Admissions and Attendance

Please find below information as to how to apply to Camm's and all about our attendance once you join!  The admission arrangements can be found with the Admissions Policy.

If you require a paper copy of any of the documents, please contact school and we will be happy to help.

Reception:

Admission to the school in Reception is managed by Derbyshire County Council through the Primary Admissions process. Please find below a link to the County Council website where applications can be made online.  In addition to this you can find our Admissions policy and supplementary Admissions form in the links below.

In-year admissions are also handled through Derbyshire County Council.

Over-Subscription Criteria

In the event that we have more applications than the 30 places we are legally able to offer (designated as Infant Class Size Prejudice), we apply the following procedure.

All applications, on receipt are ranked according to:

1.  Children in public care (looked after children)

2. Children who will have brothers and sisters attending the school in the year of admission

3.  Children of parents resident in the parish (or beneficial area) in which the school is situated.

4.  Children living outside the beneficial area.

Further explanation of these categories can be found in the full policy.

Once ranked, the information is sent to DCC and the numbers 1-30 will be offered a place.  In the event one is declined, the next ranked child will be offered a place, and so-on.

Late applications are handled by DCC and we are notified as to what to do next.

Details on appeals can be found in the policy.

Nursery Admissions:

These are done on a termly basis Sept, January and Easter and children are admitted the term after their third Birthday. Invitations are sent out the half term before admission and you will be invited to come to a meeting to discuss admission arrangements.

We do not have any 'feeder' nurseries in the area.  All applications are treated equally (as per the criteria)

If you need any further information about Admissions please contact the school office.

Admissions Consultation

ADMISSIONS ARRANGEMENTS CONSULTATION 2024/2025 

Eckington Camms (Endowed) CE (Aided) Primary School (known locally as Camm’s) is required to consult on its admissions arrangements for its schools if a) changes have been made to a school’s admissions arrangements or b) if a school has not consulted upon its admissions policy in the last 7 years. 

As a result, the Governors are consulting upon the admissions arrangements for Camm’s.

This is for the allocation of school places for the start of the academic year in 2024/2025. 

The consultation is running for a 6 week period from Monday 19th December 2022 to Monday 30^th January 2023 

The proposed changes include: 

• A removal of the Worship Criteria as an over-subscription category. 

A full copy of the proposed admission arrangements can be on our school website at:

Please email any comments on these proposals by the end date to headteacher@camms.derbyshire.sch.uk (with the message header ‘Admissions Consultation), or in writing to the above address.

Admission authorities must determine (formally agree) the admission arrangements for their school by 28 February 2023. Following the consultation period, the final determined admission arrangements will be published. 

Kind regards

Mr T Cocking

Headteacher.

Appeals

Details of this process can be found in the Admissions Policy.

Appeals are administered with the help of Derby Diocesan Board of Education and their Appeals Panel.

Attendance and Absence

We have a high expectation for attendance at school as ensuring your child is a school as often as possible is the best way to ensure they achieve their potential.  There is also the legal aspect to attendance, which is part of our role in monitoring and challenging attendance where it falls below our school target, the LA target and any trigger for involving Education Welfare Services.  This monitoring involves:

• Checking percentages against our traffic light system (Green >97%, Amber 97-90%, Red <90%) The 97% is a change for the 2018-2019 academic year.
• Assessing holiday requests against the criteria for exceptional circumstances.  Where an absence is unauthorised for over 3 days, we will refer this to DCC for a Fixed Penalty Notice.
• Discussing with Derbyshire Education Welfare Services
• Engaging with School Health
• Referring to Derbyshire Local Authority for Fixed Penalty Notices

All of these form part of our statutory duty to ensure that children are in school.  Sometimes this involves sending out letters which might feel a little unfair, but please understand that this part of our duty and as such needs to be carried out with due diligence and fair process - it is not a witch-hunt.

Sick children have no place in school, and where this is the case, we will send them home.  However, there are occasions where 'poorly tummies' are more down to not being a morning person (guilty as charged) or some other reason.  When this is the case, please send them in!  99.9% of the time a good dose of 'Fresh air and friends' works wonders and they are as right as rain.  The other 0.1% - well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

In all seriousness, attendance is a priority at school, and remains one of our Ofsted targets from 2010, and even it is wasn't, we would still target attendance being important.

Many thanks for your understanding and support in this matter.

Mr Cocking