Corbett Voluntary Aided Church of England Primary School

Admission Arrangements for 2024/2025, 2025/2026 & 2026/2027

1. Introduction

At Corbett we are committed to creating an environment where children love their learning. Where the whole school community works together to make learning irresistible; surrounded by a nurturing Christian Faith. Our school badge reminds us of our close community with the church of Holy Cross and the faith of our two founders Mary and Hannah Corbett.

Corbett Primary School is a Voluntary Aided School in association with the Church Of England, serving the local community. The school provides places for children aged 3–11 years old.

2. Admission authority

Responsibility for admissions to the school rests with the governing board.

3. Admission to Corbett School

Children will be given the offer of a full time place at the School from the September of the academic year within which the child becomes five. For applications in the normal admissions round for Reception, parents must complete an application via their child's home local authority.

Admissions are administered through a Co-ordinated Scheme, which is processed centrally by Staffordshire Local Authority.

4. Published Admissions Number (PAN) for Corbett School 

Reception 14

5. Allocating Places

If the school is not oversubscribed, all applicants will be offered a place. If the school receives more applications than the number of places available, places will be offered using the following criteria, in the order set out below;

6. Oversubscription Criteria

First priority will be given to 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.

In accordance with legislation, children with an Education, Health and Care Plan which names Corbett (VA) CE Primary School must be admitted to the school before all other applicants are considered.

If the number of applications exceed the school’s Published Admissions Number (PAN), the following order of priority will be used to allocate the available places:

(a)    Children in care and children who have previously been in care, where care is defined as: children who are (1) in care of a Local Authority, or (2) 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 the school; or children who are no longer looked after by a Local Authority in England (as defined by the Children Act 1989) because they are the subject of an adoption, special guardianship or child arrangements order; this includes children who were previously in state care outside England and have ceased to be in care as a result of being adopted, and children who were adopted immediately after being looked after in England; applications made under this criterion must be accompanied by professionally supported evidence (e.g. from a social worker); the School Admissions Code 2021 states that priority must be given to looked after and previously looked after children, including internationally adopted previously looked after children (IAPLAC)

b) Children who have a home address within the Parish of Bobbington as defined by the Staffordshire Local Authority.

c) Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at the school and who will still be attending the school at the proposed admission date; sibling is defined as a brother or sister who lives at the same address and has one or both natural parents in common, is related by a parent’s marriage, is adopted or fostered by a common parent, or is an unrelated child who lives at the same address whose parents live as partners

d) Children whose home address is nearest in distance to the main gate of the school; this is defined as a straight line measurement made by Staffordshire Local Authority’s Geographical Information System (GIS); the co-ordinates of an applicant’s home address are determined using the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and Ordnance Survey (OS) Address Point data

Where it is not possible to accommodate all children applying for places within a particular category, then we will allocate the available places in accordance with the remaining criteria. If we cannot distinguish between applicants using the criteria listed, e.g. 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.

7. Home address

The home address is considered to be the child’s along with their parent’s main and genuine place of residence at the time of 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 addresses 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 then the home address will be determined as the address where the child lives for the majority of the school week. Parents will be required to provide documentary evidence to support the address they wish to be considered for allocation purposes.

8. 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 possible because places have already been allocated, then late applicants will be considered only after those 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.

9. Waiting Lists

A waiting list will automatically be kept of any child who has been refused a school place. The waiting list will be kept in oversubscription order and where places become available they will be offered to the next pupil in the waiting list. Inclusion on a waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available. A child’s position on the waiting list is not fixed and is subject to change i.e. they can go up or down the list.

The waiting list will be kept until the end of the academic year of admission. For cases where the infant class size regulations apply, the waiting list will operate until the cohort concerned leaves Year 2.

10. Infant Class Size

The requirement for the 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.

11. Deferred Entry to Reception

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.

12. 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. This 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.  Parents do not have the right to insist that their child is admitted to a particular year group.

13. Repeat Applications

The Governors will not consider repeat applications in the same academic year.

14. In Year Admissions

An application should be made directly to the Governing Body at the school, who will determine whether a place is available in the requested year group. The governing body will notify the Local Authority of the outcome of the application. All places will be allocated according to the published admission arrangements.

15. Appeals Procedure

Any parent has the right to appeal against a decision not to admit. Appeals should be made in writing to the Chair of Governors at the school address and must set out the reasons on which the appeal is made. The appeal will be heard by an Independent Appeal Panel. To enquire about school admission appeals for Corbett Primary School and the process for this, please visit the webpage.

16. Fraudulent or misleading information

If the school becomes aware that a place was secured for a child at the school on the basis of misleading or false information, they reserve the right, within the terms of the School Admissions Code, to withdraw the offer of a place or, if the child has already started at the school, to remove the child from the school roll. The school will work with the local authority to investigate any concerns about fraudulent or misleading applications.

17. Admissions: The Law

The school admission arrangements comply with the following legislation:

(a)    The Human Rights Act 1998 confers a right to education, although this right does not extend to securing a place at a particular school; however, admission authorities do need to consider parents’ reasons for expressing a preference when they make decisions regarding the allocation of school places

(b)    The Equality Act 2010 protects people from discrimination with the following characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation

(c)    School Admissions Code 2021 and School Admission Appeals Code 2022 regulate the school admissions process and legislation, including the appeals process