Burleyfields Primary Academy - due to open September 2025
This is a new primary school due to open September 2025
Admission arrangements 2025/2026
Full time places in reception classes will be available in September of the academic year within which a child becomes five years old.
The Published Admission Number (PAN) for the first year of admission into Reception will be 30 pupils.
Applications for Reception September 2025 - Process
Applications will be processed through the normal Staffordshire local authority process for co-ordinating school offers. Parents need to complete their local authority common application form for all your school preferences. The closing date for applications is 15 January 2025. Offers will be made on 16 April 2025. If we have not entered into a funding agreement with the Secretary of State opening the school by that date, they will be conditional offers and will be confirmed once we have a signed funding agreement.
In the case where there are more applications made than there are places available. Admission is determined by the oversubscription criteria detailed below.
Oversubscription Criteria
If the total number of preferences exceeds the Published Admission Number (PAN), the following order of priority is used to allocate the available places:
- Looked after children and previously looked after children because they were adopted (or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order) including those that 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.
- Children whose current exceptional circumstances 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 which requires regular and sustained medical treatment or by other extreme 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 Burleyfields Primary rather than any other school.
Exceptional circumstances must relate and be relevant to the school and the individual child, i.e. the exceptional circumstances of the child, not the economic or social circumstances of the parent/carer. They should be supported by a recent professional’s report (obtained by the applicant and provided when the application is submitted), e.g. social worker. This report must clearly explain why the child’s circumstances are exceptional and why it is considered best that they attend Burleyfields Primary rather than any other school.
and
Test 2: the child will suffer hardship if they were unable to attend Burleyfields Primary rather than any other school.
Hardship means severe suffering of any kind, not merely difficulty, inconvenience or mild to moderate emotional distress, which is likely to be experienced as a result of the child attending a different school. Applicants must provide detailed information (which may be included within the professional’s report) detailing both the type and severity of any likely hardship at the time of application.
- Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at the school and who will still be attending Burleyfields Primary 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.)
- Children living within the catchment area of Burleyfields Primary as detailed below. Copies of school catchment area maps are available from the local authority and the school office.
- 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 we will allocate the available places in accordance with the remaining criteria. If for instance, all the catchment area children cannot be accommodated at a school, children who are resident within the catchment area will be arranged in order of priority according to the remaining criteria.
Tie-break
If necessary, random allocation undertaken by the local authority will be used as a tie-break to decide who has the highest priority for admission if the distance between a child’s home and the school is equidistant in any two or more cases.
Proposed Catchment Area
Additional Notes
There is no charge or cost related to the admission of a child to this school.
In accordance with legislation, children who have a statutory statement of special educational need or an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) that names Burleyfields Primary 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.
Looked after children 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, we will not seek to obtain this information on behalf of the applicant.
The Academy uses the Local Authority’s 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 co-ordinates of an applicant's home address is determined and provided by 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 friend’s 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 School is not in a position to intervene in disputes between parents over school applications and will request that these 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 Local Authority immediately. Where there is a proposed house move taking place during the admissions process the Local Authority, on behalf of the Academy, will only accept the revised address for purposes of allocation where parents/carers can provide documentary evidence of the move. 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 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 the school to clarify how we 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 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 can 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 until 31 December 2025 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.
As infant class size regulations apply, the waiting list will operate until the cohort concerned leaves Year 2.
Inclusion on the Academy’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.
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 the Academy’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 Academy has 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.
“In-Year Transfer” Arrangements
Parents or carers seeking to transfer to Burleyfields Primary may make an application 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 any date set for joining the 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.