Dear Sir or Madam,

Please could you provide me with the criteria used for the 2009
admission of children, living within the catchment area, to Court
Hill Primary School? 41 children were declined places at this
school. What is being done to improve this situation?

Yours faithfully,

Thomas Knight

Good Morning Mr Knight,

I acknowledge receipt of your Freedom of Information requests to the
Borough of Poole regarding school catchment criteria. This has been
logged as FOI0720309 and forwarded on to my colleagues in Children's
Services who will endeavour to respond to you asap.

Kind Regards
Kat

Katharine Watters
Senior Research Officer
Corporate Research and Information
Strategic Planning Services
Borough of Poole
Civic Centre, BH15 2RU

Tel: 01202 633367
Email: [email address]

boroughofpoole.com/opinions - our consultation planner, results and
on-line consultations
boroughofpoole.com/statistics - Poole statistics on-line
boroughofpoole.com/wherecanifind - our on-line mapping service

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Dear Mr Knight

I refer to your recent request submitted under the Freedom of Information
Act.
Your request was passed to our School Admissions Team and I am now able to
supply the information you have requested.

Admissions Policy
The admissions policy used for Couthill First School is attached to this
message and is used for all Community and Voluntary Controlled First,
Combined, Middle and Primary schools in Poole. The policy is also
available on the Borough's website and Parents information guide booklets.

What is being done to improve the situation?
Projected pupil numbers are kept under review. However, the figures are
based on Health Authority live birth data and not necessarily all these
children will attend their catchment school. Admission arrangements are
agreed 18 months in advance and at that time there is no sure way of
knowing how many pupils under the age of 4 are living in a catchment area
and of these how many will apply for a place at their catchment area
school. Courthill First School faces a particularly difficult situation as
it is one of the oldest schools in Poole and its physical location does
not enable it to be extended. Therefore additional accommodation cannot be
provided on the site. The only alternative would be to review the
catchment area of the school making it smaller so that there would be less
pupils considered as "in catchment". Unfortunately such a course of action
is not carried out quickly. The local authority would have to undertake an
extensive public consultation exercise before deciding on a course of
action. The local authority has just agreed the admission arrangements for
2010/11 so the earliest that a catchment area review could be implemented
is 2011/12. At the present time the local authority is considering the
options for 2011/12. If a catchment area review was undertaken the likely
outcome would be that parents living furthest away from the school would
be moved into the catchment area of another school, one which had the
capacity to take the children. This may not be a popular move with parents
but may be the only solution.

I hope this information covers your request and thank you for contacting
the Borough of Poole.

Yours sincerely

Steve Otter
Assistant Education Officer (Management Information)
Children & Young People's Integrated Services

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