Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1998

Admission decisions in relation to full-time pre-school education N.I.

26.—(1) In this Article and Article 27 any reference to the admission of a child to a school is a reference to the admission of a child to full-time pre-school education at the school.

(2) In this Article—

(a) paragraph (3) applies to an application for the admission of a child to a school where the proposed admission is to take effect at the beginning of the first term of the school year; and

(b) paragraph (4) applies to an application for the admission of a child to a school where the proposed admission is to take effect at any later time in the school year.

(3) Where an application to which this paragraph applies is made, the Board of Governors—

(a) shall admit the child to the school if the total number of such applications does not exceed the full-time enrolment number of the school;

(b) in any other case, shall—

(i) apply the criteria drawn up under Article 32(1) to select for admission to the school a number of children equal to the school's full-time enrolment number; and

(ii) admit, or refuse to admit, the child to the school accordingly.

(4) Where an application to which this paragraph applies is made, the Board of Governors shall—

(a) if, at the time the application is considered there are vacant full-time places at the school—

(i) admit the child to the school, if the total number of such applications falling to be considered at that time does not exceed the number of vacant full-time places;

(ii) in any other case, apply the criteria drawn up under Article 32(1) to select for admission to the school a number of children equal to the number of vacant full-time places and admit, or refuse to admit, the child to the school accordingly;

(b) if, at that time, there are no vacant full-time places at the school refuse to admit the child to the school.

(5) For the purposes of this Article—

(a) there are vacant full-time places at a school at any time if at that time the full-time enrolment number of the school exceeds the number of full-time pupils registered at the school;

(b) the number of vacant full-time places at a school at any time is the number obtained by subtracting the number of full-time pupils registered at the school at that time from the full-time enrolment number of the school.