St. Mary's CofE Primary, Mucklestone
Admission arrangement 2025/2026, 2024/2025, 2023/2024
Admissions of Reception Age Pupils
Pupils are admitted on a full time basis in the September preceding their fifth birthday. There is one admission annually for children starting in the Reception age group in September. Pupils may be admitted to the school in the September intake if their fifth birthday falls between 1 September and 31 August. It is expected that the Reception intake will not exceed 12 pupils during a school year.
Admissions Limits
The maximum number on roll is expected to be a maximum of 84 pupils. The number of pupils admitted in any one-year group is expected not to exceed 12. (Published Admission Number, PAN).
Application Process
All applications are encouraged online where possible. If you do not have access to the internet, please contact the school and they will be happy to assist you. For further admissions information and an application form, please see the admissions pages.
If any extra documentation is required to support the application, it must be submitted at the time of application.
Catchment Area
The catchment area of the school is the Ecclesiastical Parish of St. Mary’s Church, Mucklestone, which includes Loggerheads and Mucklestone. We welcome applicants from out of catchment and have pupils on roll from Woore, Norton-In-Hales, Goldstone and Hales. Some children also come from nearby Market Drayton.
Admissions Criteria
The following criteria for selection will be employed when applications for admission exceed the admission limit. In accordance with legislation, children who have a statutory statement of special educational need, or Education, Health and Care Plan that names St. Mary’s must be admitted. This will reduce the number of places available:
In the event of a tiebreak applications will be arranged in order of priority according to how near their home addresses are to the school. Distance will be measured as the nearest practical walking route from the home address to the main school gate. The Local Authority uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to calculate distance.
All applications are considered against the above criteria, with no priority awarded to early applications. Late applications will only be considered in exceptional circumstances.
It is the applicant’s responsibility to provide any supportive information required in order for the application to be assessed against the criteria above. The school will not seek to obtain this information on behalf of the applicant.
Admissions Panel
Composition: The Admissions Panel will consist of the Chair of Governors, three other Governors of whom it is expected the Parish Incumbent will be one, and the Headteacher of the school.
Responsibilities: The Admissions Panel will consider applications for admission to the school. When the number of applicants exceeds the number of available places, the panel will select pupils according to the published criteria.
The Admissions Panel will meet to consider applications prior to and on the same evening as the scheduled Governors’ Meeting. The panel’s decision will be presented to the Governors for clarification.
Immediate Admission
When a pupil moves into the catchment area and is transferring from another school, it may be necessary to effect immediate admission. In this event, authority to admit is delegated to the Headteacher, providing there is a place available. The Chairman of the Admissions Panel will be notified at the earliest opportunity and in turn will inform the Chair of Governors.
Appeals Procedure
In the event of admission being refused parents will be notified in writing of their right to appeal. The Headteacher will offer and, if required, give advice to the parents on the appeals procedure.
If the parents decide to proceed with an appeal a formal approach to the Governors should be made in writing to the Chair of Governors. The Chair of Governors will set in motion arrangements for an Appeal Panel to meet.
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 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 school(s) 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 school.
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 they may apply to come a year earlier. 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 school who will take into account the circumstances of the case. Parents do not have the right to insist that their child is admitted to a particular year group.
Waiting lists for Admissions and Normal Point of Entry
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 and parents will be written to each year to ask whether or not they wish their child’s details to remain on the list.
For all other cases, waiting lists will be kept until 31 December.
Inclusion on a school’s waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available at the preferred 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.
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.
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 local authority immediately. Where there is a proposed house move taking place during the admissions process the local authority will only accept the revised address for purposes of allocation where parents/carers can provide documentary evidence of the move by 8 March. 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.
Any Staffordshire child not obtaining a place at any of their parent’s preferred schools will be allocated an alternative school place and advised about the independent appeals process.
Admissions of Reception Age Children
Pupils are admitted on a full time basis in the September preceding their fifth birthday. There is one admission annually for children starting in the Reception age group in September. Pupils may be admitted to the school in the September intake if their fifth birthday falls between 1 September and 31 August. It is expected that the Reception intake will not exceed 12 pupils during a school year.
Admissions of Reception Age Pupils
Pupils are admitted on a full time basis in the September preceding their fifth birthday. There is one admission annually for children starting in the Reception age group in September.
Admissions Limits
The maximum number on roll is expected to be between 60 and 70 pupils over the next 3 years rising to 84 in 5 years based on current pupil numbers.
The number of pupils admitted in any one-year group is expected not to exceed 12. (Published Admission Number, PAN).
Application Process
All applications are encouraged online where possible. If you do not have access to the internet, please contact the school and they will be happy to assist you. For further admissions information and an application form, please view the admissions pages.
If any extra documentation is required to support the application, it must be submitted at the time of application.
Catchment Area
The catchment area of the school is the Ecclesiastical Parish of St. Mary’s Church, Mucklestone, which includes Loggerheads and Mucklestone. We welcome applicants from out of catchment and have pupils on roll from Woore, Norton-In-Hales, Goldstone and Hales. Some children also come from nearby Market Drayton.
Admissions Criteria
The following criteria for selection will be employed when applications for admission exceed the admission limit. In accordance with legislation, children who have a statutory statement of special educational need, or Education, Health and Care Plan that names St. Mary’s must be admitted. This will reduce the number of places available:
- Looked after children and previously looked after children who are of the Anglican faith over all other children of Anglican faith, and give higher priority to all looked after children and previously looked after children not of Anglican faith than all other children not of Anglican faith.
- Children resident in the catchment area of the School (i.e. the Ecclesiastical Parish of St. Mary’s, Mucklestone).
- Children with siblings at the school. (Pupils who at the time of the application have elder sibling/s in attendance at the school, who will still be attending at the proposed admission date). A sibling is defined as a brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step-brother or step-sister or the child of the parent/carer’s partner where the child for whom the school place is sought is living in the same family unit at the same address as that sibling.
- Children whose parents are regular in attendance of the Anglican Church. (i.e. attendance at least six times in last twelve months with a letter of support from Religious Leader).
- Children whose parents are regular in attendance of another Christian Church. (i.e. attendance at least six times in last twelve months with a letter of support from Religious Leader).
- Children with special social or welfare needs. (Children distinguished from the great majority of other applicants either on medical grounds of by exceptional circumstances).
- Children of non-Christian religion who wish for a school with a religious emphasis.
- Any other children.
In the event of a tiebreak applications will be arranged in order of priority according to how near their home addresses are to the school. Distance will be measured as the nearest practical walking route from the home address to the main school gate. The Local Authority uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to calculate distance.
All applications are considered against the above criteria, with no priority awarded to early applications. Late applications will only be considered in exceptional circumstances.
It is the applicant’s responsibility to provide any supportive information required in order for the application to be assessed against the criteria above. The school will not seek to obtain this information on behalf of the applicant.
Admissions Panel
Composition: The Admissions Panel will consist of the Chair of Governors, three other Governors of whom it is expected the Parish Incumbent will be one, and the Headteacher of the school.
Responsibilities: The Admissions Panel will consider applications for admission to the school. When the number of applicants exceeds the number of available places, the panel will select pupils according to the published criteria.
The Admissions Panel will meet to consider applications prior to and on the same evening as the scheduled Governors’ Meeting. The panel’s decision will be presented to the Governors for clarification.
Immediate Admission
When a pupil moves into the catchment area and is transferring from another school, it may be necessary to effect immediate admission. In this event, authority to admit is delegated to the Headteacher, providing there is a place available. The Chairman of the Admissions Panel will be notified at the earliest opportunity and in turn will inform the Chair of Governors.
Appeals Procedure
In the event of admission being refused parents will be notified in writing of their right to appeal. The Headteacher will offer and, if required, give advice to the parents on the appeals procedure.
If the parents decide to proceed with an appeal a formal approach to the Governors should be made in writing to the Chair of Governors. The Chair of Governors will set in motion arrangements for an Appeal Panel to meet.
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 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 school(s) 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 school.
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 they may apply to come a year earlier. 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 school who will take into account the circumstances of the case. Parents do not have the right to insist that their child is admitted to a particular year group.
The School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.