Moor First

Consultation 2027/2028

2025/2026 & 2026/2027

Consultation on admission arrangements 2027/2028

In accordance with the School Admission Regulations, Moor First School (ST87HR) wishes to hear your views on its proposed changes to admission arrangements for September 2027. 

Your opinions are important to us, and we are keen to receive your comments on our admission arrangements before they are formally approved. 

The consultation will open on 1^st December 2025 and will close on 31st January 2026.  Moor First School proposes that the pupil admission number (PAN) be reduced from 20 to 15 starting from September 2027. This means that the number of places available for children in Reception in September 2027 and all subsequent Reception cohorts will be 15.

For children who already have a place in the school, the year groups will not change.

This is the only proposed change to the admission criteria; all other criteria will remain the same. 

Rationale:

The following factors have been considered by the school and local authority when deciding to consult on this proposal:

• There is a decreasing birth rate nationally which is, to some degree, reflected in the local catchment area.
• Reducing the PAN will ensure the maximum possible revenue will be received for each cohort and our resources are used more effectively across the school.
• The total number of pupils from Reception to Year 4 recorded in the October 2025 census was 57 which is below the current school capacity of 120.
• Funding is largely related to the number of pupils on roll and vacancies in classes result in a negative impact on the school budget. With a PAN of 15, all spaces in a class will be filled and the school can operate more efficiently and cost effectively, giving every single pupil the best possible education.
• There is no new building planned in the local area.
• The school now has mixed age classes (Year 1/Year 2 and Year 3/Year 4), with the exemption of Reception, having a pan of 15 children will mean that mixed age classes will consistently have no more than 30 children in KS1.
• The school has completed a 2-year old business case and so by reducing Reception PAN to 15, we can open up space to accommodate 2 year olds in line with floor space ratios. 

In accordance with the school admissions regulations, the school is consulting with key stakeholders including:

• Parents/carers of pupils and prospective parents.
• Other persons in the area who have an interest in the proposed arrangements
• The local authority
• Other local schools
• A full copy of the proposed admission arrangements are available on the school website. Any comments should be sent to: office@moor.staffs.sch.uk before 31^st Jan 2026. 

Your Sincerely,

Victoria Atherton (Headteacher)

Proposed admission arrangements 2027/2028

Full time places in reception classes will be available in September of the academic year within which the child becomes five years old. 

The School’s admission number is 15. 

If the number of applications exceeds the school’s Published Admission Number (PAN), the governors will give priority to applications in accordance with the criteria listed, provided that the governors are made aware of that application before decisions on admissions are made.

Oversubscription criteria 

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.

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 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 school rather than any other school.

Test 2: the child would suffer hardship if they were unable to attend the 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 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 school.

5. Children of staff in either or both of the following circumstances: 

1. • where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or

   • the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage. 

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 Governors will allocate the available places in accordance with the remaining criteria. If for instance, all the catchment area children cannot be accommodated at the 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. 

Additional notes 

Copies of school catchment area maps are available from the school or Local Authority. There is no charge or cost related to the admission of a child to this school. 

Admissions are administered through a coordinated admission scheme and preferences for community, controlled, aided, trust and foundation schools will be processed centrally by the School Admissions and Transport Service. Each child will receive only one offer of a place at a Staffordshire school. 

In accordance with legislation, children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan that names the school 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.

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 having been 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 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). Child arrangements orders are defined in Section 8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by Section 12 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order. Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a “special guardianship order” as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).

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 Governors will not seek to obtain this information of 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 requirement 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. However, there are permitted exceptions to this legislation which the Governors will have regard when considering applications. 

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 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. 

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 6 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

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 place is offered on the basis of an address that is subsequently found to be different from a child’s normal and permanent home address 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. 

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 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. 

Deferred entry to reception class

The Governors will consider requests from parents to retain a place in the preferred school where the parents wish to defer their child’s entry to a Reception Class until later in the same academic year or until the term in which the child reaches compulsory school age. The effect is that the place will be held for the child and is not available to be offered to any other child. Where it is possible to offer a place, deferral will be supported if the request is made at the normal time of application. A parent may not defer entry beyond the beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday, nor beyond the academic year for which the application was accepted. 

The Governors will also consider requests from parents who wish their child to attend Reception Class on a part-time basis until the child reaches compulsory school age. 

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. If places become available after the offer date they will be offered according to the child at the top of the waiting list. 

Waiting Lists will be kept until the end of the autumn term of admission. For cases where the infant class size regulations apply, the waiting list will operate until the cohort concerned leaves Year 2. 

Inclusion on a school’s waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available at the 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 listed above. 

Children who are subject of a direction by a local authority to admit or who are allocated to the school in accordance with the Fair Access Protocol will take precedence over those on the waiting list. 

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 practicable because places have already been allocated, or are shortly to be allocated, then late applicants will be considered only after those applicants 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. 

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 governors have 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 admission” arrangements

Parents or carers seeking to be admitted to Moor First may make an application directly to the school 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 in the case of transfers between local schools, any date set for joining Moor First 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.

Appeals 

Parents who wish to appeal against the decision of the Governors to refuse their child a place in the school may apply in writing to the Chair of Governors. Appeals will be heard by and independent appeal panel.

Admission arrangements 2025/2026 & 2026/2027

Full time places in reception classes will be available in September of the academic year within which the child becomes five years old. 

The School’s admission number is 20. 

If the number of applications exceeds the school’s Published Admission Number (PAN), the governors will give priority to applications in accordance with the criteria listed, provided that the governors are made aware of that application before decisions on admissions are made.

Oversubscription criteria 

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.

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 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 school rather than any other school.

Test 2: the child would suffer hardship if they were unable to attend the 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 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 school.

5. Children of staff in either or both of the following circumstances: 

1. • where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or

   • the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage. 

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 Governors will allocate the available places in accordance with the remaining criteria. If for instance, all the catchment area children cannot be accommodated at the 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. 

Additional notes 

Copies of school catchment area maps are available from the school or Local Authority. There is no charge or cost related to the admission of a child to this school. 

Admissions are administered through a coordinated admission scheme and preferences for community, controlled, aided, trust and foundation schools will be processed centrally by the School Admissions and Transport Service. Each child will receive only one offer of a place at a Staffordshire school. 

In accordance with legislation, children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan that names the school 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.

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 having been 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 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). Child arrangements orders are defined in Section 8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by Section 12 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order. Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a “special guardianship order” as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).

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 Governors will not seek to obtain this information of 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 requirement 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. However, there are permitted exceptions to this legislation which the Governors will have regard when considering applications. 

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 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. 

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 6 March 2026. 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

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 place is offered on the basis of an address that is subsequently found to be different from a child’s normal and permanent home address 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. 

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 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. 

Deferred entry to reception class

The Governors will consider requests from parents to retain a place in the preferred school where the parents wish to defer their child’s entry to a Reception Class until later in the same academic year or until the term in which the child reaches compulsory school age. The effect is that the place will be held for the child and is not available to be offered to any other child. Where it is possible to offer a place, deferral will be supported if the request is made at the normal time of application. A parent may not defer entry beyond the beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday, nor beyond the academic year for which the application was accepted. 

The Governors will also consider requests from parents who wish their child to attend Reception Class on a part-time basis until the child reaches compulsory school age. 

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. If places become available after the offer date they will be offered according to the child at the top of the waiting list. 

Waiting Lists will be kept until the end of the autumn term of admission. For cases where the infant class size regulations apply, the waiting list will operate until the cohort concerned leaves Year 2. 

Inclusion on a school’s waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available at the 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 listed above. 

Children who are subject of a direction by a local authority to admit or who are allocated to the school in accordance with the Fair Access Protocol will take precedence over those on the waiting list. 

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 practicable because places have already been allocated, or are shortly to be allocated, then late applicants will be considered only after those applicants 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. 

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 governors have 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 admission” arrangements

Parents or carers seeking to be admitted to Moor First may make an application directly to the school 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 in the case of transfers between local schools, any date set for joining Moor First 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.

Appeals 

Parents who wish to appeal against the decision of the Governors to refuse their child a place in the school may apply in writing to the Chair of Governors. Appeals will be heard by and independent appeal panel.