Placing Request Information

You may wish for a child to attend a school other than your catchment school or you may wish to change the denomination of the school your child attends. This is called making a placing request. You do not need to tell us your reasons for making a placing request, but it may be helpful if you do.

Under education legislation, parents have the right to make a placing request to any school of their choice. While every effort is made to grant placing requests, circumstances can arise whereby there are more applications than places available. In such cases the priorities for admission will be applied.

When is a placing request required?

  • Parents requesting their child to attend a primary school which is outwith their catchment area;
  • Parents requesting their child to attend a primary school in a different education authority;
  • Parents deciding they wish their child to attend a primary school of a different;denominational sector to that in which they enrolled at primary 1. This applies even if the chosen primary school is within the catchment area of the child’s home address;
  • If a family moves house to an address outwith the catchment area and they wish their child to remain at the school that they currently attend.

When should a placing request be made?

  • For entry to primary school  or transferring from primary to secondary school in August, placing requests can be made between 6 January and 1 February.  Applications received after 1 February will not be considered until the placing request process is complete. Applications will be acknowledged within five working days of receipt of each application (exclusive of school holidays). If you do not receive an acknowledgement, please contact Admissions Section on 01475 712850 (please select option 1) to ensure your form has arrived. Parents will be advised of the outcome of their request no later than 30 April.
  • Parents may make only one placing request at a time for their child. If the initial request is refused the opportunity will be available to make another request;
  • Pupils starting primary 1 in August should complete the online registration process between 6 - 10 January before submitting the online placing request application;
  • Pupils starting secondary 1 in August should complete the online placing request application between 6 January -1 February (an automated acknowlegement email will be sent);
  • Hard copy placing request application forms are available by contacting 01475 712850 (please select option 1) or by emailing admissions.educationhq@inverclyde.gov.uk (this will be acknowledged within 5 working days);
  • Forms should be returned to Customer Service Centre, Municipal Building, Clyde Square, Greenock, PA15 1LY or to the email address above;
  • When a placing request is granted, the previously allocated place at the catchment school will be withdrawn. The newly allocated place will not be withdrawn unless the place was obtained on the basis of false information;
  • For a child already attending school, a placing request can be made at any time of year and this will be acknowledged within five working days of receipt of the application. Parents will be notified of the decision made in respect of their application within eight weeks (exclusive of school holidays).

Priority of admissions for placing requests

Inverclyde Council gives priority to placing requests as follows:

  1. A child who has a medical condition or additional support needs, and requires facilities or support only available in the requested school;
  2. Those cases where a brother or sister attends the school and will continue in this school during the next session;
  3. In secondary schools: children who attend a primary school associated with the secondary school as a result of a placing request or a request to remain according to the length of time at the associated primary school. This means that pupils who have attended for the longest time will have the highest priority;
  4. In the case of denominational schools: pupils within the catchment area who can demonstrate an affinity with the religious ethos of the school and can provide documentary evidence of this in the form of a certificate of baptism into the Roman Catholic faith;
  5. All other children of school age residing in the defined catchment area of the school according to distance of home address from chosen school (an example of such placing request would be where a child who has attended a non-denominational primary school of their geographical catchment area makes a placing request to the denominational secondary school of its catchment area due to the distance of their home address from the said secondary school);
  6. All other children of school age residing in Inverclyde according to distance of home address from their chosen school;
  7. Children of school age residing outwith Inverclyde whose additional support need is supported by significant input by education and another appropriate agency and who are requesting a place within a school which has specialist provision to meet the child’s needs;
  8. Children of school age residing outwith Inverclyde according to distance of home address from their chosen school.

Priority of admissions if a school is oversubscribed for pupils within the catchment area

  1. A child who has a medical condition or additional support needs, and requires facilities or support only available in the requested school;
  2. Those cases where a brother or sister attends the school and will continue in this school during the next session;
  3. In the case of denominational schools: pupils within the catchment area who can demonstrate an affinity with the religious ethos of the school and can provide documentary evidence of this in the form of a certificate of baptism into the Roman Catholic faith;
  4. Distance of home address from chosen school.

Why placing requests are refused

If Inverclyde Council refuses your application you will be advised of the reason in writing.

The Council may refuse an application for a place in one of its schools if placing the child in the specified school would:

  1. Make it necessary for the authority to take an additional teacher into employment;
  2. Give rise to significant expenditure on extending or otherwise altering the accommodation at or facilities provided in connection with the school;
  3. Be seriously detrimental to the continuity of the child’s education;
  4. Be likely to be seriously detrimental to order and discipline;
  5. Be likely to be seriously detrimental to the educational well-being of the pupils attending the school;
  6. Assuming that pupil numbers remain constant, make it necessary, at the commencement of a future stage of the child’s primary education, for the authority to elect either to create an additional class (or an additional composite class) in the specified school or take an additional teacher into employment at that school;
  7. Though neither of the reasons set out in sub- paragraphs 1 and 2 above is satisfied, have the consequence that the capacity of the school would be exceeded in terms of pupil numbers;
  8. If the education normally provided at the specified school is not suited to the age, ability or aptitude of the child;
  9. If the education authority has already required the child to discontinue his attendance at the specified school;
  10. If the specified school is an additional support needs school and the child does not have an additional support need requiring the education or special facilities normally provided at that school;
  11. If accepting the request would prevent the authority reserving a place at the school for a child likely to move into the area of the school.

Appeals procedure

If you are unhappy with a decision of the Education Authority to refuse a placing request then you may refer the decision to the Education Appeal Committee set up by the Council. The Education Appeal Committee hearing panel has a membership of three: one Councillor and two other members.

The Councillor shall not be a member of the Council’s Education and Communities Committee. The other members will not be members of the Authority or its Education Committee and will be in one of the following three categories:

  • Parents of children of school age;
  • Persons who in the opinion of the Authority have experience in education;
  • Persons who in the opinion of the Authority are acquainted with the educational conditions in the area of the Authority.

Neither the Councillor nor the other members shall be a member of the Parent Forum of the school affected by the appeal.

The Education Appeal Committee is administered by the Council’s Head of Legal and Property Services from whom details of the appeals procedure may be obtained. Appeals should be made within 28 days of the date on the refusal letter and should be submitted in writing to: Legal and Property Services, Inverclyde Council, Municipal Buildings,Clyde Square, Greenock, PA15 1LY or by emailing committee.services@inverclyde.gov.uk