Admissions policy

We have an open morning every Tuesday at 10am when Mr Bradley will be happy to show prospective parents around the school. Please ring the school office to make an appointment.

Admissions Criteria

At Merton Abbey we follow the admissions criteria that are set down by the Local Authority (LA). Admissions criteria are the rules by which applications are ranked for each school.
The LA criterion is as follows:

1. Looked After Children

2. Exceptional and professionally supported medical or social needs

3. Siblings on roll in years Reception to Year 6 at the time of admission

4. Straight line distance

First Criterion

Children in public care (i.e. children looked after by a local authority). If you make an application under this criterion, it must be supported by a letter from the relevant local authority.

Second Criterion

• Children with an exceptional and professionally supported medical or social need for a place in a particular school. You must submit evidence from a professional person with the application form otherwise it will not be possible to take the particular need into account. The Admissions Team will consider if the evidence shows a need for the child to attend a particular school, and this need could not reasonably be supported in another school. Please note that the Admissions Team will not seek evidence on behalf of an applicant, and that it is the responsibility of an applicant to ensure that all evidence is made available with the application.

• In the case of a medical need the LA will consider if it is essential, on medical grounds, for the child to attend the school of the parents’ preference. If you require a place at a particular school on the basis of a medical need, please contact the School Admissions Team on 020 8274 4906 for an additional form to be completed by a relevant medical professional.

  Please note we cannot accept letters from yourself or from other members of your family, nor from your health visitor. We do not consider child-minding or parents’ working arrangements as evidence of social need (nor attendance in a school nursery for an application for Reception).

To those children who have a brother or sister (sibling) registered at the school who will be attending the school at the time of their admission. A qualifying sibling is a brother or sister (or step brother/sister, adopted brother/sister) who is part of the same family unit living at the same address. (For Reception class applicants, this does not include younger siblings in the Nursery or older siblings in Year 6).

Fourth Criterion (with the exception of Wimbledon Chase Primary School)

To all other pupils in order of nearness to the school.

Distance measurement

• When applying admission criteria we measure the straight line distance between the child’s home address and the school concerned.

• The distance between these points will be calculated using a computerised mapping system.

• The child’s address should be that of the child’s permanent residence.

• You may not give the address of a relative or carer unless they have legal custody

  of the child.

• If parents are separated and share custody of the child, the address given should be that of the parent with whom the child spends most of the school week, which will normally be the address where Child Benefit is payable. If the parent making the application lives at a different address to the child, a letter of explanation should be attached. An application can only be made from a single address, and only a single application can be made for each child.

• It is not acceptable for a family to use a temporarily rented address to secure a place of their preference.

• In disputed cases, the admissions team will make a judgement based on the evidence available to them.

• It should be noted that the computerised system, which uses Ordnance Survey Maps, measures from a start point plotted within the centre of the property at which the applicant lives to the appropriate school gate and calculates this measurement. (140 metre criterion in 2010)

• Where a school has more than one entrance gate, the one closest to the applicant’s home will be used for this purpose. Where computerised maps are unavailable the same procedure is followed but measurements are undertaken using A-Z maps and a map distance measurement wheel.

• Where more than one applicant has the same straight-line distance measurement and distance is the determining factor, lots will be drawn to determine the rank order.

Applicants wishing to query a distance from home to school should contact the School Admission team on 020 8274 4906.

In cases where a distance calculation is disputed applicants should write to the School Admissions Manager, 10th Floor, Civic Centre, Morden SM4 5DX. All disputes will be investigated. Where it is agreed that the basis of the calculation was incorrect the measurement will be recalculated. The calculation will be re-run for both the applicant in question and any other applicant shown to be affected by the issue.

Entry to the Foundation Stage Nursery

In order to keep the balance of the Nursery and allow for the new intake in January and April, morning or afternoon places will be allocated on:

1. Medical grounds
2. Special Educational Needs
3. Social Care involvement
4. First come first serve basis for the remaining termly allocations.

Please discuss any of the above either following the New to Nursery/Reception Meetings with the Head Teacher when the class teacher carries out the home visit.

A place in the school’s Nursery does not guarantee a place in the Reception class. Parents have to reapply to Merton and the admissions department allocates places on the criterion mentioned above.

Entry to the Main School

Parents have to apply to Merton and the admissions department allocates places, and if there is a vacancy a school place is allocated, the school is notified and then writes to the parents to invite them in for a meeting.