You are a parent or legal guardian of a child or children under the age of 18, who reside primarily with you or for whom you have significant caring responsibilities.
It is expected that you and your child(ren) will remain at your current address and application for pre-allocation will be to the foundation school local to that address. If this is not the case, an explanation must be provided in the applicant supporting statement section.
If you and the child(ren) do not normally reside together, this should be referred to on the application form, and information supplied as to why the caring responsibilities remain equally significant.
If your sole criterion is that you (or your partner) are currently pregnant, you will not be regarded as eligible for pre-allocation based on personal circumstances under this criterion. Refer to the Inter-Foundation School Transfer (IFST) guidance for further information.
Completing the application form for criterion 1
- Part 1 of the application form must be completed by you, in which you provide an applicant statement with information about your current parental or legal guardian responsibilities and list the details of your child(ren).
- Part 2 of the application form is a supporting statement which must be completed by a supporting signatory who can confirm that they know both you AND the child(ren). This person must have a professional working relationship with the child(ren), e.g. teacher, headteacher, pre-school/nursery manager, midwife, GP/doctor, social worker.
- Part 3 of the application does not contain any section that requires completion or a signature. However, the information provided should be read and understood by the applicant.
- Optional checklist – the checklist does not need to be included with your application, and does not need to be uploaded onto Oriel because it is not a mandatory part of the application process. However, if you choose to include it, this is fine.
The information provided by the supporting signatory needs to be legible, clear and explicit.
Supporting evidence requirements
You are required to provide the following supporting evidence
- A copy of the long/full version of the birth certificate is required for at least one of the children listed in your application.
- If a birth certificate has been issued by a country outside of the UK and is not fully written in English, a translated copy must be provided so that the national review panel are able to read it. If a translated copy is not provided the pre-allocation application may be rejected by the review panel
- The short version of the birth certificate must NOT be provided, because it does not include the names of the parents and therefore won’t provide the review panel with the name of the applicant/parent which is needed for this application process. Applicants must provide the long/full version.
- The applicant’s name as the parent must be listed on the birth certificate for at least one of the children listed in the application (unless legal guardianship applies, see point 2 below).
- For legal guardians, a copy of the legal document that confirms your status for the child named in the birth certificate (if applicable). For example, a Parental Responsibility Order.
- Proof of current address in your name, and which is in the area of the foundation school that you need to be allocated to (see proof of address guidance for list of acceptable documents).
Supporting signatory requirements
The supporting signatory must:
- have a relevant professional working relationship with your child(ren) e.g. teacher, headteacher, pre-school/nursery manager, midwife, GP/doctor, social worker.
- be over the age of 18.
- have known the applicant for 1 month or more. In circumstances where this is not the case, the applicant must provide an explanation as to why their supporting signatory has not known them longer, and why an alternative signatory could not be used to support the application
If it is not clear from the role/job title of your supporting signatory how they know your child(ren) in a professional capacity, please provide information in the applicant statement box to explain the context of their professional working relationship with your child(ren). - not be in a personal relationship with the applicant.
- not live at the same address as the applicant.
- not be related to the applicant by birth or marriage.
- not be a doctor in training of any grade (up to ST8).