We are not aware of any plans by Reading council to amend catchment areas as a result of The Heights.

The catchment area has been devised in partnership with Reading Borough Council to serve the community of Caversham Heights and Mapledurham. Its boundaries were set with reference to the data for the last five years’ school admissions to ensure as many children as possible are able to get into their catchment school.

Parents have expressed an interest in transferring children into years other than reception in 2014.  However, when writing the bid, we felt it was only appropriate to allow this for years 1 and 3.  Year 1 students would be entering the Heights at the start of Key Stage 1, a natural time for change.  Year 3 students will have already completed Key Stage 1 and therefore move to the Heights for the start of Key Stage 2.  However, we did not receive sufficient applications to be able to go ahead with Year 3 and so The Heights only opened with two Reception classes and one Year 1 class.

It is within the vision of the school and it’s overall ethos that classes should not have more than 25 pupils in them.   This was accepted by the Department for Education at the bid stage and is written into our Funding Agreement.  Our Published Admissions Number for 2015 is 50 children, made up of two Reception classes.  We are only allowed to exceed this number if parents are successful through the Appeals Process.

The Heights was primarily developed to address the capacity issue in North Reading as a whole.  However, when asked by the council for volunteers to put in a bid to set up a new Free School, it was those living in Caversham Heights, in the dual Emmer Green / The Hill catchment and Caversham Primary area that came forward.  In this area, children are only likely to get into their designated schools if they take on a bulge year.  The catchment area has been expanded, based on feedback from the community and the council to include more children that are unlikely to obtain a place in their designated school.

The admissions policy for The Heights is the same as that for Reading Borough Council administered schools.  This does mean that those living closes to the data point (a central point identified within the catchment area, in the absence of a location for the school) and within catchment will have a greater chance of getting a place at The Heights than those further away.  This is the same with all schools in Reading.

The Heights Trust sought the views of many parents, teachers and other community members prior to establishing the vision for the school. It was clear that smaller class sizes were an important aspect to these stakeholders and therefore became a key feature of our vision.  Our bid was approved on the back of our formal Evidence of Demand survey, which (at time of submission) 289 people completed.  Of these, 99% were in favour of our vision.  It was this vision that the bid was approved upon and so not something we are able to change at this stage.

We were also aware that St Martin’s Primary were due to expand, partly addressing the need for an additional 60 places in North Reading.  It was therefore felt that a Published Admissions Number (PAN) of 50 per year would be appropriate.

In the bid, we had to demonstrate that the school could be financially viable with a smaller PAN.  This was achieved by not using an education provider to manage our bid, with the majority of the work being carried out on a voluntary basis by members of The Trust.  These figures have been scrutinised and approved by the Department of Education.

Admissions are being managed by Reading Borough Council, in the same way as for other local primaries.  You can download a copy of The Heights’ Admissions Policy here.  The council manages the waiting list on behalf of the school.

Parents wishing to apply for a place in Year 1 should do so by completing the form available at www.theheightsprimary.co.uk/transfers.

It is a requirement of the Schools Admissions Code that all schools agree a Published Admissions Number (PAN).  The PAN for The Heights for 2015 is 50 children into Reception.  We are not allowed to change this.  There may be a case in future years to expand available places but this would be subject to a formal consultation.

Reading Council identified the need for an additional 60 primary place in North Reading, based upon data which The Heights Primary School team do not have access too.  As part of the bid process the team had to demonstrate sufficient demand for a new school within the defined catchment area.  To achieve this a survey was set up, which was completed by 362 respondents.  Part of this survey was to ask parents if they would choose The Heights for their child(ren), including whether they would potentially transfer their children already in primary school.  Based upon the childrens’ dates of birth, we were able to identify how many children would potentially attend The Heights and in which year.  The data indicated that the following children would potentially attend in 2014: 58 children into Reception; 52 children into Year 1 and 23 children into Year 3.  The data also showed that 67 children would potentially enter Reception in 2015.  At the consultation meeting a map was briefly shown, indicating the postcodes where these parents lived.  It is not possible to share this data as to do so would enable individual households to be identified.