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The Sun Academy

2025/2026

2023/2024 & 2024/2025


Admission arrangements 2025/2026

1. Legal Framework and Guiding Principles

1.1 Academy Transformation Trust is a multi-academy trust consisting of academies in the East andWest Midlands and in the East of England. Our Trustees are the admissions authority for all ouracademies, and they apply all aspects of the regulations and procedures detailed in this policyfairly and equally to all those who wish to attend one of our academies.

1.2 This policy has due regard to the following legislation and any regulations thereunder:• The School Admissions Code (2021)• The School Admission Appeals Code (2022)• The Equality Act (2010)• The Human Rights Act (1998)• The School Standards Framework Act (1998)Further information on the regulations related to academy admissions can be found here.

1.3 All children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) that specifies the academy as theplacement school will be automatically admitted. Information on each academy’s local SENoffer can be found on that academy’s website.

1.4 Where fewer applications are received than the number of places available for a relevant agegroup (i.e., the normal age that pupils are admitted to the academy), all applicants will beoffered a place.

1.5 Where there are more applications than places for a relevant age group, the oversubscriptioncriteria detailed at 5.1 will be used to determine which children are offered a place.

1.6 The Local Governing Board (LGB) for each academy has responsibility, on behalf of ATT’sDirectors, for monitoring the application of this policy to ensure fairness and consistency acrossour Trust.

1.7 For the purposes of this policy, working days are defined as days when the relevant academy isopen to pupils.

2. How to Apply for a Place at One of OurAcademies

2.1 If you are applying for a place during the normal admissions round, you should use theCommon Application Form (CAF) provided by the local authority for the area in which youlive (known as your home local authority).

2.2 The normal admissions round refers to applications to start at the academy in theappropriate age group and when other children are normally admitted. Please see Section 3for details regarding in-year admissions and Section 11 for how we deal with other specificcircumstances.

2.3 Not all local authorities refer to the application form as a CAF and many now provide theoption to apply online. You should check the application process for your home localauthority by visiting their website. Ensure that you submit your application either in writingor online, but not by both methods. For the purposes of this policy, this type of applicationprocess will be referred to as CAF submission.

2.4 The deadline for applications during the normal admissions round, to take up a place inSeptember 2025, is:• 31 October 2024 for admissions into Year 7 and Year 12• 15 January 2025 for admissions into Reception

.2.5 Applications received after the deadline will be treated as late applications and consideredin accordance with the relevant home local authority’s co-ordinated scheme. Details of thiswill also be available on your home local authority’s website.

2.6 Applications submitted later than the start of the academic year (after 1 September 2025)must be submitted as an in-year admission (see Section 3).

2.7 For admission into any year groups other than those mentioned at 2.4, or after thedeadline, see Section 3 below.

3. In-Year Admissions

3.1 In-year admissions occur when an application for admission is made outside the normaladmissions round. Since 1 September 2021, all in-year admissions are conducted byindividual ATT academies.

3.2 For all our academies, initial applications for in-year admissions should be made directly tothe academy. Applications will be considered by a panel of 3 members which consists of asenior member of staff in charge of admissions in the academy together with 2 others from amongst:• The Local Governing Board• Trust Leaders• External admissions consultants.

3.3 Appropriate SEN expertise will be sought on the panel in the case of applications frompupils with an EHCP

3.4 The details of the in-year application process are available in the In-Year AdmissionsApplication Form available at Appendix 3, or by contacting the academy directly. Academypostal addresses can be found at Appendix 1

3.5 In the case of all in-year admissions, applications that have been made directly to anacademy for year groups other than the usual points of entry will be put to the academy’sadmissions authority panel to determine if places are available, or whether admissionswould cause prejudice to the provision of an efficient education.

3.6 Each academy admissions panel will issue a decision on an individual admission withinfifteen working days following receipt of an application.

4. How Many Pupils Will Be Admitted

4.1 Each academy has set the number of pupils that will be admitted during the normaladmissions round. This number is the Published Admissions Number (PAN). PAN thereforeonly applies to the usual points of entry in a school:• Reception (primary school)• Year 7 (secondary school)• Year 12 (6th form).

4.2 If the number of applications received for an academy exceeds the PAN, theoversubscription criteria will be used to determine which pupils are allocated a place.

4.3 The PANs for our academies are listed below 

Admission into Reception
   Admission into Reception               Admission Number   
 Iceni Academy, Hockwood  15
 Jubilee Academy  30
 Kingsmoor Academy  30
 Beck Row Academy  45
 Ravens Academy  30
 Star Academy, Sandyford  30
 Sun Academy, Bradwell  30
 Great Heath Academy  90

 North Walsall Academy

Caldmore Primary Academy

 30

52

Admission into Year 7
 Admission into Year 7                         Admission Number 
 Bristnall Hall Academy  220
 The Hathaway Academy  112
 Iceni Academy, Methwold  140
 Mildenhall College Academy  210
 Pool Hayes Academy  200
 Sutton Community Academy  170
 The Dukeries Academy  168
 The Nicholas Hamond Academy  168
 Westbourne Academy  224
 The Queen Elizabeth Academy  120

The number of places available in Year 12 for our academies is listed below. However, where anapplicant meets the minimum entry requirements, we will exceed PAN if we are able to.

Admission into Year 12
 Admission into Year 12                       Capacity                          
 Mildenhall College Academy  220 plus 10 external
 Pool Hayes Academy  100 plus 10 external
 Sutton Community Academy (capacity 90)  80 internal plus 10 external
 The Dukeries Academy (capacity 150)  100 internal plus 50 external

5. Oversubscription Criteria

5.1 If there are more applications for places than there are places available, we will givepreference to children according to the following criteria, in this order of priority:

i. Looked after children and all previously looked after children. Looked after childrenare children who are either in the care of a local authority or being provided withaccommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions,in accordance with section 22 of the Children Act (1989), at the time an applicationfor a place is made.All references to previously looked after children in this policy mean such children whowere adopted (or subject to child arrangement orders or special guardianship orders)immediately following having been looked after and those children who appear (to theadmissions authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to bein state care as a result of being adopted.

ii. Siblings of current pupils, who were on roll at the point of admissions for the purposes of this policy, are defined as childrenliving permanently at the same address as a child already attending the academy andeither have one or both parents in common, are related by a parent’s marriage or civil partnership, are adopted or fostered by a common parent, or are related children wholive at the same address whose parents live as partners. These conditions must bemet at the time of their admission (including for children in the sixth form).

iii. Children of permanent teaching and support staff of an ATT academy who have beenemployed at the academy where the application for admission is made for 2 years ormore at the time of application, or a member of staff who is recruited to fill a vacantpost for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage at the same academy.

iv. Children who attend an ATT Primary Academy at the time of application to join Year7 in an ATT Secondary Academy, who are in the same geographical catchment areawithin the same local authority. This clause currently applies to these academies:

Local Authorities
 Local Authority     Secondary Academy    Primary Academies      
 Suffolk  Mildenhall

Great Heath

Beck Row

 Walsall  Pool Hayes

Jubilee

North Walsall

Caldmore

 Norfolk  Iceni (Methwold)  Iceni (Hockworld)

v. In the case of the Queen Elizabeth Academy (Atherstone), other children bycatchment area (as defined by Warwickshire County Council) and then by distancefrom the academy, with priority for admission given to children who live nearest tothe academy as measured using Ordnance Survey data to plot an address (employingthe measuring system used by the local authority). Distances are measured as thecrow flies (a straight-line distance) from the child’s property address point to theacademy’s property address point on the site where the child will predominantly be based.

In the case of all other academies, other children by distance from the academy,with priority for admission given to children who live nearest to the academy asmeasured using Ordnance Survey data to plot an address (employing the measuring system used by the local authority in which the academy is situated). Distances aremeasured as the crow flies (a straight-line distance) from the child’s property address point to either - the academy's main reception area OR the academy address point in line with the relevant Local Authority Policy.

5.2 There are two situations which override the use of the oversubscription criteria detailed at 5.1

• Children who have an EHCP which names a specific school must by law be offered a place at that school (see 11.5). 

• In the case of applications to post-16 provision, academic entry requirements may alsobe considered (see 11.4).

5.3 Information regarding children of Crown servants and UK service personnel - please see Appendix 4

6. Application of Oversubscription Criteria

6.1 The address given on the application form will be used to assess whether another child attending the academy is living at the same address. The child’s address will be compared to the addresses held in the academy’s records.

6.2 The address given on the application form will be used to assess the straight-line distance between the child’s property address point or academy’s reception area (as applicable) for the site where they will predominantly be based, employing the measuring system used by the local authority in which the academy is situated.

6.3 Where a child lives with parents that have shared responsibility for the child, the address of the child is the home at which the child resides for the majority of the school week.

6.4 When considering applications from children of UK service personnel, the unit postal address or quartering area address will be used, provided that the application is accompanied by an Assignment Order that declares a relocation date and the address.

6.5 We will accept changes to the address up to the point of allocation (CAF submission) deadline.

6.6 If, following the application of the oversubscription criteria, two or more applicants are judged to have equal priority for the final place at an academy, random allocation will be used to determine who receives the place. Where random allocation is used, the names of the applicants will be entered into a hat and a name will be selected from the hat by someone independent of the academy.

6.7 An exception to 6.6 is where the applicants judged to be of equal priority live at the same address. In this case, the academy will admit them all.

7. When Do I Find Out Whether My Child Has Been Offered a Place?

7.1 If you have applied using the CAF, and your application was submitted by the deadline, you will receive notification from your local authority advising you of the school your child has been allocated. Notifications will be issued on:

• 3 March 2025 for Year 7 and Year 12

• 16 April 2025 for Reception

7.2 For late applications made using the CAF, you will receive a notification from the local authority advising you of the school your child has been allocated on the date specified by the local authority’s policy on late applications.

7.3 Representatives of the academy or our Trust are unable to comment on any application prior to the above dates.

7.4 Once a place has been allocated at the academy, the academy’s Principal will contact you to provide further details of the induction process.

8. What Happens if I Have Not Been Allocated a Place?

8.1 If your child has not been allocated a place at one of our academies, their name will be added to our waiting list until 31st of December of each year.  When additional applications are reeived the list will be rewritten using the published criteria for oversubscription. If a place at the academy becomes available children will be admitted from the waiting list (see Section 9).

8.2 You also have the right to appeal the decision (see Section 10).

9. Waiting Lists

9.1 The academy will maintain a waiting list for each year group. This includes our academies with a nursery provision. Children are only added to the waiting list following an unsuccessful formal application to join the academy.

9.2 The waiting list for the normal admissions year group (relevant age group) will be cleared by the end of the first week of the spring term each year (or in the case of our academies in Suffolk, by 31 December). The waiting list for all remaining year groups will be cleared at the end of June each year. If you would like your child to remain on the waiting list after these dates, you will need to reapply for a place at the academy.

9.3 Children are inserted into the waiting list in order of the oversubscription criteria detailed at 5.1.

9.4 Children allocated a place at the academy in accordance with the Fair Access Protocol (see 9.5) will take priority over children on the waiting list.

9.5 The Fair Access Protocol is an agreement that allows hard to place children, for example, those that have been permanently excluded, to be given a place before any oversubscription criteria are applied and before anyone is considered from the waiting list. Such children are allocated places across all the academies within a local area. We are committed to participating in the Fair Access Protocol.

10 Appeals Against Admissions Decisions

10.1 If you wish to appeal against our decision not to admit your child(ren) to one of our academies, you should complete the form at Appendix 2 and submit it to the address specified.

10.2 For applications made during the normal admissions round, the deadline for submitting an appeal is 20 school days after the National Offer Days, which in 2025 are:

• 03 March 2025 for applications to join Year 7 or Year 12

• 16 April 2025 for applications to join Reception.

10.3 Appeals will be heard within 40 days of the deadline for submitting appeals. Any late applications will be heard within this timeframe if possible, or else within 30 days of the appeal being lodged.

10.4 Once you have submitted your appeal form, we will acknowledge receipt of the form within five working days. We will then forward the appeal form to our admissions consultant who will organise for an appeal hearing to be heard by an Independent Appeals Panel and conducted in accordance with the School Admission Appeals Code (2022). There may be occasions when this is not possible, and in this case the Local Authority will be contacted to arrange an appeal.

10.5 The appeals hearing will take place prior to the end of the academic year for applications submitted during the normal admissions round. For in-year admissions, the hearing will take place within thirty working days of our receipt of the appeal.

10.6 You will receive at least ten working days’ notice of the appeals hearing date and additional information will be provided at this time.

10.7 If you miss the deadline for lodging an appeal, we will try, where possible, to hear your appeal within the same timeframe as if it had been on time. However, if this is not possible, it will be heard at a later date.

10.8 There is no right of appeal for admissions to our nursery provision.

11. Exceptions and Specific Circumstances

11.1 We will arrange for all children of reception age allocated a place at the academy to be admitted in September full-time. You can request that the date your child is admitted to the academy be deferred until later in the academic year or that your child attend the academy part time until they reach compulsory school age. Your child must attend the academy in the final term of the academic year for which the original application was accepted.

11.2 Applications for Year 3 - If your child is due to finish infant school and you would like them to attend a school where Year 3 is not the lowest year group in the academy, you should list the primary academy on your CAF and the application will be assessed as if you had made an inyear application (see Section 3 for further detail).

11.3 Applications for Year 12- Applications for Year 12 can be made using the CAF, although you may also apply directly to the academy by contacting the relevant Head of Sixth Form, who will provide details on how to apply.

11.4 Entry to one of our sixth forms is dependent on meeting the academic requirements for your chosen courses, details of which can be obtained from the relevant academy. In a case where there are more applicants than places, the oversubscription criteria detailed at 5.1 will only be applied to those applicants who meet the academic requirements.

11.5 EHCPs - All children whose Statement of Special Educational Needs or EHCP names the academy will be admitted. These children will be admitted irrespective of the number of pupils in the academy and before the oversubscription criteria are applied.

11.6 Applications for Admission Outside a Child’s Normal Age Group- It is expected that children will normally be educated within their chronological year group. However, parents or carers can make a request to the academy in writing for a place outside their normal age group. This will need to include, where relevant, any supporting evidence. We will make decisions based on the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned, in line with the School Admissions Code. This will take into account the views of the Principal. We will write to the parent or carer with the outcome including the reasons for the decision. If the request is refused, details of how to complain to the academy will be provided.


 

Admission arrangements 2023/2024 & 2024/2025

1 - Legal framework and guiding principles

1.1 Academy Transformation Trust is a multi-academy trust consisting of 22 academies in the East and West Midlands and in the East of England. The Directors of the Trust are the admissions authority for all our academies and they apply all aspects of the regulation and procedure detailed in this policy fairly and equally to all those who wish to attend one of our academies.

1.2 This policy has due regard to

  • the School Admissions Code 2014
  • the School Admission Appeals Code 2022
  • the Equality Act 2010
  • the Human Rights Act 1998
  • the School Standards Framework Act 1998

and any regulations thereunder.

Further information on the regulations related to academy admissions can be found on the Government's website

1.3 All children whose statement of special educational needs or education health and care plan names the academy must be admitted (following paragraph 1.6 of the School Admissions Code, December 2014). Information on each academy’s SEN local offer can be found on the academy’s website.

1.4 Where fewer applications are received than the number of places available for a relevant age group (i.e. the normal age that pupils are admitted to the academy) then all applicants will be offered a place.

1.5 Where there are more applications than places for a relevant age group then the oversubscription criteria detailed in paragraph 5.1 below will be used to determine which children are offered a place.

1.6 The Local Academy Committee for each academy has responsibility, on behalf of the Directors of the Trust, for monitoring the application of this policy to ensure fairness and consistency across the Trust.

1.7 For the purpose of this policy, ‘working days’ are considered to be days when the relevant academy is open to pupils.

2 - How to apply for a place in one of our academies

2.1 If you are applying for a place during the normal admissions round, you should use the Common Application Form (CAF) provided by the local authority for the area in which you live (known as your ‘home’ local authority).

2.2 The ‘normal admissions round’ is an application to start at the academy in the appropriate age group and when other children are normally admitted.. Please see section 3 below for details regarding in-year admissions and section 11 for our policy in regard to other specific circumstances.

2.3 Not all local authorities refer to the application form as a CAF and many now provide the option to apply online. You should check the application process for your home local authority by visiting their website and ensure you submit your application either in writing or online (i.e. not both). For the purposes of this policy, this type of application process will be referred to as ‘CAF submission’.

2.4 The deadline for applications during the normal admissions round (i.e. to take up a place in September) is:

  • 31 October for admissions into Year 7 and Year 12
  • 15 January for admissions into Reception and Year 3.

2.5 Applications received after the deadline will be treated as late applications and will be considered in accordance with the relevant home local authority’s ‘co-ordinated scheme’ (details of this are also available from your home local authority’s website).

2.6 Applications submitted later than the start of the academic year (i.e. after 1 September) must be submitted as an ‘in-year admission’ (please see section 3 below).

2.7 For admission into all other year groups (i.e. other than those mentioned in paragraph 2.4 above) or after the deadline please see section 3 below.

3 - In-year admissions

3.1 In-year admissions occur when an application for admission is made outside the normal admissionsround. Since 1 September 2021, all in-year admissions are conducted by individual ATT academies.

3.2 For all our academies, initial applications for in-year admissions should be made directly to theacademy. Applications will be considered by a panel of 3 members which consists of a seniormember of staff in charge of admissions in the academy together with 2 others from amongst:

  • The Local Governing Board
  • Trust Leaders
  • External admissions consultants.

3.3 Appropriate SEN expertise will be sought on the panel in the case of applications from pupils with SEND.

3.4 The details of the in-year application process are available in the In-Year Admissions ApplicationForm available at Appendix 4, or by contacting the academy directly. Academy postal addressescan be found at Appendix 1.

3.5 In the case of all in-year admissions, applications that have been made directly to an academy foryear groups other than the usual points of entry will be put to the academy’s admissions authoritypanel to determine if places are available, or whether admissions would cause prejudice to theprovision of an efficient education.

3.6 Each academy admissions panel will issue a decision on an individual admission within fifteenworking days following receipt of an application.

4 -  How many pupils will be admitted?

4.1 Each academy has set the number of pupils that will be admitted during the normal admissionsround. This number is the Published Admissions Number (PAN). PAN therefore only applies to theusual points of entry in a school:

  • Reception (primary school)
  • Year 7 (secondary school)
  • Year 12 (6th form).

4.2 If the number of applications received for an academy exceeds the PAN then the oversubscription criteria will be used to determine which pupils are allocated a place.

4.3 The PANs for our academies are listed in Appendix 2.

5 - Oversubscription criteria

5.1 If there are more applications for places than there are places available, we will give preference to children according to the following rules in this order of priority:

5.1.1 Looked after children and all previously looked after children. Looked after children arechildren who are either in the care of a local authority or being provided with accommodationby a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions, in accordance with section22 of the Children Act (1989), at the time an application for a place is made. Previously lookedafter children are children who were previously looked after but ceased to be so because theywere adopted (under the Adoption Act (1976) or Adoption and Children’s Act (2002)) or becamesubject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order immediately following afterbeing looked after. This includes children who appear (to ATT, the admission authority) to havebeen in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care after being adopted. Statecare is further defined as being in the care of public authorities, religious authorities or otherorganisations that act in the public benefit. The DfE will provide non-statutory guidance on thismatter.;

5.1.2 Siblings of current pupils, who, for the purposes of this policy, are defined as children living permanently at the same address as a child attending the academy and either have one or both parents in common; are related by a parent’s marriage; are adopted or fostered by a common parent or are related children who live at the same address whose parents are partners. This definition relates to the time of their admission (including children in the sixth form)

5.1.3 Children of permanent staff of an ATT academy who have been employed at the academywhere the application for admission is made for 2 years or more at the time of application, or amember of staff who is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skillshortage at the same academy.

5.1.4 Children who attend an ATT Primary Academy at the time of application to join Year 7 in anATT Secondary Academy, who are in the same geographical catchment area within the samelocal authority. This clause currently applies to these academies:

Local AuthoritySecondary AcademyPrimary Academies
Suffolk Mildenhall Great Heath / Beck Row
Walsall Pool Hayes Jubilee / North Walsall / Caldmore
Norfolk Iceni (Methwold) Iceni (Hockwold)

5.1.5 In the case of the Queen Elizabeth Academy (Atherstone)
Other children by catchment area (as defined by Warwickshire County Council) and then by distance from the academy, with priority for admission given to children who live nearest to the academy as measured using Ordnance Survey data to plot an address employing the measuring system used by the local authority. Distances are measured ‘as the crow flies’ (i.e. a straight-line distance) from the child’s property address point to the academy’s property address point on the site where the child will predominantly be based.

5.1.6 In the case of all other academies
Other children by distance from the academy, with priority for admission given to children who live nearest to the academy as measured using Ordnance Survey data to plot an address employing the measuring system used by the local authority in which the academy is situated. Distances are measured ‘as the crow flies’ (i.e. a straight-line distance) from the child’s property address point to the academy’s property address point on the site where the child will predominantly be based.

5.2 There are two situations which override the use of the oversubscription criteria detailed in paragraph 5.1 above:

5.2.1 Children who have an EHCP which names a specific school must by law be offered a place at that school (please see paragraph 11.5).

5.2.2 In the case of applications to sixth form provision, academic entry requirements may also be taken into account (please see paragraph 11.4).

6 - Application of the oversubscription criteria

6.1 The address given on the application form will be used to assess whether another child attending the academy is living at the same address. The child’s address will be compared to the addresses held in the academy’s records.

6.2 The address given on the application form will be used to assess the straight-line distance between the child’s property address point and the academy’s property address point for the site where they will predominantly be based ‘employing the measuring system used by the local authority in which the academy is situated’.

6.3 Where a child lives with parents that have shared responsibility for the child, the ‘address’ of the child shall be considered to be the home at which the child resides for the majority of the school week.

6.4 The unit postal address or quartering area address will be used as the ‘address’ when considering applications from children of UK service personnel against the oversubscription criteria, provided that the application is accompanied by an Assignment Order that declares a relocation date and the address.

6.5 We will accept changes to the address up to the point of allocation (CAF submission) deadline.

6.6 If, following the application of oversubscription criteria, two or more applicants cannot be separated for the final place at an academy then random allocation will be used to determine the priority for that place. Where random allocation is used, the names of the applicants will be entered into a hat and a name will be selected from the hat by someone independent of the academy.

6.7 The exception to paragraph 6.6 above will be in the case where the applicants that cannot be separated live at the same address. In this case, the academy will admit them all.

7 - When do I find out if my child has been offered a place?

7.1 If you have applied using the CAF and your application was submitted by the deadline you will receive notification from your local authority advising you of the school your child has been allocated. Notifications will be issued on:

  • 1 March for Year 7 and Year 12
  • 16 April for Reception and Year 3. 

7.2 For late applications made using the CAF you will receive a notification from the local authority advising you of the school your child has been allocated on a date in line with the local authority’s policy on late applications.

7.3 Representatives of the academy or the Trust are unable to comment on any application prior to the above dates.

7.4 Once a place has been allocated at the academy, the academy’s Principal will make contact with you to provide further details of the induction process.

8 - What happens if I have not been allocated a place?

8.1 If your child has not been allocated a place at one of our academies then their name will be added to our waiting list. If a place at the academy becomes available children will be admitted from the waiting list (please see section 9 below).

8.2 You also have the right to appeal the decision (please see section 10 below).

9 - Waiting lists

9.1 The academy will maintain a waiting list for each year group (this includes our academies having a nursery provision). Children are only added to the waiting list following an unsuccessful formal application to join the academy.

9.2 The waiting list for the normal admissions year group (relevant age group) will be cleared by the end of the first week of the spring term each year (or in the case of our academies in Suffolk by 31 December). The waiting list for all remaining year groups will be cleared at the end of June each year. If you would like your child to remain on the waiting list after these dates, you will need to reapply for a place at the academy.

9.3 Children are ranked on the waiting list in order of the oversubscription criteria detailed in paragraph 5.1 above.

9.4 Children allocated a place at the academy in accordance with the Fair Access Protocol (please see paragraph 9.5 below) will take priority over children on the waiting list.

9.5 The Fair Access Protocol is an agreement that allows hard to place children, for example those that have been permanently excluded, to be given a place before any oversubscription criteria are applied and before anyone is considered from the waiting list. Such children are allocated places across all the academies within a local area. We are committed to participating in the Fair Access Protocol.

10 - Appeals against admissions decisions

10.1 If you wish to appeal against a decision not to admit your child(ren) to one of our academies, you should complete the form in Appendix 3 and submit it to the address on the form.

10.2 For applications made on the CAF during the normal admissions round the deadline for submitting an appeal is:

  • 16 April for applications to join Year 7 or Year 12
  • 20 May for applications to join Reception or Year 3.

10.3 For all other applications the deadline for submitting an appeal is twenty working days from the date of your notification letter.

10.4 Once you have submitted your appeal form we will acknowledge receipt of the form within five working days. We will then forward the appeal form to our admissions consultant who will organise for an appeal hearing to be heard by an Independent Appeals Panel and conducted in accordance with the School Admission Appeals Code 2022.There may be occasions when this may not be possible and in this case the Local Authority will be contacted to arrange an appeal.

10.5 The appeals hearing will take place prior to the end of the academic year for applications submitted during the ‘normal admissions round’. For in-year admissions, the hearing will take place within thirty working days of our receipt of the appeal.

10.6 You will receive at least ten working days’ notice of the appeals hearing date and additional information will be provided at this time.

10.7 If you miss the deadline for lodging an appeal, we will try, where possible, to hear your appeal within the same timeframe as if it had been on time. However, if this is not possible it will be heard at a later date.

10.8 There is no right of appeal for admissions to our nursery provision.

11 - Exceptions and Specific Circumstances

11.1 We will make arrangements for all children allocated a place at the academy to be admitted in September full-time. You can request that the date your child is admitted to the academy be deferred until later in the academic year or that your child attend the academy part time until they reach compulsory school age. Your child must be in attendance at the academy in the final term of the academic year for which the original application was accepted.

11.2 Applications for Year 3
If your child is due to finish infant school and you would like them to attend a school where Year 3 is not the lowest year group in the academy, then you should list the Primary Academy on your CAF and the application will be assessed as if you had made an in-year application (please see section 3 for more details).

11.3 Applications for Year 12
Applications for Year 12 can be made using the CAF, although you may also apply directly to the academy by contacting the relevant Head of Sixth Form, who will provide details on how to apply.

11.4 Entry to our sixth forms is dependent on meeting the academic requirements for your chosen courses, details of which can be obtained from the relevant academy. In a case where there are more applicants than places, the oversubscription criteria detailed in paragraph 5.1 above will only be applied to those applicants who meet the academic requirements.

11.5 Statements of Special Educational Needs and Education Health and Care Plans
All children whose statement of special educational needs or education health and care plan names the academy will be admitted. These children will be admitted irrespective of the number of pupils in the academy and before the oversubscription criteria are applied.

11.6 Applications for admission outside a child’s normal age group
It is expected that children will normally be educated within their chronological year group. However, parents or carers can make a request to the academy in writing for a place outside their normal age group. This will need to include, where relevant, any supporting evidence. We will make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned, in line with the School Admissions Code. This will take into account the views of the Principal. We will write to the parent or carer with the outcome including the reasons for the decision. If the request is refused, details of how to complain to the academy will be given. 

PAN for Sun Academy - 30


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