Admissions

If you are considering our school for your son or daughter, please come and visit us. A tour and chat with the Headteacher or Deputy can usually answer any questions that you may have.

Applications for Reception need to be made directly to the Local Authority.

Applications for in-year admission can be made directly to the school but will require the completion of an In Year Admissions Form.  

Full time places in Reception classes 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 the County Council’s policy 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. Admission to oversubscribed community and voluntary controlled schools are determined by the oversubscription criteria detailed below.

Oversubscription Criteria

If the total number of preferences for admission to a school exceeds the school’s Published Admission Number (PAN), 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 residence order or special guardianship order). 

2)      Children who 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 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. They 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.

and 

Test 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.

3)      Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at the preferred school (or in the case of an infants school, the affiliated Junior 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 living within the catchment area of the preferred school 

5)      Children whose parents regularly attend a Church of England church, or a church in communion with the Church of England, or of a church which is affiliated to the Council of Churches for Great Britain and Northern Ireland or the Evangelical Alliance. Evidence of such attendance will be required in the form of a letter from a minister of the Churches concerned. (Only certain Voluntary Controlled Schools use this criterion, see additional notes below). 

6) 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 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 the remaining criteria.

Please use the link below for further details on how to apply for a school place:

Admission to primary and middle schools September 2023 entry - Staffordshire County Council

Appeals

If you have not been offered a place, you do have right to appeal. More information please us the link below to the Staffordhire County COuncil website.

 Admission Appeals - Staffordshire County Council