Placing Requests - How Decisions Are Made

Placement Guidance  | Pre-School Registration | Early Entry |  Application Process

The responsibility for decisions on placing requests rests with The Director of Community Services and Heads of Service within Community Services. However, where there are more requests than places available for a particular school or a particular stage in a school, all requests will be considered by a local attendance council who will then make recommendations to the responsible member.
You will be given the opportunity of presenting your case to the local attendance council. Should this situation arise, you will be advised in good time of the date and location of the appropriate meeting and you will be asked at that time if you wish to attend. You may be accompanied at this meeting by a friend.

Guidelines and Criteria

The local attendance council and members of Community Services work to a set of guidelines in reaching decisions on placing requests. These guidelines set out the council’s priorities for admission and can be summarised as follows:

Primary

Where there are places available in primary school, priority will be given to:

•  those children who live in its delineated area but have been unable, for whatever reason, to be accommodated in the area school to date;
• Thereafter, to early entry children who live in the school’s delineated area and who are considered suitable for primary education.

Secondary

Where there are places available in a secondary school, priority will be given in the granting of placing requests to:

• those children who live in its delineated area, where applicable, but have been unable, for whatever reason, to be accommodated in the area school to date;
• those children who live in the delineated area of an associated primary school but who have been unable to be accommodated in the area’s secondary school to date

General

Thereafter, where there are more placing requests for primary or secondary than there are places available, priority will be given to:

• those cases which include medical grounds supported by the family doctor and the community medicine specialist;
• (in the case of secondary schools with a delineated area)
  those children who do not live in the delineated area, but who attend primary schools within it.
• the presence of older siblings in the school.