St.Marys

Admissions and Participation Policy
St Mary’s Boys’ School Grange Road Rathfarnham

St Mary’s is a Catholic boys’ 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 full and harmonious development of all pupils cognitive, intellectual, physical, cultural, moral and spiritual, including a living relationship with God and other people. The school models and promotes a philosophy of life inspired by belief in God and in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The school caters for the full range of classes from Junior Infants to sixth class. It is an inclusive school and caters for boys of all abilities. Currently there are 22 full time teachers, including the principal, 4 resource / learning support teachers, 1 language support teacher, employed in the school. Special Needs Assistants may be assigned to the school by the Department of Education and Science to enable the inclusion of certain children with special education needs.
St. Mary’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.Mary’s follows the curricular programmes laid down by the Department of Education and Science.

The Admissions policy
This Admissions Policy has been formulated in accordance with the provisions of the Education act 1998 in order to assist Parents in relation to enrolment matters. The Chairperson of the Board of Management or the Principal or the school secretary will be happy to clarify any further matters arising from the policy.
Application Procedure
Application forms are available from the school office 01 4931477 or on the website www.marysbns.ie Parents seeking to enrol a boy 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 of boys who accept our offer of a place will be invited to a meeting in the school in May. Closing date for applications for junior infants is 31.of January of the year of entry. Parents will be informed in writing of the result of their application within a few weeks of this date.

Boys will be enrolled on application provided that there is space available.
Junior Infants are enrolled in September provided the boy has reached his 4th birthday. Normally, Junior Infants will not be enrolled during the year unless transferring from another school and there is space available. This is for education reasons as the curriculum is progressive and it is necessary for the child to complete a full year.
Decisions in relation to application for enrolment are made by the Principal on behalf of the Board of Management.
Parents will be informed of acceptance of the child to the school as soon as possible.
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
Boys enrolled in the St. Mary’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 boy 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 and each parent will be requested to sign an undertaking to uphold the school Code of Behaviour.

In the event of the number of boys seeking enrolment exceeding the number of places available the following criteria will be used to prioritize boys for enrolment:
1) Brothers of boys already enrolled (including step- brothers resident at the same address) sons or brothers of past pupils and Catholic boys living within the parish.
2) Sons of members of staff.
3) Catholic boys who live outside the parish and who do not have a Catholic school in their parish.
4) Boys who live within the parish boundaries but are not Catholic.
5) Catholic boys from outside the parish.
6) Non-Catholic from outside the parish.
Note: In the event of being unable to accommodate boys other than junior infant boys in any requested class standard the names of the applicants will be placed on a waiting list in accordance with the criteria above.

Junior Infants : Allocation of places – Offer of places
Offer 1 :Places will be offered to boys who are 4 years old before April 1st. of the year of entry in accordance with criteria 1- 7 above.
Subsequent Offers: Subsequent offers will be made according to seniority .
If spaces are available other boys 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
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
Childrenwith special educational needs are welcome to enroll 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, specialized 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 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 28 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 Science 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.

Preparation: This policy was updated by the Principal in consultation with staff in January 2009.
It was presented to the Parents’ Association in February 2009 and approved by the Board of Management on Feb.23rd 2009.

Signed:__________________________date:________
Edward Fitzgerald(Chairman)