5th December 2017 - Email to all families of children pre-enrolled to start in a mainstream class in September 2018: IMPORTANT: Enrolment information for Citywest ETNS

Dear parents and guardians,
I am writing to you because your child is pre-enrolled for our school, starting September 2018. This is not an offer of a school place.
I am writing to let you know about two topics:
1. Our new enrolment policy and transition plan
2. The enrolment timeline


1. New Enrolment Policy
Now that we are a school that is over-subscribed, our Board of Management has been working on a revised Enrolment policy for our school. The new policy gives priority to siblings of children already in the school and gives priority to children who will turn 4 before the end of March in the year they are due to start school. Within each category, the first-come-first-served rule still applies. Please see the new enrolment policy attached.
In order to make the process as fair as possible, we have devised a transition plan for the new policy so that it is introduced gradually. This year, 75% of places will be allocated via our old policy, which was strictly first-come-first-served, and 25% of places will be allocated via the new policy, which prioritises siblings who will turn 4 by the end of March.
This policy and transition plan has been ratified by the Board of Directors of Educate Together, our Patron and governing body.
If you would like for us to post you a copy of our new enrolment policy, just reply to this email to let us know, making sure to include your postal address.
(This paragraph was different for different groups and may have read as for one of the bullet points below:)

• Under the old policy, your child would have been offered a place in the first round of offers. Under this transition plan, your child will still be offered a place in the first round of offers. Therefore, this change will not affect your child's chances of getting a place in our school this year.
• Under the old policy, your child would have been offered a place in the first round of offers. Under this transition plan, your child may not be offered a place in the first round of offers and may be relying on securing one in a further round. Therefore, your child is one of the children possibly affected negatively by this change. If you would like a place in our school and you do not secure one, you will be able to appeal this to the Board of Management of the school in the first place and to the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Skills if you are dissatisfied with the response of the Board of Management.
  
• Under the old policy, your child would not have been offered a place in the first round of offers. Under this transition plan, your child will be offered a place in the first round of offers. Therefore, your child will be one of the beneficiaries of this change.
  
• Under the old policy, your child would not have been offered a place in the first round of offers and would have been depending on being offered one in a further round of offers. Under this transition plan, your child will still not be offered a place in the first round of offers and will still be depending on being offered one in a further round of offers. Therefore, this change will not affect your child's chances of getting a place in our school this year.
  
• Under the old policy, your child would not have been offered a place in the first round of offers and would have been unlikely to be offered one in further rounds. Under this transition plan, your child will still not be offered a place in the first round of offers and is still unlikely to be offered one in further rounds. Therefore, this change will not affect your child's chances of getting a place in our school this year.
  
• As your child is pre-enrolled for a class other than Junior Infants, the introduction of this new policy will not affect his/her chances of being offered a place in our school. Though new pre-enrolments will be subject to the earlier cut-off date for age (end June rather than end August), we will not impose that restriction on pre-enrolments already received for higher classes.
  

This is based on the following information being correct. If this information is not correct, you need to let us know immediately.
Child's name: _________
Date of birth: __/__/____
Number of siblings already attending our school: _
Date and time of pre-enrolment: __/__/____ __:__


2. Enrolment timeline
Now - please let us know (by replying to this email) if you have decided that you would not be accepting a place in our school for your child in 2018. If this is the case, let us know whether to move your child's name onto the pre-enrolment list for Junior Infants 2019 or to remove his/her name from our database altogether.
Thursday 25th January 2018 7pm to 8pm - Open Evening for Prospective Parents - visit our school to learn about us - I will talk about our school and you can see our classrooms and meet some staff members - please note that this event is for adults only
Thursday 1st February 2018 - First round of offers are emailed to parents. Those families will have one week (7 days) to accept the place.
February and March - further rounds of offers take place until all places have been filled
Thursday 17th May - half of the children enrolled to start in Junior Infants will be invited to visit the school
Thursday 24th May - the remaining half of the children enrolled to start in Junior Infants will be invited to visit the school


If you are still interested in securing a place in our school, you do not need to do anything at this stage. However, please do let us know if you are no longer interested in the place in our school.
Kind regards,
Caitriona Hand,
Principal,
Citywest Educate Together National School.