St. Brigid's

St Brigid’s Primary School

Enrolment Policy

Chairperson: Dónall Ó Murchú

Principal: Deirdre Early

INTRODUCTION

The Board of Management of St Brigid’s PS. hereby sets out its Enrolment and

Admission Policy in accordance with the provisions of the Education Act 1998

and the Board trusts that by so doing, parents will be assisted in relation to

enrolment matters. The Chairperson of the Board of Management or the

Principal Teacher will be happy to clarify any matters arising from this policy.

School Information St Brigid’s Primary School,

The Coombe,

Dublin 8.

D08E377

Tel: 01 454 7734

Website : www.stbrigidsthecoombe.ie

Patronage and Ethos

St Brigid’s is a Catholic primary school under the patronage of the Archbishop

of Dublin and the Trusteeship of the St. Laurence O Toole Trust. As a Roman

Catholic School, the school aims at promoting the holistic and harmonious

nurturing of all pupils, including their cognitive, intellectual, physical, cultural,

moral and spiritual development. The school caters for the full range of classes

from Junior Infants to sixth class for girls and from Junior Infants to First

Class for boys. It is an inclusive school and caters for children of all abilities.

Staff

Currently there are 20 full time teachers, including the principal, Home School

liaison teacher, Early Start teacher and …5..resource / learning support /

language support teachers, employed in the school. There are 3 Special Needs

Assistants and one Child Care Worker currently employed in the school.

St. Brigid’s operates under the Rules for National Schools and Departmental

Circulars and is funded by grants. Staff is resourced by the Department of

Education and Science. The school is subject to The Education Act (1998), The

Education Welfare Act (2000), The Education for Persons with Special

Education Needs Act (2004) equality law and all other relevant legislation. St

.Brigid’s follows the curricular programmes laid down by the Department of

Education and Skills.

Rationale

This policy aims to ensure that the appropriate procedures are in place to

enable the school

● To make decisions on all applications in an open and transparent manner

consistent with the Ethos, the Mission Statement of the school and

legislative requirements.

● To make an accurate and appropriate assessment of the capacity of the

school to cater for the needs of applicants in the light of the resources

available to it and

● To put in place a framework which will ensure effective and productive

relations between pupils, parents and teachers where a pupil is admitted

to the school.

Application Procedure

Application forms are available from the school office tel: 01 454 7734 or may

be downloaded from the school website.

Parents seeking to enrol a child should return a completed application form

together with a photocopy of the original birth/ adoption certificate and

baptismal certificate (where applicable) to the school. . Parents will be informed

in writing of the result of their application during the months of

February/March of the year preceding the September of enrolment. Parents of

children who accept our offer of a place will be invited to a meeting in the

school in April. Attendance at this meeting and or written confirmation is

required to hold the place.

Closing date for applications for Junior Infants is 31 st January of the year of

entry. Children may be enrolled after this date if spaces are available.

Junior Infants are enrolled in September provided the child has reached the

4th birthday on or before 1 st September of the year of enrolment. Normally

Junior Infants will not be enrolled during the year unless transferring from

another school and there is space available.

No child is refused admission for reasons of ethnicity, special educational

needs, disability, language / accent, gender, traveller status, asylum-seeker /

refugee status, religious / political beliefs and values, family or social

circumstances.

The completion of an application form or the placement of your child's name on

a list does not confer an automatic right to a place in the school.

Behaviour

Children enrolled in St. Brigid’s are required to co-operate with and support the

school's Code of Behaviour as well as all other policies. Parents / Guardians are

responsible for ensuring that their child co-operates with these policies in an

age-appropriate way.

A copy of the Code of Behaviour and a copy of the Ethos Statement will be

issued to all parents/guardians and each parent/guardian will be requested to

sign an undertaking to uphold the school Code of Behaviour.

Application Process

Applications will be accepted and considered in sequence. In the event of the

number of children seeking to be enrolled exceeding the number of places

available, the following criteria will be used to prioritise children for enrolment.

1. Early Start children who have attended St Brigid’s Early Start in the

previous year.

2. Sisters and brothers of children enrolled in the school (including

stepsisters and step brothers resident at the same address).

3. Catholic children of the parish.

4. Catholic children who live outside the parish and who do not have a

Catholic school in their parish.

5. Children of all past pupils and staff.

6. All children who live within the parish boundaries.

7. All children from outside the parish.

If spaces are available other children may be enrolled during the school year if

newly resident in the area. Pupils wishing to transfer from other schools are

enrolled subject to the Rules for National Schools, Education Welfare and

school's enrolment policy.

Decision Making

The Board of Management determines the maximum number of children in the

school based on the Department of Education’s recommended enrolment at the

time.

Children with Special Needs

Children with special educational needs are welcome to enrol in the school

subject to enrolment criteria and every effort will be made to provide them

with an appropriate education as well to include them in every aspect of school

life. Supports and resources will put in place in accordance with the level of

resources provided by the Department of Education and Science. Every effort

will be made secure all available resources.

The Board of Management may request copies of relevant reports or request

that the child be assessed immediately in order to assist the school in

establishing the educational needs of the child and to profile the support

services required. The Board of Management will endeavour to have all

resources and supports in place before the child is admitted to the school. This

may include visiting teacher service, resource teacher, special needs assistants

etc., specialised equipment or furniture, transport services etc. The school will

meet with the parent of the special needs child to discuss the school's

suitability for the child. If considered necessary, a full case conference may be

called which will include parents, class teacher, learning support teacher,

resource teacher and psychologist or social workers as appropriate.

Exceptional Circumstances

The school reserves the right to refuse enrolment to a pupil in exceptional

cases. Such an exceptional case could arise where either:

1. The pupil has special needs such that, even with additional resources

available from the Department of Education and Science, the school cannot

meet such needs and/ or provide the pupil with an appropriate education.

2. In the opinion of the Board of Management, the pupil poses an

unacceptable risk, to other pupils, to school staff or to school property.

(See Appeals Procedure below)

Children of other faiths or no faith

Bearing in mind the Catholic ethos of the school, every effort will be made so

that the school is as inclusive as possible. While Catholic education and the

ethos of the school permeates the day, children of other faiths or none, where

a request is made in writing, will be excused from attendance at formal religious

instruction classes and specifically Catholic liturgies where appropriate

supervision arrangements can be put in place. As far as is possible, in

consultation with parents, suitable alternative arrangements will be made in

order to facilitate this. It will not be possible however to provide religious

instruction in other faiths.

Appeals Procedure

In line with Section 29 of the Education Act 1998, parents who are dissatisfied

with an enrolment decision, may appeal to the Board of Management. This appeal

must be addressed, in writing to the Chairperson of the Board, stating the

grounds for the appeal, and lodged within ten days of receiving the refusal.

Parents, if unhappy with the result of this appeal, may appeal to the Department

of Education and Skills under Section 29 of the Education Act on the official

form provided by the Department. An appeal form will be issued by the school

to the parents / guardians. This appeal must be lodged within 42 days of receipt

of the refusal from the school to enrol.

EVALUATION

The Board of Management will monitor the implementation of all aspects of the

Policy and review and amend the Policy as required, with particular emphasis

placed upon

● Effective management placed on application process

● Clarity and transparency related to the process

● Applicants informed in good time re the status of their application,

particularly in the case of refusal to enrol

● Positive Parental feedback.

MONITORING PROCEDURES

The implementation of this policy will be monitored by the Board of

Management at the appropriate time. It will also be referred by the Principal

for consideration by the full staff at the same time. The Principal will report to

the Board of Management regarding the process of enrolment in March each

year and regularly thereafter until enrolment is complete. Where the Principal

refuses admission to any applicant by the authority delegated to her by the

Board in line with this policy any such refusal shall be communicated to the

Board at the earliest opportunity.

REVIEW PROCEDURE

The policy will be reviewed regularly in the light of experience. It will be

reviewed by the full staff and Board of Management every five years. Any

staff member, board member, parent/ guardian who is unhappy with the content

or the implementation of any school policy may request a review at any time and

such a request will be dealt with as quickly as possible. Next review of this

policy will occur before or during the school year 2018

Preparation and Review.

This policy was compiled by staff in January 2013 and reviewed by the

Parents Association in January of the same year. It was ratified by the Board

of Management at its meeting of 06/02/2013.

This policy was reviewed and amended by the Board of Management at its

meeting of 24 th November 2016.

This reviewed policy was ratified by the Board of Management at its meeting of

19 th January, 2017.