Future Generation Trust

Proposed 2026/2027

2025/2026

 2024/2025

Proposed admission arrangements 2026/2027

Introduction

Future Generation Trust (FGT) is the admissions authority for all of its academies. The Trust Board of FGT has delegated to the Local Governing Body (LGB) of each academy the decisions about which children to admit, within the parameters of this policy.

In accordance with legislation, children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) that names a particular academy 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. For information on our SEND local offer, please visit the website of the individual academy.

Where fewer applications are received than the number of places available for a relevant age group (normal age that pupils are admitted to the academy) then all applicants will be offered a place.

Where there are more applications than places for a relevant age group then the oversubscription criteria (specified in section 6) shall be used to determine which children are offered a place.

Published Admission Numbers and Nursery Capacities for 2026/27

A school’s Published Admission Number (PAN) reflects the number of children to be admitted at the normal age of entry and should only be exceeded in exceptional circumstances and with prior agreement from the Local Authority.

FTE Capacity details the proposed Nursery FTE capacities, where FTE is the “Full Time Equivalent” capacity, and 26 FTE places is equivalent to 52 part-time Nursery places.

Admission Arrangements for Designated Nursery Provision

Children will be admitted in September of the academic year in which they become four years old.

It is our policy to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible. Where there are more applications than available places in the preferred Nursery, admission is determined by the oversubscription criteria detailed in section 6.

Admission Arrangements for Reception Entry

Full time places in Reception classes (normal age of entry) 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 for the school that they wish their child to attend, there is no guarantee of a place being offered at their preferred school.

It is our policy to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible. However, in some cases there may be more applications for the preferred Academy than there are places available. Again, admission is determined by the oversubscription criteria is detailed in section 6.

Oversubscription Criteria for Nursery & Reception

If the total number of preferences for admission to Nursery or Reception at a FGT Academy exceeds the Published Admission Number (PAN) (see section 3), then the following order of priority will be used to allocate the available places.

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 England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted
   
   
2. Children who satisfy both of the following tests:
   
   
   1. Test 1: 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 Academy’s Nursery or Reception rather than any other Nursery or Reception.
      
      Exceptional circumstances must relate to the preferred Nursery or Reception, and the individual child, i.e. the circumstances of the child, not the specific economic or social circumstances of the parent/carer, and be supported by a professional report (obtained by the applicant and provided at the point of application), e.g. social worker, justifying why it is better for the child to attend the preferred Academy’s Nursery or Reception rather than any other Nursery or Reception.
      
      
   2. Test 2: the child would suffer hardship if they were unable to attend the preferred Nursery or Reception setting.
      
      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 brother or sister in attendance at the preferred Academy and who will still be attending the Academy 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.)
   
   
4. Children who have a parent who has been directly employed by the preferred Academy for more than two years and for a minimum of 0.5 FTE, or who have been recruited to fill a vacant post for which there has previously been a difficulty with recruitment or retention.
   
   
5. Children living within the defined catchment for the preferred Academy. (see Section 7 - Additional Notes
   
   
6. • a) Nursery Applicants: Other children arranged in order of priority according to how near their home addresses (front door) are to the main gate of the preferred Academy, determined by a straight-line measurement as calculated utilising Google Maps.
     
     
   • b) Reception Applicants: Other children arranged in order of priority according to how near their home addresses are to the main gate of the preferred Academy, determined by a straight-line measurement as calculated using 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 Academy and/or Local Authority will allocate the available places in accordance with the remaining criteria. If for instance, all the catchment area children cannot be accommodated, children who are resident within the catchment area will be arranged in order of priority according to the remaining criteria.

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 or are the result of a multiple birth, then the child or children who will be offered the available spaces will be randomly selected. This process will be independently verified.

Additional Notes

A map of the catchment area for each Academy is available on each individual Academy website. A copy is also available from each Academy Office upon request.

Information about catchment areas can be found on the link below

https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Education/Admissions-primary/Catchment-areas.aspx

There is no charge or cost related to the admission of a child to a school.

Applications for Nursery places for 2026/27 will be processed and managed directly by each Academy.

Applications for Reception places for 2026/27, will be processed by the Staffordshire County Council, School Admissions Service, who manage the process on our behalf.

Attendance at the preferred Academy Nursery will not prioritise admission to the preferred Reception Class or give any advantage to the child’s application for Reception. Parents must make a separate application for admission to Reception at the appropriate time.

Children in care means children who are looked after by a local authority in accordance with section 22 (1) of the Children Act 1989 and who is (a) in care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a Local Authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see definition in Section 22 (1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school. This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see section 12 adoption orders) and children who were adopted under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (see section 46 adoption orders).

Child arrangements orders are defined in s.8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by s.12 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order.

Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a special guardianship order as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).

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 Trust will not seek to obtain this information on behalf of the applicant.

The Staffordshire School Admissions Team 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 Academy. The coordinates of an applicant's home address are determined and provided by the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and OS Address Point data.

The requirement for the Trust 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, the Trust 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.

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 Trust is not in a position to intervene in disputes between parents over school applications and will request that they are resolved privately.

Home address

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 child’s home address changes during the admissions process it is the responsibility of the parent/carer to inform the Trust immediately. Where there is a proposed house move taking place during the admissions process the Trust will only accept the revised address for purposes of allocation where parents/carers can provide documentary evidence of the move by 24 February 2026 for Reception places and 14 April 2026 for Nursery places. It will be necessary for sufficient evidence of a permanent move to be provided by the applicant by this date before it will be taken into account for allocation purposes at the national offer date.

If a place is offered on the basis of an address that is subsequently found to be different from the child’s normal and permanent home address at the time of allocation of places, then that place is likely to be withdrawn.

Deferred Entry to Reception Class

Parents may decide to defer the date their child is admitted to the academy until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which the application was made. In addition where the parents wish, children may attend part-time until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age.

Before deciding whether to defer their child’s entry to school, parents should visit their preferred Academy to clarify how they cater for the youngest children in Reception and how the needs of these children are met as they move up through the Academy.

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 whether this is an appropriate course of action will be made by the Governing Body of the preferred academy 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. There will be a period of two weeks after the national offer date whereby available places will not be reallocated. If places become available after this date, they will be offered according to the child at the top of the waiting list.

For cases where the infant class size regulations apply, the waiting list will operate until the cohort concerned leaves Year 2.

For all other cases, waiting lists will be kept until 31 December 2026.

Inclusion on an Academy waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available at the preferred Academy.

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 a school in accordance with the Fair Access Protocol will take precedence over those on the waiting list.

When to Apply

Late Applications

Preferences 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 preferences will be considered only after those that were made before this point.

Appeals and Repeat Applications

There is no statutory right of appeal for admission to a nursery setting. Any disputes over the administration of the policy will be dealt with by the FGT complaints policy and procedure.

Any appeals for Reception, will be processed by the Staffordshire School Admissions Service, who manage the process on our behalf.

Parents do not have the right to a second appeal in respect of the same Academy for the same academic year unless, in exceptional circumstances, the Academy has accepted a second application from the appellant because of a significant and material change in the circumstances of the parent, child or Academy, but still refused admission.

“In-Year Admissions” Arrangements

Parents or carers may make an application to the preferred Academy using the appropriate application form. This application will be processed in line with the procedure outlined in the determined admission arrangements and parents and carers need to be aware that in the case of transfers between local schools any date set for joining the new Academy 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.

Admission arrangements 2025/2026

Introduction

Future Generation Trust is the admissions authority for all of its academies. The Trust Board of Future Generation Trust has delegated to the Local Governing Body of each academy the decisions about which children to admit, within the parameters of this policy.

In accordance with legislation, children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) that names a particular academy 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. For information on our SEND local offer, please visit the website of the individual academy.

Where fewer applications are received than the number of places available for a relevant age group (normal age that pupils are admitted to the academy) then all applicants will be offered a place.

Where there are more applications than places for a relevant age group then the oversubscription criteria (specified in section 7) shall be used to determine which children are offered a place.

Published Admission Numbers and Nursery Capacities

A school’s Published Admission Number (PAN) reflects the number of children to be admitted at the normal age of entry and should only be exceeded in exceptional circumstances and with prior agreement from the Local Authority.

FTE Capacity details the proposed Nursery FTE capacities, where FTE is the "Full Time Equivalent" capacity and 26 FTE places is equivalent to 52 part-time Nursery places.

Admission Arrangements for Designated Nursery Provision

Children will be admitted in September of the academic year in which they become four years old.

It is our policy to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible. Where there are more applications than available places in the preferred Nursery, admission is determined by the oversubscription criteria detailed in section 7.

Admission Arrangements for Reception Entry

Full time places in Reception classes (normal age of entry) 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 for the school that they wish their child to attend, there is no guarantee of a place being offered at their preferred school.

It is our policy to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible. However, in some cases there may be more applications for the preferred Academy than there are places available. Again, admission is determined by the oversubscription criteria is detailed in section 7.

Oversubscription Criteria for Nursery & Reception

If the total number of preferences for admission to Nursery or Reception at a Future Generation Trust Academy exceeds the Published Admission Number (PAN) (see section 4), then the following order of priority will be used to allocate the available places.

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 England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted
   
   
2. Children who satisfy both of the following tests:
   
   
   1. Test 1: 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 Academy’s Nursery or Reception rather than any other Nursery or Reception.
      
      Exceptional circumstances must relate to the preferred Nursery or Reception, and the individual child, i.e. the circumstances of the child, not the specific economic or social circumstances of the parent/carer, and be supported by a professional report (obtained by the applicant and provided at the point of application), e.g. social worker, justifying why it is better for the child to attend the preferred Academy’s Nursery or Reception rather than any other Nursery or Reception.
      
      
   2. Test 2: the child would suffer hardship if they were unable to attend the preferred Nursery or Reception setting.
      
      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 brother or sister in attendance at the preferred Academy and who will still be attending the Academy 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.)
   
   
4. Children who have a parent who has been directly employed by the preferred Academy for more than two years and for a minimum of 0.5 FTE, or who have been recruited to fill a vacant post for which there has previously been a difficulty with recruitment or retention.
   
   
5. Children living within the defined catchment for the preferred Academy. (see Section 8 - Additional Notes
   
   
6. • a) Nursery Applicants: Other children arranged in order of priority according to how near their home addresses (front door) are to the main gate of the preferred Academy, determined by a straight-line measurement as calculated utilising Google Maps.
     
     
   • b) Reception Applicants: Other children arranged in order of priority according to how near their home addresses are to the main gate of the preferred Academy, determined by a straight-line measurement as calculated using 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 Academy and/or Local Authority will allocate the available places in accordance with the remaining criteria. If for instance, all the catchment area children cannot be accommodated, children who are resident within the catchment area will be arranged in order of priority according to the remaining criteria.

Additional Notes

A map of the catchment area for each Academy is available on each individual Academy website. A copy is also available from each Academy Office upon request.

Information about catchment areas can be found on our catchment areas webpage.

There is no charge or cost related to the admission of a child to a school.

Applications for Nursery places will be processed and managed directly by each Academy.

Applications for Reception places  will be processed by the Staffordshire County Council, School Admissions Service, who manage the process on our behalf.

Attendance at the preferred Academy Nursery will not guarantee admission to the preferred Reception Class or give any advantage to the child’s application for Reception. Parents must make a separate application for admission to Reception at the appropriate time.

Looked after children means children who are looked after by a local authority in accordance with section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989 and who is (a) in care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a Local Authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see definition in Section 22 (1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school. This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see section 12 adoption orders) and children who were adopted under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (see section 46 adoption orders).

Child arrangements orders are defined in s.8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by s.12 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order. 7

Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a special guardianship order as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).

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 Trust will not seek to obtain this information on behalf of the applicant.

The Staffordshire School Admissions Team 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 Academy. The coordinates of an applicant's home address is determined and provided by the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and OS Address Point data.

The requirement for the Trust 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, the Trust 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 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.

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 Trust is not in a position to intervene in disputes between parents over school applications and will request that they are resolved privately.

If a child’s home address changes during the admissions process it is the responsibility of the parent/carer to inform the Trust immediately. Where there is a proposed house move taking place during the admissions process the Trust will only accept the revised address for purposes of allocation where parents/carers can provide documentary evidence of the move by 12 March for Reception places and 20 April for Nursery places. It will be necessary for sufficient evidence of a permanent move to be provided by the applicant by this date before it will be taken into account for allocation purposes at the national offer date.

If a place is offered on the basis of an address that is subsequently found to be different from the child’s normal and permanent home address at the time of allocation of places 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 or are the result of a multiple birth, 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

Parents may request that their child be admitted to a Reception class on a part-time basis, or that their child be admitted to school 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.

Before deciding whether to defer their child’s entry to school, parents should visit their preferred Academy to clarify how they cater for the youngest children in Reception and how the needs of these children are met as they move up through the Academy.

For further information on the process for requesting deferred entry to Reception Class please visit our early, delayed or deferred entries webpage.

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 whether this is an appropriate course of action will be made by the Governing Body of the preferred academy 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. There will be a period of two weeks after the national offer date whereby available places will not be reallocated. If places become available after this date they will be offered to the child at the top of the waiting list.

For cases where the infant class size regulations apply, the waiting list will operate until the cohort concerned leaves Year 2.

For all other cases, waiting lists will be kept until 31 December 2025.

Inclusion on an Academy waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available at the preferred Academy.

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 a school in accordance with the Fair Access Protocol will take precedence over those on the waiting list.

When to Apply

Late Applications

Preferences 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 preferences will be considered only after those that were made before this point.

A late application does not affect the right of appeal or the right to be placed on an Academy’s waiting list.

Appeals and Repeat Applications

There is no statutory right of appeal for admission to a nursery setting. Any disputes over the administration of the policy will be dealt with by the Future Generation Trust complaints policy and procedure.

Any appeals for Reception , will be processed by the Staffordshire School Admissions Service, who manage the process on our behalf.

Parents do not have the right to a second appeal in respect of the same Academy for the same academic year unless, in exceptional circumstances, the Academy has accepted a second application from the appellant because of a significant and material change in the circumstances of the parent, child or Academy, but still refused admission.

"In-Year Transfer" Arrangements

Parents or carers may make an application to the preferred Academy using the appropriate application form. This application will be processed in line with the procedure outlined in the determined admission arrangements. Parents and carers need to be aware that any date set for joining the new Academy 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.

Monitoring and Review

The Future Generation Trust Board has overall responsibility for this policy and for reviewing its implementation and effectiveness. The Headteacher has day-to-day operational responsibility for this policy and must ensure that all staff are fully aware of its contents and trained accordingly.

Policy adopted on: 14 December 2023

Review Date: January 2025

Signed: Fliss Dale   Designation: Chair of Trust Board

Admission arrangements 2023/2024 & 2024/2025

Introduction

Future Generation Trust is the admissions authority for all of its academies. The Trust Board of Future Generation Trust has delegated to the Local Governing Body of each academy the decisions about which children to admit, within the parameters of this policy.

In accordance with legislation, children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) that names a particular academy 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. For information on our SEND local offer, please visit the website of the individual academy.

Where fewer applications are received than the number of places available for a relevant age group (normal age that pupils are admitted to the academy) then all applicants will be offered a place.

Where there are more applications than places for a relevant age group then the oversubscription criteria (specified in section 7) shall be used to determine which children are offered a place.

Published Admission Numbers and Nursery Capacities

A school’s Published Admission Number (PAN) reflects the number of children to be admitted at the normal age of entry and should only be exceeded in exceptional circumstances and with prior agreement from the Local Authority.

FTE Capacity details the proposed Nursery FTE capacities, where FTE is the "Full Time Equivalent" capacity and 26 FTE places is equivalent to 52 part-time Nursery places.

Admission Arrangements for Designated Nursery Provision

Children will be admitted in September of the academic year in which they become four years old.

It is our policy to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible. Where there are more applications than available places in the preferred Nursery, admission is determined by the oversubscription criteria detailed in section 7.

Admission Arrangements for Reception Entry

Full time places in Reception classes (normal age of entry) 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 for the school that they wish their child to attend, there is no guarantee of a place being offered at their preferred school.

It is our policy to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible. However, in some cases there may be more applications for the preferred Academy than there are places available. Again, admission is determined by the oversubscription criteria is detailed in section 7.

Oversubscription Criteria for Nursery & Reception

If the total number of preferences for admission to Nursery or Reception at a Future Generation Trust Academy exceeds the Published Admission Number (PAN) (see section 4), then the following order of priority will be used to allocate the available places.

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 England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted
   
   
2. Children who satisfy both of the following tests:
   
   
   1. Test 1: 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 Academy’s Nursery or Reception rather than any other Nursery or Reception.
      
      Exceptional circumstances must relate to the preferred Nursery or Reception, and the individual child, i.e. the circumstances of the child, not the specific economic or social circumstances of the parent/carer, and be supported by a professional report (obtained by the applicant and provided at the point of application), e.g. social worker, justifying why it is better for the child to attend the preferred Academy’s Nursery or Reception rather than any other Nursery or Reception.
      
      
   2. Test 2: the child would suffer hardship if they were unable to attend the preferred Nursery or Reception setting.
      
      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 brother or sister in attendance at the preferred Academy and who will still be attending the Academy 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.)
   
   
4. Children who have a parent who has been directly employed by the preferred Academy for more than two years and for a minimum of 0.5 FTE, or who have been recruited to fill a vacant post for which there has previously been a difficulty with recruitment or retention.
   
   
5. Children living within the defined catchment for the preferred Academy. (see Section 8 - Additional Notes
   
   
6. • a) Nursery Applicants: Other children arranged in order of priority according to how near their home addresses (front door) are to the main gate of the preferred Academy, determined by a straight-line measurement as calculated utilising Google Maps.
     
     
   • b) Reception Applicants: Other children arranged in order of priority according to how near their home addresses are to the main gate of the preferred Academy, determined by a straight-line measurement as calculated using 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 Academy and/or Local Authority will allocate the available places in accordance with the remaining criteria. If for instance, all the catchment area children cannot be accommodated, children who are resident within the catchment area will be arranged in order of priority according to the remaining criteria.

Additional Notes

A map of the catchment area for each Academy is available on each individual Academy website. A copy is also available from each Academy Office upon request.

Information about catchment areas can be found on our catchment areas webpage.

There is no charge or cost related to the admission of a child to a school.

Applications for Nursery places will be processed and managed directly by each Academy.

Applications for Reception places  will be processed by the Staffordshire County Council, School Admissions Service, who manage the process on our behalf.

Attendance at the preferred Academy Nursery will not guarantee admission to the preferred Reception Class or give any advantage to the child’s application for Reception. Parents must make a separate application for admission to Reception at the appropriate time.

Looked after children means children who are looked after by a local authority in accordance with section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989 and who is (a) in care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a Local Authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see definition in Section 22 (1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school. This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see section 12 adoption orders) and children who were adopted under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (see section 46 adoption orders).

Child arrangements orders are defined in s.8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by s.12 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order. 7

Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a special guardianship order as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).

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 Trust will not seek to obtain this information on behalf of the applicant.

The Staffordshire School Admissions Team 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 Academy. The coordinates of an applicant's home address is determined and provided by the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and OS Address Point data.

The requirement for the Trust 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, the Trust 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 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.

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 Trust is not in a position to intervene in disputes between parents over school applications and will request that they are resolved privately.

If a child’s home address changes during the admissions process it is the responsibility of the parent/carer to inform the Trust immediately. Where there is a proposed house move taking place during the admissions process the Trust will only accept the revised address for purposes of allocation where parents/carers can provide documentary evidence of the move by 12 March for Reception places and 20 April for Nursery places. It will be necessary for sufficient evidence of a permanent move to be provided by the applicant by this date before it will be taken into account for allocation purposes at the national offer date.

If a place is offered on the basis of an address that is subsequently found to be different from the child’s normal and permanent home address at the time of allocation of places 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 or are the result of a multiple birth, 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

Parents may request that their child be admitted to a Reception class on a part-time basis, or that their child be admitted to school 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.

Before deciding whether to defer their child’s entry to school, parents should visit their preferred Academy to clarify how they cater for the youngest children in Reception and how the needs of these children are met as they move up through the Academy.

For further information on the process for requesting deferred entry to Reception Class please visit our early, delayed or deferred entries webpage.

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. There will be a period of two weeks after the national offer date whereby available places will not be reallocated. If places become available after this date they will be offered to the child at the top of the waiting list.

For cases where the infant class size regulations apply, the waiting list will operate until the cohort concerned leaves Year 2.

For all other cases, waiting lists will be kept until 31 December 2021.

Inclusion on an Academy waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available at the preferred Academy.

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 a school in accordance with the Fair Access Protocol will take precedence over those on the waiting list.

Late Applications

Preferences 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 preferences will be considered only after those that were made before this point.

A late application does not affect the right of appeal or the right to be placed on an Academy’s waiting list.

Appeals and Repeat Applications

There is no statutory right of appeal for admission to a nursery setting. Any disputes over the administration of the policy will be dealt with by the Future Generation Trust complaints policy and procedure.

Any appeals for Reception , will be processed by the Staffordshire School Admissions Service, who manage the process on our behalf.

Parents do not have the right to a second appeal in respect of the same Academy for the same academic year unless, in exceptional circumstances, the Academy has accepted a second application from the appellant because of a significant and material change in the circumstances of the parent, child or Academy, but still refused admission.

"In-Year Transfer" Arrangements

Parents or carers may make an application to the preferred Academy using the appropriate application form. This application will be processed in line with the procedure outlined in the determined admission arrangements. Parents and carers need to be aware that any date set for joining the new Academy 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.

Monitoring and Review

The Future Generation Trust Board has overall responsibility for this policy and for reviewing its implementation and effectiveness. The Headteacher has day-to-day operational responsibility for this policy and must ensure that all staff are fully aware of its contents and trained accordingly.