We accept pupils in all year groups, all year round. If you are interested in applying for a school place, please contact the school office and an appointment with Mrs Porter the Principal can be arranged.

Enrolment Number: 140
Admission Number: 20

OPEN DAY:  WEDNESDAY 18^TH DECEMBER 4-6PM

 RESPECTIVE FUNCTIONS OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS AND PRINCIPAL IN RELATION TO ADMISSIONS

The Board of Governors draws up the admissions criteria and delegates to an Admission Sub-Committee, which includes the Principal, the responsibility for applying these criteria.  Any references herein to the term the Board of Governors includes any Sub-Committee appointed by the Board of Governors for the purposes of applying the admissions criteria set out herein.

The collection and processing of information regarding the religious/perceived community background of children set out above is necessary in order for the Board of Governors of an integrated school to carry out its statutory functions and fulfil its public task.

ADMISSIONS CRITERIA

It is a matter for the parents/guardians to ensure that they provide all the information required by Kilbroney Integrated Primary School to apply its criteria.  This includes the religious tradition of the child. At Kilbroney it is our aim to achieve a 40-40-20 balance (40% Catholic, 40% Protestant and 20% Other).

In the application of the criteria set out below, the Board of Governors will seek to maintain in the total number admitted to the school in the 2025/2026 school year an overall balance among all traditions.

In order to achieve this aim, Kilbroney Integrated Primary School will in the event of oversubscription, determine the number of children to be admitted from each tradition.

The religious affiliation/community background (Protestant, Catholic or Other/None) of a pupil will be determined by one of the following methods:

1. a) For parents/guardians applying for a place via the Education Authority’s online application you will be prompted to and must select your child’s religious affiliation when completing the form;

or

1. b) A Pre-Enrolment Form can be obtained from our school website if required or you can provide alternative written confirmation to our school. Your Pre-Enrolment Form/written confirmation of religion must be sent directly to our school by 4.00pm 29 January 2025;

or

1. c) If the parents/guardian(s) do not supply this required information then the Board of Governors will treat the application as being from those in the community who describe themselves as being from the Other/None category.

During the admissions procedure when applying the criteria punctual applications will be considered before late applications are considered.   The application procedure opens on 10 January 2025 at 12noon (GMT) and an application submitted by the closing date of 24 January 2025 at 12noon (GMT) will be treated as a punctual application.  An application received after 12noon (GMT) on 24 January 2025 and up to 4 pm on 29 January 2025 will be treated as a late application, this is also the last date and time for processing a change of preference in exceptional circumstances.  After 4 pm on 29 January 2025 no applications will be processed until after the close of procedure on 9 April 2025.

COMPULSORY SCHOOL AGE

Any child who reaches their 4th Birthday on or before 1st July 2025 is of Compulsory School Age. Under the School Age (NI) Act which became law in Northern Ireland in April 2022, ‘compulsory school age’ also includes those children who deferred commencing Primary 1 in September 2024 as defined by the new School Age (NI) Act (both groups to be treated equally).

Priority will be given to children resident in Northern Ireland at the time of their proposed admission to the school before those who are not so resident.

Integrated Education Act (NI) 2022

The Board of Governors of Kilbroney Integrated welcome the introduction of the Integrated Education Act (NI) 2022 and look forward to its implementation. We note the definition of an Integrated School as outlined in the Act and believe our criteria will allow us to successfully meet the definition. As an integrated primary school, a key purpose of the school is to educate together children of different religious traditions. Parents can find out more about the integrated ethos of the school in the 'Statement of Principles' for Integrated Education, which is available from the admissions page of our school website.

In applying the admissions criteria, the Board of Governors will strive to ensure a balance of 40% Catholic, 40% Protestant and 20% Others (other world religions and children of no religious affiliation).

In order to achieve this the school will:

• reserve a maximum of 20% of places for pupils other than Catholic and Protestant.
• allocate the remaining places to an equal number of Catholics and Protestants.
• in the event of under subscription in the Others category, the available places will be split equally between Catholics and Protestants.
• in the event of there being an odd number of excess places remaining from the ‘Others’ allocation, the additional places will be allocated to the category with the greater number of applicants:

• in the event of there being a shortfall of applicants in the Protestant or Catholic categories, then the balance of places will be allocated to the ‘Others’ category and then to the remaining category.

When considering which children should be selected for admission, the Board of Governors will only take into account information which is detailed on the application or provided directly to the school. Parents/Guardians should therefore ensure that all information pertaining to their child and relevant to the school’s admissions criteria is stated on the application or provided directly to the first preference school.  Examples of such information include whether the child has brothers/sisters attending the school, or is the eldest child in the family.

In the event that there are more applicants than places available, the Board of Governors has determined that the following criteria shall be applied by an Admissions Committee of the Board of Governors in the order set down below for children of compulsory school age.

1. Children who will have brothers or sisters (including half brothers or sisters, foster brothers or sisters) in attendance during the 2025/2026 school year.

1. Children whose brothers and sisters (including half brothers or sisters, foster brothers or sisters) previously attended the school.

1. Children for whom the school is the Integrated Primary School (Controlled or Grant-Maintained) nearest to their home as measured by public road on a Google Map.

1. Preference will be given to children with exceptional circumstances (medical, social or other problems) that necessitate admission to Kilbroney Integrated Primary School rather than any other primary school. The circumstances should be personal to the child and must be supported by independent and appropriated documentation, providing evidence of the circumstances being described as being exceptional.

1. The remaining places will be allocated on the basis of initial letter of surname (as entered on Birth Certificate) in the order set out below.

W C B E I O G R A D P K S M J Mc T H F Mac Q N Z L Y V X U

This order was determined by a randomised selection of the letters.

In the event of surnames beginning with the same initial letter the subsequent letters of the surname will be used in alphabetical order.  In the event of two identical surnames the alphabetical order of the initials of the forenames will be used.

Note 1

The religious affiliation of a pupil will be decided by information supplied by the parent/guardian on the pre-enrolment form and/or information supplied on the application at the time of application.

DUTY TO VERIFY

The Board of Governors reserves the right to require such supplementary evidence as it may determine to support or verify information on any application.

If the requested evidence is not provided to the Board of Governors by the deadline given, this will result in

the withdrawal of an offer of a place. Similarly, if information is supplied which appears to be false or misleading in any material way, the offer of a place will be withdrawn.

WAITING LIST POLICY

The school does not currently operate a Waiting List Policy.

ADMISSIONS TO P2-P7

The Board of Governors has determined that the following criteria will be applied for applicants to Years 2 –7.  In the application of these admission criteria the Board of Governors will maintain a reasonable balance of Protestants, Catholics and others.

1. A pupil will be admitted provided that his/her admission does not lead to the enrolment number being exceeded.

1. A pupil will be admitted provided that his/her admission does not prejudice the provision of the efficient use of resources.

In the event of there being places available, selection will be based on the Year 1 admission sub-criteria.

APPLICATIONS AND ADMISSIONS TO PRIMARY 1
Year       Total Applications Total Admissions
2020/2021 22                         22
2021/2022 11                         11
2022/2023 22                         22

2023/2024  8                          8

2024/2025  14                        14

NICI Statement of Principles: https://nicie.org/what-is-integrated-education/integrated-ethos/sop/