Primary School is a Voluntary Aided school. Admissions to an Aided School are the responsibility of the Governors, in agreement with the Diocesan Board of Education and the Local Authority. The Governing Body is the admission authority for the school, and the school is required to act by the School Admissions Code. The admissions process is coordinated by Manchester City Council (the Local Authority) and the school liaises with the Local Authority on admissions issues.
The published admission number agreed for admission to the Reception Class is 30. If no more than 30 applications for admission to the Reception Class are received, all applicants will be offered places. 26 children may be admitted to the Nursery Class. (Please see the separate notes below on arrangements for Nursery admissions. A separate application must be made for any transfer from the Nursery class to the Reception Class in the Primary School.) Responsibility for admissions is delegated to the Governing Body Admissions SubCommittee. The school will admit all children having a statement of special educational needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) in whose statement or EHCP the school is named.
Parents may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group, for example, if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill-health. In addition, the parents of a summer-born child may choose not to send that child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1.
Parents requesting admission out of the normal age group must put their request in writing, addressed to the Headteacher at the school, together with any supporting evidence that the parent wishes to be taken into account. The governing body will make decisions on requests for admission outside the normal age group based on the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This will include taking account of the parent’s views any information provided about the child’s academic, social and emotional development where relevant, their medical history, and the views of a medical professional whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group and whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely. The governing body will also take into account the views of the Headteacher. When informing a parent of their decision on the year group the child should be admitted to, the governing body will set out the reasons for their decision.
Where the governing body agrees to a parent’s request for their child to be admitted out of their normal age group and, as a consequence of that decision, the child will be admitted to a relevant age group (i.e. the age group to which pupils are normally admitted to the school) 4 the local authority and governing body must process the application as part of the main admissions round, unless the parental request is made too late for this to be possible, and based on their determined admission arrangements only, including the application of oversubscription criteria where applicable. The governing body must not give the application lower priority on the basis that the child is being admitted out of their normal age group.
Parents have a statutory right to appeal against the refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied. This right does not apply if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group.
The overriding principle at St. Philip’s is one of nurture rather than punishment. Various levels of behavioral strategies operate within the school at any one time, ranging from those concerned with classroom management and ethos, to those relating to an internal exclusion for a fixed period. At St. Philip’s we always respond sensitively and professionally to the needs of particular individual children. Throughout each day the expectation is that every member of staff will endeavor to adopt a positive attitude towards all our pupils.
- The class teacher uses a time-out card, which informs the partner class teacher of the time that the child is to remain in that class. Occasionally a class teacher may feel that another year group would be more appropriate this needs to be arranged between the class teachers, before the removal of the child. The child will remain in the designated room for a fixed period (stated on the Removal from Class Slip) so that they might reflect, before returning to their class, showing that they have modified their behavior appropriately. There should be a place in each class for a child to sit and reflect (this is not on the floor). Parents/carers will be notified when there has been a repetition of unacceptable behavior, verbally or via a letter, and the matter discussed at the earliest opportunity. Naturally, subsequent positive feedback will also be given as and when appropriate.
