Greywood Primary Academy
Admission arrangements 2026/2027
Introduction
Greywood Primary Academy opens in September 2026 with a reception class and will be adding one year group each school year until we offer classes from reception all the way up to year 6.
Greywood Primary Academy aims to serve its local community by providing high quality education within an inclusive framework.
Full time places in reception classes will be available in September of the academic year within which a child becomes five years old.
The Published Admission Number (PAN) for the first year of admission into Reception will be 30 pupils.
Applications for Reception September 2026 - Process
Applications will be processed through the normal Staffordshire local authority process for co-ordinating school offers. Parents need to complete their local authority common application form for all your school preferences. The closing date for applications is 15 January 2026. Offers will be made on 16 April 2026. If we have not entered into a funding agreement with the Secretary of State opening the school by that date, they will be conditional offers and will be confirmed once we have a signed funding agreement.
If there are fewer than 30 applicants for the Reception class, all applicants will be offered a place.
In the case where there are more applications made than there are places available admission is determined by the oversubscription criteria detailed below.
Oversubscription Criteria
If the total number of preferences exceeds the Published Admission Number (PAN), the following order of priority is used to allocate the available places:
1 )Looked after children and previously looked after children because they were adopted (or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order) including those that 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. * see additional notes below
2) Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at the school and who will still be attending Greywood Primary Academy 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.)
3) Children of a member of staff employed by the Academy on a permanent contract at the time at which the application for admission is made. ** see additional notes below
4) 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 we will allocate the available places in accordance with the remaining criteria. If for instance, all the sibling children cannot be accommodated at a school, children who are siblings will be arranged in order of priority according to the remaining criteria ie. children of staff and then distance.
Tie-break
If necessary, random allocation will be used as a tie break to decide who has highest priority for admission if the distance between a child’s home and the school is equidistant in any two or more cases.
Additional notes
There is no charge or cost related to the admission of a child to this school.
In accordance with legislation, children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) that names Greywood Primary Academy 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.
* Looked after children and previously looked after children
Looked after children 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).
**Children of a member of staff
For the purpose of this category children of a member of staff include their natural or adopted children, children placed with the staff member on a long term foster placement, their step-children (i.e. their spouse's children) and the children of their partner who lives with them. In all cases, the child must live at the same permanent address as the staff member.
Additionally, a staff member includes all posts (teaching and non-teaching) where an individual is employed permanently by the Academy on a full time or part time contract.
Further additional notes
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, we will not seek to obtain this information on behalf of the applicant.
The Academy uses the Local Authority’s 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 is determined and provided by the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) and OS Address Point data.
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 friend’s 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.
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 academy 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, on behalf of the Academy, will only accept the revised address for purposes of allocation where parents/carers can provide documentary evidence of the move. 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.
Children of Armed Forces Families
The Academy will allocate a place in advance of the family arriving in the area, provided the application is accompanied by an official letter that declares a relocation date.
For children of armed forces families where an intended home address is provided in support of the application, the Academy will use the intended address in respect of applying the oversubscription criteria as long as the family provide some evidence of their intended address. Where an intended address cannot be evidenced, the academy will use a Unit or quartering address as the child’s home address when considering the application against the oversubscription criteria, where a parent requests this.
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 school 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 academy.
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 can 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.
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.
As infant class size regulations apply, the waiting list will operate until the cohort concerned leaves Year 2.
Inclusion on the Academy’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 the Academy’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 Transfer” Arrangements
Parents or carers seeking to transfer to Greywood Primary Academy may make an application 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 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.
In the event that a place cannot be offered, parents will be provided with the opportunity of placing their child’s name on a waiting list. This does not prevent parents from exercising their right to appeal against any decision not to offer a place.
Right of Appeal
All applicants refused a place have a right of appeal to an independent appeal panel constituted and operated in accordance with the school Admission Appeals Code. Details of how to appeal are included in the outcome email or letter.