Kingsmead School

2025/2026 & 2026/2027

2024/2025

 2023/2024

Admission arrangements 2025/2026 & 2026/2027

Published Admission Number

The Published Admission number for each Year 7 entry is 224. This level has been agreed by the Governing Body for the 2025 and 2026 entry.

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 the policy of the school governing body to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible, however in some cases there may be more applications for  our school than there are places available.

Oversubscription Criteria

If the total number of preferences for admission to a school exceeds the school’s Published Admission Number (PAN) of 224, the following order of priority is 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. See ‘Additional Notes’

2)Children living within the catchment area of Kingsmead school. See ‘Additional Notes’.

3)Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at Kingsmead school and who will still be attending the school 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.)

4)Children of whose parents are employed by JT MAT to work at Kingsmead School in either or both of the following circumstances

(a)Where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or

(b)Children whose parents are employed by JT MAT to work at Kingsmead School employees where a member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

5)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. See ‘Additional Notes’

Where it is not possible to accommodate all children applying for places within a particular category then the available places will be allocated 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 criteria 3) followed by those children resident within the catchment area arranged in order of criteria 4 and then 5.

Late Applications

Preferences received after the closing date will be considered alongside those applicants who applied on time where every possible. Where it is not practical because places have already been allocated, or are shortly to be allocated, then later 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 school’s waiting list.

In-Year Admissions

Applications for In-year admissions should be directed to the Local Governing Body of Kingsmead. Parents will be notified of the outcome by letter within 15 days of receipt of the application and the Local Authority will be notified accordingly.

An application form can be obtained from any of the following sources;

• The School Office
  
  
• From Staffordshire County Council’s website: www.staffordshire.gov.uk/admissions
  
  
• Customer Contact Centre Service (0300 111 8007)

Admissions 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.

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 a child. A decision whether this is an appropriate course of action will be made by the School and requests directed to the governing body of Kingsmead 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.

Appeals

Any parent whose application is refused will be provided with information on the right to an independent appeal panel review. Please follow the following link for further information:

 https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Education/Admissionappeals/home.aspx

Additional Notes

A catchment area map is available to view in School or alternatively you can view a copy of the school catchment area on the Staffordshire County Council’s website using the following link

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

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

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. A child is regarded as being in state care outside England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society. This includes children who are adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see Section 12 Adoption orders) and children who were adopted under Adoption & Children Act 2002 (see section 46 Adoption orders)

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 Governing Body 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 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 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 Local Authority 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 will only accept the revised address for purpose 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.

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, then the child or children who will be offered the available spaces will be randomly selected. This process will be independently verified.

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. Waiting lists will be kept until 31st December by the Local Authority. Waiting lists for other year groups already established will be held in school in order with the oversubscription criteria and will be maintained on a rolling basis.

 Admission arrangements 2024/2025

The Planned Admissions level for each Year 7 entry is 224. This level has been agreed by the Governing Body for the 2024 entry.

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 the policy of the school governing body to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible, however in some cases there may be more applications for a particular school than there are places available.

Oversubscription criteria 

If the total number of preferences for admission to a school exceeds the school’s Published Admission Number (PAN) of 224, the following order of priority is used to allocate the available places. (N.B. after applying the oversubscription criteria, where an applicant can be offered a place at more than one preferred school then they will be offered a place at the school ranked highest on their application.) 

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.  See ‘Additional Notes’
2. Children living within the catchment area of Kingsmead school. See ‘Additional Notes’.
3. Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at Kingsmead school and who will still be attending the school 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.)
   
4. Children of Kingsmead School employees in either or both of the following circumstances
   
   • (a) Where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or
   • (b) Children of Kingsmead School employees where a member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
5. 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. See ‘Additional Notes’. 

Where it is not possible to accommodate all children applying for places within a particular category then the Local Authority 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 distance. 

Late applications 

Preferences received after the closing date will be considered alongside those applicants who applied on time where every possible.  Where it is not practical because places have already been allocated, or are shortly to be allocated, then later 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 a school’s waiting list. 

In-year admissions  

Applications for In-year admissions should be directed to the Local Governing Body of Kingsmead.  Parents will be notified of the outcome by letter within 15 days of receipt of the application and the Local Authority will be notified accordingly. 

An application form can be obtained from any of the following sources;

• The School Office
• From Staffordshire County Council’s website
• Customer Contact Centre Service (0300 111 8007) 

Admissions 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. 

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 a child.  A decision whether this is an appropriate course of action should be made by the School and requests directed to the governing body of Kingsmead 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. 

Appeals

Students have the right to appeal if refused a place, and should appeal in writing to:

Additional notes

A catchment area map is available to view in School or alternatively you can view a copy of the school catchment area on our catchment area webpage.

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

Admissions are administered through a coordinated admission scheme and preferences for community, controlled, aided and foundation schools will be processed centrally by the Local Authority’s Directorate’s School Admissions and Transport Service. Each pupil will receive one offer of a place at a maintained school. 

Looked after children means children who are in the care of a local authority in accordance with section 22 (1) of the Children Act 1989 and who (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 Adoption and Children Act 2002 (see section 46 adoption orders). 

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 Local Authority 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 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 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 Local Authority 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 will only accept the revised address for purpose of allocation where parents/carers can provide documentary evidence of the move by 25 January.  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, then the child or children who will be offered the available spaces will be randomly selected.  This process will be independently verified. 

Any Staffordshire child not obtaining a place at any of their parents preferred schools will be allocated a place at their catchment area school (if places remain available) or the next nearest school with a space available and advised about the independent appeals process. 

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.   Waiting lists will be kept until 31 December 2021.  No other waiting lists will be maintained.

Admission arrangements 2023/2024 & 2022/2023 

Planned Admission Level

The Planned Admissions level for each Year 7 entry is 224. This level has been agreed by the Governing Body for the 2021 and 2022 entry.

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 the policy of the school governing body to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible, however in some cases there may be more applications for a particular school than there are places available.

Oversubscription criteria 

If the total number of preferences for admission to a school exceeds the school’s Published Admission Number (PAN) of 224, the following order of priority is used to allocate the available places. (N.B. after applying the oversubscription criteria, where an applicant can be offered a place at more than one preferred school then they will be offered a place at the school ranked highest on their application.) 

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.  See ‘Additional Notes’
2. Children living within the catchment area of Kingsmead school. See ‘Additional Notes’.
3. Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at Kingsmead school and who will still be attending the school 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.)
   
4. Children of Kingsmead School employees in either or both of the following circumstances
   
   • (a) Where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or
   • (b) Children of Kingsmead School employees where a member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
5. 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. See ‘Additional Notes’. 

Where it is not possible to accommodate all children applying for places within a particular category then the Local Authority 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 distance. 

Late applications 

Preferences received after the closing date will be considered alongside those applicants who applied on time where every possible.  Where it is not practical because places have already been allocated, or are shortly to be allocated, then later 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 a school’s waiting list. 

In-year admissions  

Applications for In-year admissions should be directed to the Local Governing Body of Kingsmead.  Parents will be notified of the outcome by letter within 15 days of receipt of the application and the Local Authority will be notified accordingly. 

An application form can be obtained from any of the following sources;

• The School Office
• From Staffordshire County Council’s website
• Customer Contact Centre Service (0300 111 8007) 

Admissions 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. 

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 a child.  A decision whether this is an appropriate course of action should be made by the School and requests directed to the governing body of Kingsmead 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. 

Appeals

Students have the right to appeal if refused a place, and should appeal in writing to:

Additional notes

A catchment area map is available to view in School or alternatively you can view a copy of the school catchment area on our catchment area webpage.

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

Admissions are administered through a coordinated admission scheme and preferences for community, controlled, aided and foundation schools will be processed centrally by the Local Authority’s Directorate’s School Admissions and Transport Service. Each pupil will receive one offer of a place at a maintained school. 

Looked after children means children who are in the care of a local authority in accordance with section 22 (1) of the Children Act 1989 and who (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 Adoption and Children Act 2002 (see section 46 adoption orders). 

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 Local Authority 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 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 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 Local Authority 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 will only accept the revised address for purpose of allocation where parents/carers can provide documentary evidence of the move by 25 January 2021 (2021/2022) or 25 Janaury 2022 (2022/2023).  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, then the child or children who will be offered the available spaces will be randomly selected.  This process will be independently verified. 

Any Staffordshire child not obtaining a place at any of their parents preferred schools will be allocated a place at their catchment area school (if places remain available) or the next nearest school with a space available and advised about the independent appeals process. 

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.   Waiting lists will be kept until 31 December 2021.  No other waiting lists will be maintained.

Admission arrangements 2020/2021

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 the policy of the school governing body to try and meet parents’ wishes where possible, however in some cases there may be more applications for a particular school than there are places available.

Oversubscription criteria

If the total number of preferences for admission to a school exceeds the school’s Published Admission Number (PAN) of 230 (2019/2020) & 224 (2020/2021), the following order of priority is used to allocate the available places. (N.B., after applying the oversubscription criteria, where an applicant can be offered a place at more than one preferred school then they will be offered a place at the school ranked highest on their application.)

1. Children in Care and children who ceased to be so because they were adopted or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order (Paragraph 1.7 of the 2012 Admissions Code).
   
   
2. Children living within the catchment area of the preferred school
   
   
3. Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at the preferred school and who will still be attending the school 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).
   
   
4. Children who satisfy both of the following tests:
   
   
   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 preferred 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 preferred school rather than any other school.
      
      
   2. The child would suffer hardship if they were unable to attend the preferred 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 the type and severity of any likely hardship at the time of application.
      
      
5. 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 Directorate for Children, Young People and Families’ Geographical Information System.

Where it is not possible to accommodate all children applying for places within a particular category then the Directorate’s School Admissions and Transport Service 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 catchment area children and satisfy category (3) will receive offers of a place, followed by children who live in the catchment area and satisfy category (4), etc.

In-year admissions

Applications for In-year admissions should be directed to the governing body of Kingsmead. Parents will be notified of the outcome by letter within 15 days of receipt of the application and the Local Authority will be notified accordingly.

An application form can be obtained from any of the following sources:

• The school office
• From Staffordshire County Council's website
• Customer contact centre service (0300 111 8007)

Admissions 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.

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 a child. A decision whether this is an appropriate course of action should be made by the School and requests directed to the governing body of Kingsmead 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.

Appeals

Students have the right to appeal if refused a place, and should appeal in writing to:

Additional notes

A school catchment area map is available to view in School or alternatively please contact Staffordshire Council School Admissions and Transport Service for more information.  

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

Admissions are administered through a coordinated admission scheme and preferences for community, controlled, aided and foundation schools will be processed centrally by the Directorate’s School Admissions and Transport Service. Each pupil will receive one offer of a place at a maintained school.

In accordance with legislation, children who have a statutory statement of special educational need of Education, Health and Care Plan that names a particular school as being the most appropriate to meet the child’s needs will be admitted to that school. This may reduce the amount of places available to other applicants.

Relevant Children in Care means children who are in the care of a local authority in accordance with section 22 of the Children Act 1989(b) and who (a) are looked after at the time an application is made and (b) in relation to whom the local authority has confirmed that the children will still be looked after at the time when the child will be admitted to school.

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 Local Authority 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 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 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 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 by drawing lots.

Any Staffordshire child not obtaining a place at any of their parents preferred schools will be allocated a place at their catchment area school (if places remain available) or the next nearest school with a space available and advised about the independent appeals process.