Admissions

St Mary's Admissions Policy

St Mary's is a DCSF registered and approved Non Maintained Special School run by a not for profit children's charity, St Mary's Wrestwood Children's Trust.  The DCSF has approved St Mary's to admit learners with moderate learning difficulties under the following categories:

• Pupils with speech, language and social communication difficulties (autistic spectrum disorders) within the moderate learning difficulties range; and
• Pupils with physical difficulties and/or complex medical conditions within the moderate learning difficulties range.

The learner's Local Authority or the learner's parents/carers may refer the learner to St Mary's. The referral is made to the Chief Executive Officer.

The referral may be made by telephone or may involve the Trust receiving recent relevant paperwork about the learner describing their needs. This may be preceded by an informal visit if it is a parental referral.

For a learner to be admitted to St Mary's they must go through the assessment process to determine whether or not the School/College can meet their needs. This process is as follows:

• The Senior Leadership Group reviews the paperwork outlining the learner's needs. The Director of Health Services, The Head of School or College and the Director of Residential and Community Services must have read the papers and formed an opinion before an assessment is offered. The paperwork for each learner is discussed at the weekly referral meeting and a decision is made about whether to offer an assessment. The referral papers are then passed to the Assessment Teacher who liaises with the Local Authority and/or parents/carers and organises a time for assessment. The assessment teacher sends out a detailed pack to the learner and parents/carers before assessment giving information about timetable, class/residential group and practical requisites required. The pack also includes colourful photographs of the school/college.There is a fee payable for assessment. This is paid by the person/agency who refers the learner.

• The learner is met on arrival by the assessment teacher and taken to meet the class/tutor group. The parents/carers meet with senior staff to go through the completed questionnaire (sent out beforehand) and to discuss any pertinent issues relating to the assessment. The duration of the assessment is 3 days for a day placement (4 days in college) and 4 days for a residential placement.

• On the last day of assessment the staff involved meet to feed back their findings to the Head of School or College. This group usually involves: the Assessment Teacher, a Physiotherapist, an Occupational Therapist, a Speech and Language Therapist and Residential staff from the appropriate Living Area/House. The Chief Executive Officer in liaison with the Head of School or College makes the final decision about whether to offer a placement.

• The Head of School or College and the Assessment Teacher feed back to parents/carers at the end of the assessment. This involves communicating the outcome of the assessment verbally and giving some simple information about how the decision was reached. A comprehensive multi-disciplinary report follows on 3-4 weeks later. The Local Authority is informed of the outcome of the assessment if they were the referring body or if the parents/carers wish it in the case of a parental referral.

• If, as a result of the assessment, the Trust decides that the needs of the learner can be met at St Mary's then a place is offered. The place may not be taken up immediately or at all as it is dependent on Local Authority funding and not purely the wishes of the parents/carers.

Mrs Jo Whiteman (Headteacher)

April 2009