Admissions Criteria

• Referrals to the Marlborough are dealt with directly from the LA through your assigned SEN Officer.  Delegation of this decision making is given to the Head of Provision with the agreement of Governors.
• All pupils will have an Education, Health and Care Plan.
• There must be a clear medical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
• Primary need must clearly be ASD.
• Pupils whose performance is significantly below national expectations and whose learning difficulties cannot be met from resources available to and in a mainstream school would be considered.
• Pupils at pre school age who have had difficulties in gaining a clear assessment as to their ability range or judged as ‘unable to assess’ are also considered.
• Pupils may not have developed verbal skills and rely on communication aids such as PECs, Signalong, gesture or just be at the emergent stage of speech.
• Pupils will have needs that can be met within the existing provision and staffing levels at the Marlborough as a resourced provision. 

Reasons for Refusal of Admission

• The agreed number of bought places by the authority is fully subscribed and admitting children over this number would be incompatible with the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources. We are a small provision and therefore in order to provide the education offer we do, we need to maintain strict numbers of admittance for the safety and education for our pupils
• There is insufficient evidence of a clear diagnosis of ASD e.g. where it is reported ‘there are traits of autism’.  This also relates to where a report links certain aspects of learning or behaviour to an ASD diagnosis but where the primary need is more reasonable to need provision to address SEMH or more complex needs.
• There is evidence of a pupil working at levels above the cohort within the Marlborough and have well developed verbal skills and therefore would have no peer group.
• The admission of a pupil would compromise the health and safety of the pupils and/or staff within the Marlborough or would compromise or disrupt the education of pupils already in attendance.
• Sibling applications to the Marlborough where one sibling is already in attendance at the Marlborough or Hoo St Werburgh primary school are not automatically admitted and will need to follow LA SEN referral procedures
• Please also note that there is no sibling link to Hoo St Werburgh primary school.  A sibling of a Marlborough pupil may not claim sibling link for admission to Hoo St Werburgh primary school.
• Distance to school is also not a factor in admittance – we accept pupils from all across Medway.
• The needs of the child are such that it would be expected that their local mainstream school should be able to meet need, or to make necessary adaptations e.g. training staff to enable needs to be met.