Castlechurch Primary School
2025/2026 and 2024/2025
2022/2023 (prior to academy conversion)
The School’s admission number for the school year 45 full time places in our Reception classes.
If the number of applications exceeds the school’s Published Admission Number (PAN), the Local Advisory Board will give priority to applications in accordance with the criteria listed, provided that the Local Advisory Board are made aware of that application before decisions on admissions are made.
In accordance with legislation, children with a statement of special educational need, or an Education, Health and Care Plan that names Castlechurch must be admitted. This will reduce the number of places available.
Oversubscription Criteria
1) Children in Care and children who ceased to be in care because they were adopted (or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order), including those children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted
2) Children who satisfy both of the following tests:
Test 1: the child is distinguished from the great majority of other applicants either on their own 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 Castlechurch 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 Castlechurch the school rather than any other school.
Test 2: the child would suffer hardship if they were unable to attend Castlechurch the 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.
3) Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at Castlechurch and who will still be attending the school at 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.)
4) Children living within the catchment area of Castlechurch - Please refer to the following details of what our school catchment area is. https://apps2.staffordshire.gov.uk/scc/schooldetails/default.aspx
5) Children of staff in either or both of the following circumstances:
a) where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or
b) the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
6) 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 Local Advisory Board will allocate the available places in accordance with the remaining criteria. If for instance, all the catchment area children cannot be accommodated at the 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 school. There is no charge or cost related to the admission of a child to this school.
Admissions are administered and processed by the school.
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, the Local Advisory Board will not seek to obtain this information of 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, there are permitted exceptions to this legislation which the Local Advisory Board will have regard when considering applications.
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 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 relative’s 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.
Deferred Entry to Reception Class
The Local Advisory Board will consider requests from parents to retain a place in the preferred school where the parents wish to defer their child’s entry to a Reception Class until later in the same academic year or until the term in which the child reaches compulsory school age. The effect is that the place will be held for the child and is not available to be offered to any other child. Where it is possible to offer a place, deferral will be supported if the request is made at the normal time of application. A parent may not defer entry beyond the beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday, nor beyond the academic year for which the application was accepted.
The Local Advisory Board will also consider requests from parents who wish their child to attend Reception Class on a part-time basis until the child reaches compulsory school age.
Admission Outside the Normal Age Group
Parents may seek to apply for their child’s admission to school outside their normal age group, for example if the child is exceptionally gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. In addition, the parents of summer born children may choose not to send their child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted outside their normal age group to Reception rather than Year 1.
These parents will need to make an application alongside children applying at the normal age which should explain why it is in the child’s best interest to be admitted outside their normal age which may include information such as professional evidence as to why this is the case and why an exception should be made in the case of the child. A decision as to whether this is an appropriate course of action will be made by the Governing Body, who will take into account the circumstances of the case and views of the headteacher. Parents do not have the right to insist that their child is admitted to a particular year group.
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.
Waiting Lists will be kept until the end of the autumn term of admission. For cases where the infant class size regulations apply, the waiting list will operate until the cohort concerned leaves Year 2.
Inclusion on a school’s waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available at the school.
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 the 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 a school’s waiting list.
Repeat Applications
Parents do not have the right to a second appeal in respect of the same school for the same academic year unless, in exceptional circumstances, the Local Advisory Board have 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.
Applications other than the normal intake to Reception
An application should be made to the school who will need to consult with the Local Advisory Board.
Appeals
Parents who wish to appeal against the decision of the Local Advisory Board to refuse their child a place in the school may apply in writing to the Chair of Local Advisory Board. Appeals will be heard by and independent appeal panel.