Admission Requirements, Criteria and Process

The London Borough of Enfield manages pupil places.

All requests for school places must be arranged through the Enfield SEN team:

Telephone Number: 02038211919.

Admissions Criteria

All prospective students must be aged between 3-19 years.

All prospective students must have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

For all students, their primary challenge is their learning disability. Children and young people attending the school all experience life-long and complex learning challanges (severe or profound) that benefit from colllaborative and holistic support from a multi-disciplinary team of professionals. Where there has been standardised testing of cognitive abilities, children and young people will be identified as having cognitive skills below typical levels, often below the 1st percentile.

A large number of students have co-occurring complex medical needs requiring invasive procedures such as enteral feeding for nutrition and emergency medication to meet a range of medical needs. A number of children and young people may also have significant health needs which require regular or continuous medical intervention, such as suctioning, assisted ventilation or a range of aerosol-generated procedures (AGP). Many students at Waverley also have difficulties with swallowing, feeding, and drinking, known as dysphagia. The medical needs of the students may have a profound effect upon their ability to access learning and on their attainment and achievement at school.

Many students will have physical disabilities, challenges in social interaction and sensory processing differences. In addition, many will rely heavily on additional support for personal care, travel and staying safe.

Students at the school are at the earliest stages of communication and express themselves through non-verbal means. The majority of children and young people have difficulties in receptive and expressive communication and will require an environment rich in aided language; almost all students will require the use of alternative or augmentative approaches and aids to support their communication.
A small number of children have visual impairments, may be deaf or Hard of Hearing (HOH) or may have multi sensory impairments.

Many of the children and young people at Waverley require a wide variety of specialist equipment in order to access learning and to support the development of their learning. In addition, education staff work closely with therapy teams to ensure all students have appropriate equipment and resources to meet their physical and communication skills.

Please note: We are not an autism-specific setting, therefore, where a child's primary need is autism, they may be better educated in alternative specialist schools that are autism specific.
We encourage families to explore other schools within the borough that are specifically equipped and best positioned to support and meet the needs of children with autism.

A list of specialist schools across Enfield can be found here.

Admissions Process

Before admission, parents are advised to attend an open day to visit the school, talk to the headteacher, see the classes and the facilities and talk to the staff. This enables the headteacher to liaise with the perspective parents and child to gain an understanding of the child's needs i.e. the child's learning level, and their medical and theraputic needs, to determine if Waverley is the most suitable setting for their child.

The process for a parent applying is as follows:

1. Make an appointment to attend an open day at the school with your child. This provides prospective parents to meet with the
headteacher and view the school premises.

2. Parents should register their interest in Waverley School with their home local authority.

3. The home local authority should request a place for the child or young person with the school by sending formal consultation
papers to Enfield Local Authority.

4. The Enfield SEN team will then send the consultation to the headteacher (and the appropriate person handling admissions)

5. The headteacher or appropriate person will review the child's Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) to assess the child's needs
and establish whether Waverley is suitable to provide the appropriate level of support and provision to meet the child's needs.

6. A visit to see the child in their current educational or home context may be arranged to support the headteacher’s decision as part
of the consultation process.

7. If the school has a place and can meet the child’s needs effectively and efficiently, then an offer (subject to agreement over place
fees and health provision) will be made. The headteacher must notify the home local authority of their decision within 15 calendar
days of receiving formal consultation papers.

8. The school will negotiate and agree the level of education funding with the home local authority.

9. The SEN team will liaise with the relevant medical professionals to determine the level of medical and theraputic support which is
required.

10. It is expected that the local authority will respond to formally accept the place and name Waverley School on the EHC Plan within
15 calendar days of a place being offered by the school.

11. A place is offered and a transition programme for the child or young person begins.

12. The school will arrange a starting school meeting with the child and the parents to get further information regarding the child.

13. Health and therapy teams may conduct their own meetings with the family to gather information about the child.

14. Once all relevant information has been shared and agreed, a start date will then be set.
Please note: If transport has been agreed this may affect the start date.

Over-subscription Criteria

If the school is over-subscribed, the school will inform the local authority as and when a suitable vacancy may arise.

Priority is given to students:

whose needs can be best matched by the specialism of the school
who are, who have previously been in care, looked-after or have a guardianship order
who reside in the London Borough of Enfield
who are not currently in education and are of statutory school age
who have degenerative or life limiting conditions