Yoxall St Peter's CE Primary School
Admission arrangements 2023/2024, 2024/2025 & 2025/2026
Full time places in reception classes will be available in September of the academic year within which the child becomes five years old.
It is the Trust’s policy to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible, however in some cases there may be more applications than there are places available.
Oversubscription Criteria
If the total number of preferences for admission to the Academy exceeds the Published Admission Number of 30 (PAN), the following order of priority is used to allocate the available places.
- Children in care and children who ceased to be in care after 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.
- Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at the Academy at the time of application; (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 parent’s marriage; are adopted or fostered by a common parent or are unrelated children who live at the same address, whose parents live as partners.)
- Children living within the catchment area of the Academy.
- Children who satisfy both of the following tests:-
Test 1: The child is distinguished from the great majority of 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 the 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. It 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 school rather than any other school.
Test 2: The child would suffer hardship if they were unable to attend 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 type and severity of any likely hardship at the time of application.
- 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.
Additional Notes
Copies of the school catchment area are available from the school or Local Authority.
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 governors will not seek to obtain this information on behalf of the applicant.
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 usually considered to be the child’s, along with their parent’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.
The requirement of the Governing Body to meet the infant class sizes 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, the Governing Body will give careful consideration to offering places above the Admissions number to applications from children whose twin or sibling from a multiple birth is still admitted even when there are no other vacant places.
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 application 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 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 random. This process will be independently verified.
If your child has not been offered a place, your child’s name will be automatically kept on the waiting list. The waiting list will operate until the end of year 2.
It is expected that parents will agree on school places before an application is made, and it may be necessary to request evidence from you to confirm that this is the case. The local authority is not in a position to intervene in disputes between parents over school applications and will request that these are resolved privately.
Deferred entry to Reception Class
Parents may request that their child be admitted to Reception Class on a part time basis, or that their child be admitted to the Academy later in the same academic year until the child reaches compulsory school age (i.e. beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday). The effect is that the place will be held for the child in Reception and is not available to be offered to any other child within the same academic year in which it has been offered.
Admission outside of the Normal Age Group
Parents may seek to apply for their child’s admission to the Academy outside of 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 of 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 of 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
Admission Procedure
Admissions will be handled in the first place by the Local Authority Schools Admissions Officers who will make the final allocations after consultation with the school, if the number exceeds 30. Applicants will be advised of the outcome of their application on national offer day.
Parents whose request for a place for their child is not accepted may appeal, stating their grounds for appeal. Appeals are heard by an independent panel.
It is the Governors’ policy to avoid any form of discrimination on grounds of a child’s ability, religion or race. The school will attempt to make provision for children with disabilities.
Entry later than September
Parents moving to the area, or those who wish to move their child to the school, should contact the school directly.