Richard Wakefield CofE Primary Academy

Consultation 2027/2028

2025/2026 & 2026/2027

Consultation on admission arrangements 2027/2028

We are writing to inform you of a proposed change to the Published Admission Number (PAN) for Richard Wakefield C.E. Primary Academy. The PAN is the maximum number of pupils the school admits into each year group.

After careful review of current and projected pupil numbers, and in consultation with the Local Authority, Affinity Learning Partnership is proposing to reduce the school’s PAN from 45 to 30, starting from September 2027.

The proposed Admissions Arrangements for 2027/28 can be viewed on the school and Trust websites using the following link: Affinity Learning Partnership - Admissions

Rationale for the proposal:

•Current and projected pupil numbers suggest that a smaller intake better reflects local demand.

•Adjusting the PAN will help ensure optimal class sizes, high-quality teaching, and appropriate use of school facilities.

•It allows the school to allocate resources effectively to provide the best possible education for all pupils.

Impact:

•The change is expected to maintain educational standards without limiting opportunities for existing pupils.

•We have considered the effect on local families and nearby schools and believe the proposed PAN will continue to meet community needs.

Consultation process:

•In accordance with the School Admissions Code, we are holding a statutory consultation for 6 weeks, from Thursday 18th December 2025 to Thursday 29th January 2026.

•We welcome your views on this proposal. Comments can be submitted by:

• Email: TrustOffice@affinitylp.co.uk
• •Post: Head of Operations, Affinity Learning Partnership, The de Ferrers Academy Trent Campus, St Mary’s Drive, Burton Upon Trent, Staffordshire, DE13 0LL

Next steps:

•After the consultation closes, all responses will be carefully considered.

•The Affinity Learning Partnership Trust Board will make a final decision, and the outcome will be communicated to all stakeholders.

•If approved, the new PAN will take effect from September 2027, and all admission arrangements will be updated accordingly.

We value your input and encourage you to share your views during the consultation period.

An information session will be held for parents on Wednesday 21st January 2026 at 4.30pm, at Richard Wakefield C. E Primary Academy.

If you have any questions or would like further information, please contact Clare Hodson-Walker, Head of Operations.

Thank you for your ongoing support of Richard Wakefield C.E. Primary Academy.

Yours sincerely

F Stagg                                      D Lees 

Chair of the Trust Board             Chair of Governors

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.

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.

Richard Wakefield C.E. Primary Academy has a Published Admission Number (PAN) of 30 and the school will accordingly admit up to 30 pupils. If the total number of preferences for admission exceeds 30 entry will be determined by the oversubscription criteria detailed below.

Oversubscription Criteria

If the total number of preferences for admission to Richard Wakefield C.E. Primary Academy exceeds the school’s PAN, after the admission of pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan where the school is named in the Statement or Plan, 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 child arrangement 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 of staff employed in either of the following circumstances:

i) where the member of staff has been employed at the Academy or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the Academy is made, and/or

ii) the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skills shortage.

3) 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.

4) Children with a sibling attending the school at the time of application. Sibling is defined in these arrangements as children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers or sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters and foster brothers and sisters.

5) Children living within the catchment area of the preferred school

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. 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 is determined and provided by the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and OS Address Point data.

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.

Additional Notes

Copies of school catchment area maps are available from the Local Authority or individual schools.

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

Admissions for the normal age of entry are administered through a coordinated admission scheme and preferences for Richard Wakefield C.E. Primary Academy 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.

The requirement for the Academy 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.

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.

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 purposes of allocation where parents/carers can provide documentary evidence of the move by 15 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.

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 parent’s 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.

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 their preferred school(s) to clarify how they 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 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.  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.

For cases where the infant class size regulations apply, 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.

For all other cases, waiting lists will be kept until 31 December.

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

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 to Richard Wakefield C. E. Primary Academy 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 the new school 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.

Admission arrangements 2026/2027, 2025/2026

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.

Richard Wakefield C.E. Primary Academy has a Published Admission Number (PAN) of 45 and the school will accordingly admit up to 45 pupils. If the total number of preferences for admission exceeds 45, entry will be determined by the oversubscription criteria detailed below.

Oversubscription Criteria

If the total number of preferences for admission to Richard Wakefield C.E. Primary Academy exceeds the school’s PAN, after the admission of pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan where the school is named in the Statement or Plan, 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 child arrangement 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 of staff employed in either of the following circumstances:

i) where the member of staff has been employed at the Academy or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the Academy is made, and/or

ii) the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skills shortage.

3) 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.

4) Children with a sibling attending the school at the time of application. Sibling is defined in these arrangements as children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers or sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters and foster brothers and sisters.

5) Children living within the catchment area of the preferred school

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. 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 is determined and provided by the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and OS Address Point data.

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.

Additional Notes

Copies of school catchment area maps are available from the Local Authority or individual schools.

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

Admissions for the normal age of entry are administered through a coordinated admission scheme and preferences for Richard Wakefield C.E. Primary Academy 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.

The requirement for the Academy 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.

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.

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 purposes of allocation where parents/carers can provide documentary evidence of the move by 15 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.

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 parent’s 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.

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 their preferred school(s) to clarify how they 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 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.  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.

For cases where the infant class size regulations apply, 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.

For all other cases, waiting lists will be kept until 31 December.

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

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 to Richard Wakefield C. E. Primary Academy 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 the new school 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.