Longford Primary Academy
Admission arrangement 2024/2025, 2023/2024 & 2022/2023
Rationale
Longford Primary Academy has an inclusive admissions policy that applies to all children and families. Admissions are the legal responsibility of the Local Governing Committee at Longford and that of the St Bart’s Multi Academy Trust that it belongs to.
Aim
The aim of this policy is to set selection criteria and procedures that are consistent and fair to all applicants.
Policy Implementation
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 preference for Longford Primary Academy, there is no guarantee of a place being offered.
It is Longford Primary Academy’s policy to try to meet parents’ wishes where possible, however in some cases there may be more applications for a particular school than there are places available.
In accordance with legislation, children who have an education, health and care plan (EHCP) that names a particular school as being the most appropriate to meet the child’s needs must be admitted to that school. This will reduce the number of places available to other applicants.
Longford Primary Academy have a published admissions number (PAN) of 60 children per year.
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:
- Children in care (LAC) and children who ceased to be in care (PLAC) 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 of England and ceased to be in state care (IPLAC) as a result of being adopted see additional note * below.
- 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 Longford rather than any other school.
Exceptional circumstances must relate to the academy 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 Longford rather than any other school.
and
Test 2: the child would suffer hardship if they were unable to attend Longford.
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.
- Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at Longford Primary Academy 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.)
- Children living within the catchment area of Longford Primary Academy. (see additional notes ** below).
- Other children arranged in order of priority according to how near their home addresses are to the main gate of the academy, determined by a straight-line measurement as calculated by the local authority’s geographical information system. (see additional notes *** below).
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 criteria 6.
If 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.
Additional notes
There is no charge or cost related to the admission of a child to Longford Primary Academy.
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 academy will not seek to obtain this information on behalf of the applicant.
Admissions for the normal age of entry are administered through a coordinated admission scheme and preferences for maintained schools will be processed centrally by the School Admissions and Transport Service at Staffordshire County Council. 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 (EHCP) that names the academy as being the most appropriate to meet the child’s needs must be admitted. This will reduce the number 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. 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 s.8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by s.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).
**Copies of school catchment area maps are available from the local authority or individual schools.
****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 and provided by the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and OS address point data.
Attendance at a particular nursery or infant school will not guarantee admission to any particular primary or junior school. Parents must make a separate application for admission to primary or junior school at the appropriate time.
The requirement for the local authority 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, as an exception, the local authority will give careful consideration to offering places above the published admission number to applications from children whose twin or sibling from a multiple birth is admitted even when there are no other vacant places.
Admissions for the normal age of entry are administered through a coordinated admission scheme and preferences for maintained schools will be processed centrally by the School Admissions and Transport Service. The aim of the scheme is to ensure that each child will receive only one offer of a place at a Staffordshire school on a prescribed 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.
Home address
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 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 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 academy will only accept the revised address for purposes of allocation where parents/carers can provide documentary evidence of the move by 08 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.
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 academy 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 of the normal age group
Parents may seek to apply for their child’s admission to school outside of 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 of 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 of 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 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.
The waiting list will operate until the cohort concerned leaves year 2 and parents will be written to each year to ask whether or not they wish their child’s details to remain on the list.
Inclusion on Longford Primary Academy's waiting list does not mean that a place will eventually become available at the academy.
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 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 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 admission” arrangements
Parents or carers seeking to be admitted may make an application directly to the academy 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 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.
Relevant area
Staffordshire County Council’s relevant area for consultation is contained within the administrative area of Staffordshire County Council.
Appeals
If you have been refused a place at Longford Primary Academy and you are dissatisfied with the school
place offered you have the right to lodge a formal appeal against this decision to an Independent Appeals Panel.
Notification of your appeal date will be sent via email from Staffordshire County Council and you will be given at least 10 school days’ notice.
Your appeal will be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.
Policy Review
This policy will be reviewed annually by the Local Governing Committee. Any updates and/or amendments to the policy will ratified by the Senior Leadership Team, staff and the appropriate Local Governing Committee of the school.