Branston Locks Primary School (due to open September 2024)

This is a new school opening in September 2024.

Admission arrangements 2024/2025 & 2025/2026

Admission number

The school has an admission number of 30 for entry in year Reception.

The school will accordingly admit this number of pupils if there are sufficient applications. Where fewer applicants than the published admission number for the relevant year group are received, the Academy Trust will offer places at the school to all those who have applied.

Application process

The applications will be processed through the normal Staffordshire local authority process for co-ordinating school offers. You will need to complete your local authority common application form for all your school choices.

The closing date for applications is 15 January 2024.

Offers will be made on 16 April 2024. 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.

Oversubscription criteria

When the school is oversubscribed, after the admission of pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan naming the school, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in priority order:

1. Children in care and children who ceased to be in care because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order), including those children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted

2. Priority will be next given to children resident within the priority area of the school, a copy of which can be obtained from the school office or Staffordshire County Council.

3. Priority will next be given to the siblings of pupils attending the school at the time the application is received. Where an elder sibling is in Year 6, siblings will not be prioritised under this criterion.

4. Children who are attending the nursery at Branston Locks Primary and Nursery School, which is based at the school, and who are in receipt of the Early Years Pupil Premium.

5. Children who have a parent who has been recruited to fill a vacant post at Branston Locks Primary School for which there has previously been a difficulty with recruitment or retention. The Headteacher of the school will confirm whether or not there has been difficulty with recruitment or retention for the post-holder.

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.

Tie-break

If necessary, random allocation undertaken by the local authority will be used as a tie-break in categories 2-6 above to decide who has highest priority for admission if the distance between a child’s home and the academy is equidistant in any two or more cases.

The Local Authority uses a Geographical Information System (GIS) to calculate home to school distance 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.

Random allocation will not be applied to multiple birth siblings (twin and triplets etc.) from the same family tied for the final place. We will admit them all, as permitted by the infant class size rules and exceed our PAN.

Notes:

Home address:

The home address is where a child normally lives. Where a child lives with parents with shared parental responsibility, each for part of a week, the address where the child lives is determined using a joint declaration from the parents stating the pattern of residence. If a child’s residence is split equally between both parents, then parents will be asked to determine which residential address should be used for the purpose of admission to school. If no joint declaration is received where the residence is split equally by the closing date for applications, the home address will be taken as the address where the child is registered with the doctor. If the residence is not split equally between both parents then the address used will be the address where the child spends the majority of the school week.

Sibling:

‘Sibling’ means a natural brother or sister, a half brother or sister, a legally adopted brother or sister or half-brother or sister, a step brother or sister or other child living in the same household as part of the same family who, in any of these cases, will be living at the same address at the date of their application for a place.

Late applications

Applications received by the local authority after the closing date will be considered alongside those applicants who applied on time wherever possible. Where it is not practicable because places have already been allocated or are shortly to be allocated, then late applicants will be considered only after those that were made on time.

A late application does not affect the right of appeal or the right to be placed on a school’s waiting list.

Deferred entry for infants

Parents offered a place in reception for their child have a right to defer the date their child is admitted, or to take the place up part-time, until the child reaches compulsory school age. Places cannot be deferred beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which the offer was made.

Children reach compulsory school age on the prescribed day following their 5th birthday (or on their fifth birthday if it falls on a prescribed day). The prescribed days are 31 August, 31 December and 31 March.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

Parents may request that their child is admitted outside their normal age group. To do so parents should include a request with their application, specifying why admission out of normal year group is being requested.

When such a request is made, the academy trust will make a decision on the basis of the circumstances of the case and in the best interests of the child concerned, taking into account the views of the headteacher and any supporting evidence provided by the parent.

Waiting lists

The school will operate a waiting list. Where the school receives more applications for places than there are places available, a waiting list will operate until 31 December 2024. This will be maintained by the Academy Trust and it will be open to any parent to ask for his or her child’s name to be placed on the waiting list, following an unsuccessful application.

Children’s position on the waiting list will be determined solely in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. Where places become vacant they will be allocated to children on the waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. The waiting list will be reordered in accordance with the oversubscription criteria whenever anyone is added to or leaves the waiting list.

In Year Admission Arrangements

Parents or carers seeking admission to an established year group “midyear” may make an application directly to the school using the in-year application form.

Appeals

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. Appellants should contact the School Administrator or us by the date provided in the decision letter for information on how to appeal. Information on the timetable for the appeals process can be found on our website.

Appendix 1 - Priority area