Grange Community
Consultation 2026/2027
2025/2026 & 2024/2025
Consultation on admission arrangements 2026/2027
Central Co-operative Learning Trust is consulting on the Grange Infant Academy 2026 – 27 Admissions Policy. The consultation period will run from the 28th of November 2024 until the 9th of January 2025. As a Trust, we hope that parents and other stakeholders will express their views and any concerns about these proposed changes.
We are consulting on:
● A reduction in the academy’s Pupil Admission Number (PAN) from 60 to 30 pupils effective from 1 September 2026.
● This change is to update the admission number held by the Local Authority and the funding agreement provided by the DFE.
As a Trust we must consult on our admission arrangements in accordance with the DfE’s 2021 statutory ‘School Admissions Code’ guidance when changes are proposed. Aside from the proposed reduction of the Planned Admission Number, there are no other changes proposed.
In accordance with statutory DfE guidance, the consultation will run for at least six weeks and we invite you to participate in the consultation if you have any comments regarding the matter.
All responses to the consultation should be made in writing and submitted before the 10th of January 2025 to:
Harehedge lane
Burton Upon Trent
DE13 0AS
Please note that written responses should outline your personal details, including your name, address and relationship, if any, to the academy.
At the end of the consultation period, the Admissions Committee of the Trust will meet to consider responses and prepare a final policy for approval and determination.
For further information regarding the consultation process, please refer to the FAQs below, hard copies can be requested from the school reception. If you wish to further discuss this matter, or anything mentioned in this letter, please contact 01283372745
Summary:
Applications have been significantly lower than PAN for over 5 years and in September 2024 this was as low as 39 Projected pupil numbers for future years are predicted to be significantly lower than the PAN of 60 and pupil numbers in the area have dropped by over 20%.
Schools are funded using a pupil numbers basis. Having a significant number of spare spaces in school places significant pressure on the school’s budget. Staffing and resource costs have to be maintained with less income. This has placed significant pressure on the school’s budget through additional staffing and resource costs. By lowering the PAN resources can be much more effectively directed to children and help to sustain and improve the quality of their education. If the current situation continues, resources will be diluted and this could potentially have a negative impact on the provision of education in school. Whilst the Trust has continued to support the school with the financial challenges it faces, this is not a long term sustainable solution. Particularly when it is understood that pupil numbers are falling and will continue to fall within the local area.
The local environment has limited spaces for future housing developments, this decreases the likelihood of the number of younger children in the area expanding dramatically.
There will therefore be no detrimental effect to the vast majority of parents and pupils in relation to the reduction to PAN. The vast majority, if not all, parents/guardians will still be able to access their school of choice and they will continue to be provided with a high quality education.
FAQs:
Why is this a problem for Grange?
State schools are funded on a per pupil basis. As the number of children on roll decreases, so does the school’s income. A decreasing income means there is less money available to pay for staff, overheads and resources. Consequently, we need to reduce the size of the school, at least in the medium term, in order to continue to balance our budget.
How does the school propose to address this issue?
Having considered multiple scenarios and options, Trustees have reluctantly concluded that the best course of action is to reduce the school’s PAN to 30 from September 2025/26. This proposal will now go to consultation for a minimum of 6 weeks, with a final decision being made by Trustees in January 2025.
What are other Primary Schools doing?
We understand that several other Staffordshire schools are also proposing to reduce their PANs as a consequence of falling numbers. County Admissions will be able to assess and advise whether sufficient places are still being offered by Staffordshire schools as a whole.
What would happen if the PAN remained at 60?
If our PAN remained at 60 we would effectively lose control of the number of children entering school and the number of classes we need to operate. This would then affect how we organise subsequent year groups, the number of classes we operate and the level of occupancy in school. The support we offer through adults and resources will fall in line with income if we do not make changes. This will have a negative impact on children.
Why not reduce the PAN to 45?
Operating a school with 1.5 form entry is a feasible option, but the demand for places is already below 45 and continuing to fall, the school is still not financially viable even if a stable number of 45 children entered school each year. The school has to plan its provision for what is most likely to be sustainable in the longer term, given current projections.
Can we wait and see?
Unfortunately, we can’t. We need to consult two years in advance of any change. By making the decision now we can plan resources accordingly. However, the decision is reversible if the situation changes. We have already waited to be clearer on the picture of pupil number after the pandemic.
Is the decision to reduce the PAN final?
No. The proposed PAN reduction will now go to consultation for 6 weeks. Trustees must then consider all comments in response to the consultation before making a final decision in January 2025. The school Admission Policy for 2026/27 must then be published no later than March 15th 2025.
What does this mean for school staff?
If demand for primary school places in Staffs and particularly Burton central remains depressed and our PAN remains at 30, it will mean an incremental reduction in the number of classes from 7 to 4 between 2026 and 2032. This is the worst case scenario. However, if demand for places does recover before 2029, it will be relatively easy - since we have sufficient physical capacity - to increase our admission number again and retain or increase the number of classes in school. This could happen if, for example, a new housing development attracts more families than currently expected after 2025.
Will this require staff redundancies?
If demand does not increase and the number of classes reduces, then we will require fewer teachers and TAs. We will probably also need to make reductions in non-classroom headcount over time. It is hoped that any such necessary reductions would be achieved by natural turnover, i.e. a strategy of generally not replacing staff when they leave.
Will this affect the quality of education?
No. Our ethos, curriculum and overall approach will remain unchanged. Although change brings challenges, it also brings many opportunities e.g. greater spending per child on educational resources, more flexibility of space to use creatively, predictable resources making it easier to plan for the long term.
How will this affect sibling admissions?
Siblings receive priority over non-siblings under the admissions policy.
What is the vision for the future of Grange?
We now have 5 full sized classrooms as well as a range of other spaces available for interventions and other activities. Trustees reluctantly took the decision to propose a PAN reduction after much discussion and reflection, with the aim of ensuring that the school continues to operate on a sustainable basis. Governors still want the school’s facilities to be fully exploited, so options for alternative services might also be considered in the future, if spaces become unoccupied. It is the Trustees and Governors’ intention that Burton Fields should be a highly effective school that provides an example to other schools of best practice in many areas. The school’s vision and enthusiasm will not change, and Trustees and Governors remain committed to staff development, to developing an innovative curriculum and to achieving the school’s purpose of developing the potential of our wonderful children through engaging curriculum, highly effective teaching by living our strong values. These aims will remain, whether or not we complete a reduction to a one form school or can return to a larger size. In order to properly support Grange to continue to develop as a highly effective school, it is important that we ensure that the school has the funds available to provide the necessary levels of staff and other resources, and it is to this end that we are proposing this change.
Admission Arrangements 2025/2026, 2024/2025
Full time places in reception classes will be available in September of the academic year within which the child becomes five years old.
Although parents have the right to express a preference Grange School, there is no guarantee of a place being offered.
It is Grange School’s policy to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible, however in some cases there may be more applications than there are places available. Admission when oversubscribed is determined by the oversubscription criteria detailed below.
Oversubscription Criteria
If the total number of preferences for admission to Grange School exceeds the school’s Published Admission Number (PAN) of 60, the following order of priority is used to allocate the available places. (N.B., after applying the oversubscription criteria, where an applicant can be offered a place at more than one preferred school then they will be offered a place at the school ranked highest on their application.)
1. Children in care and children who ceased to be in care because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order), including those children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
Looked after children are children who, at the time of making an application to a school, are:In the care of a local authority, or being provided with accommodation by a local authority in exercise of its social services functions
Previously looked after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they:Were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 or the Adoption and Children Act 2002, or became subject to a child arrangements order, or became subject to a special guardianship order
2. Children who have an elder brother or sister in attendance at Grange School and who will still be attending the school at the time of the proposed admission date. (For admission purposes, a brother or sister is a child who lives at the same address and either: have one or both natural parents in common; are related by a parents marriage; are adopted or fostered by a common parent or are unrelated children who live at the same address, whose parents live as partners.)
3. Children living within the catchment area.
4. Children who satisfy both of the following tests:
- The child is distinguished from the great majority of other applicants either on their own individual medical grounds or by other exceptional circumstances.
Medical grounds must be supported by a medical report (obtained by the applicant and provided at the point of application). This report must clearly justify, for health reasons only, why it is better for the child’s health to attend the preferred school rather than any other school.
Exceptional circumstances must relate to the choice of school and the individual child, i.e. the circumstances of the child, not the economic or social circumstances of the parent/carer. They should be supported by a professional report (obtained by the applicant and provided at the point of application), e.g. social worker. This report must clearly justify why it is better for the child to attend the preferred school rather than any other school.
- The child would suffer hardship if they were unable to attend Grange School.
Hardship means severe suffering of any kind, not merely difficulty or inconvenience, which is likely to be experienced as a result of the child attending a different school. Applicants must provide detailed information about both the type and severity of any likely hardship at the time of application.
5. Other children arranged in order of priority according to how near their home addresses are to the main gate of the school, determined by a straight-line measurement as calculated by the Local Authority’s Geographical Information System.
Where it is not possible to accommodate all children applying for places within a particular category then the School Admissions and Transport Service will allocate the available places in accordance with the remaining criteria. If for instance, all the catchment area children cannot be accommodated at a school, children who are catchment area children and satisfy category (3) will receive offers of a place, followed by children who live in the catchment area and satisfy category (4), etc.
Additional Notes
Copies of school catchment area maps are available from the Local Authority.
There is no charge or cost related to the admission of a child to a school.
Admissions are administered through a coordinated admission scheme and preferences will be processed centrally by the School Admissions. Each child will receive only one offer of a place at a Staffordshire school.
In accordance with legislation, children who have a statutory statement of special educational need or Education, Health and Care Plan that names Grange School as being the most appropriate to meet the child’s needs must be admitted. This will reduce the amount of places available to other applicants.
Children in Care means children who are in the care of, or provided with accommodation by a local authority in accordance with section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989 at the time of making the application. It is the applicant’s responsibility to provide any supportive information required in order for the application to be assessed against the published admissions criteria, Grange School will not seek to obtain this information on behalf of the applicant.
The requirement to meet the Infant Class Size legislation may result in the refusal of catchment area or sibling applications where a class has already reached its limit of 30 pupils. However, as an exception, Grange School will give careful consideration to offering places above the published admission number to applications from children whose twin or sibling from a multiple birth is admitted even when there are no other vacant places.
The Local Authority uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to calculate home to school distances in miles. The measurement is calculated using Ordnance Survey (OS) data from an applicant's home address to the main front gate of the school. The coordinates of an applicant's home address are determined using the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and OS Address Point data.
The requirement for the Grange School to meet the Infant Class Size legislation may result in the refusal of catchment area or sibling applications where a class has already reached its limit of 30 pupils. However, there are permitted exceptions to this legislation which Grange School will have regard when considering applications.
The home address is considered to be the child’s along with their parent/carer’s main and genuine principal place of residence at the time of the allocation of places i.e. where they are normally and regularly living. If a child is resident with friends or relatives (for reasons other than legal guardianship) the friends or relatives address will not be considered for allocation purposes.
Where parents have shared responsibility for a child, and the child lives with both parents for part of the school week, parents will be required to provide documentary evidence to support the address they wish to be considered for allocation purposes.
If a place is offered on the basis of an address that is subsequently found to be different from a child’s normal and permanent home address then that place is likely to be withdrawn.
If there are a limited number of spaces available and we cannot distinguish between applicants using the criteria listed, such as in the case of children who live in the same block of flats, then the child or children who will be offered the available spaces will be randomly selected. This process will be independently verified.
Waiting lists
Unsuccessful applicants will be placed on a waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria stated above and not based on the date their application was received. If places become available after the offer date they will be offered according to the child at the top of the waiting list.
The waiting list will operate until the cohort concerned leaves Year 2.
Inclusion on Grange School waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available. A child’s position on a waiting list is not fixed and is subject to change during the year i.e. they can go up or down the list since each added child will require the list to be ranked again in line with the oversubscription criteria listed above.
Children who are subject of a direction by a local authority to admit or who are allocated to Grange School in accordance with the Fair Access Protocol will take precedence over those on the waiting list.
Late Applications
Application forms received after the closing date will be considered alongside those applicants who applied on time wherever possible. Where it is not practicable because places have already been allocated, or are shortly to be allocated, then late applicants will be considered only after those applicants who applied by the published closing date.
A late application does not affect the right of appeal or the right to be placed on Grange School waiting list.
Repeat Applications
Parents do not have the right to a second appeal in respect of Grange School for the same academic year unless, in exceptional circumstances, Grange School has accepted a second application from the appellant because of a significant and material change in the circumstances of the parent, child or school but still refused admission.
“In-Year Transfer” Arrangements
Parents or carers seeking to transfer to Grange School may make an application using the appropriate application form. This application will be processed in the normal way but parents and carers need to be aware that any date set for joining may be after the next term or half term holiday and those parents /carers are responsible for ensuring that their child continues to receive appropriate education in the interim.