Admissions Process
At Bredon, we do not underestimate the importance of finding the right learning environment for your child, somewhere they have the potential to truly thrive and where they will be happy. The journey can be even more challenging if your child has a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia and our admissions procedure has been created especially with you and your child in mind. We hope it will be a positive experience for everyone and, whether you ultimately choose Bredon or feel that another setting would suit your child better, you will feel that you can make that decision with confidence.
The next steps
Contacting us
Should you feel that Bredon could be the right school for your child then the first step is to contact our Admissions Team to discuss your child’s particular learning requirements and we can also answer any questions you might have about the school and the admissions process.
We encourage parents to enquire about our school via the school website and using our enquiry form. This will enable us to collect as much useful information which is relevant to your application. Once the enquiry form has been received, we will contact you to discuss your application in more detail. If you would prefer to call or email us in the first instance then please use the contact details listed below.
The Admissions Team is Mrs Esther O’Reilly-Cain (Registrar) and Miss Rebecca Jones (Admissions Officer) and you can contact us by telephone on 01684 293156 or by email at: admissions@bredonschool.co.uk.
Providing information about your child’s learning needs
In the first instance, we will ask you to provide copies of your child’s two most recent school reports and Educational Psychologist’s report or EHCP, if they have one, plus any other relevant documents. These will be reviewed by our SENCO who will confirm for us whether, based on the information provided, it is likely that we would be able to support your child’s learning needs at Bredon. If our SENCO has any concerns or reservations then we will be able to let you know very early on in the process. Please note that it can take between one and two weeks for the documents to be reviewed due to the volume of enquiries that we receive.
Arrange a visit to the school
Having received a positive response from our SENCO, the next step is to come and visit us by arranging an individual visit where you will be shown around the school by one of the Admissions Team and, wherever possible, we will also arrange a 1:1 meeting for you with our Headmaster, Mr Nick Oldham, or one of his Deputies.
Arrange a taster experience and register for a place
Having provided reports and visited the school we hope you will wish to continue to the next step which is to arrange a taster experience (“Taster”) for your child. At this point, you will also be asked to register your child for a place by completing an application form and paying an application fee (please refer to the current fee schedule). We will also request some medical details which will be kept by our school nurse. The Taster is a required element of the admissions process and involves your child coming to stay with us for either three consecutive days (day pupils) or five days and nights (boarders). Prospective pupils should do their Taster in the academic year prior to entry. During his or her Taster, your child will shadow a pupil from their current year cohort, attending a full programme of lessons and activities. The Taster is also an opportunity for us to assess how well your child would fit in at Bredon, socially and academically.
Offer of a place
We hope your child will thoroughly enjoy their taster experience and leave us feeling positive about the possibility of joining Bredon in due course. However, sadly not all prospective pupils will be offered places following their Taster so we urge you to manage your child’s expectations accordingly. As a general rule, the Admissions Team and other key staff meet with the Headmaster on a Monday to discuss how the previous week’s Tasters have gone and decide which children will be offered places. An email, followed by a formal letter from the Headmaster, will be sent to you but you are very welcome to phone us on the Monday afternoon to find out whether your child has been successful. We will also request a Headteacher’s reference from your child’s current school and places are offered on the proviso that a satisfactory reference is received.
Accepting your child’s place
In order to accept your child’s place, you will need to sign an Acceptance Form (contract) and return it to us along with a Health Form and an acceptance deposit (please refer to the current fee schedule). These will be sent to you with the Headmaster’s offer letter. Please note that if you are considering Bredon for an international pupil, you will need to provide details of a UK Guardian. For pupils requiring a VISA, one full year’s fees in advance will be required along with an International Deposit as outlined on our Fee Schedule.
The standard deadline for accepting an offer of a place is three weeks. However, we realise that this is not always possible, particularly where families are in the process of applying for an EHCP. In such cases, we are usually able to extend the deadline for as long as necessary (sometimes for up to a year). We simply request that you keep us updated on a regular basis.
In the Summer Term prior to your child joining us at Bredon, we will send you a Welcome to Bredon guide which will include information about uniform, term dates, daily routines, transport, etc. However, if there is anything you need before then please do not hesitate to ask.
Suggested timeline
- Contact us – up to 18 months prior to entry
- Provide copies of reports – up to one year prior to entry.
- If you would like an earlier indication of whether Bredon could meet your child’s needs then we would be very happy to review his or her reports 1+ years prior to entry but may request more current reports at a later date
- Visit – in the academic year prior to entry. You are very welcome to visit more than once
- Register – following a visit to the school and prior to your child coming to do their Taster Experience
- Taster Experience – in the academic year prior to entry
Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)
Approximately 30% of pupils at Bredon hold EHCPs and receive Local Authority (LA) funding to various degrees. Part of the process of getting an EHCP involves “naming” a school. When you get your child’s draft EHCP, the name of the school in section one will be left blank and you will be asked to express a preference. Once your child is offered a place at Bredon then you can ask to name us on their draft EHCP. You cannot insist that your LA agrees to the placement and most will resist it, so be prepared to fight your corner if necessary and we will endeavour to help as much as we can.
There are many good sources of information about naming your preferred school on the internet, here are just a few of them:
www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/special-educational-needs
