Staffordshire County Council wishes to notify the appropriate bodies of its proposal to reduce the Published Admission Number (PAN) at The John Bamford Primary School from 45 to 30 pupils, with effect from September 2028.
For September 2026, the school admitted 27 pupils into Reception, against a PAN of 45. Pupil projections indicate that numbers are expected to remain lower in future years. Continuing to operate with a PAN of 45 is therefore not considered financially sustainable, as the school receives insufficient funding to maintain the staffing levels and class structure required to operate effectively as one-and-a-half forms of entry.
Maintaining the current PAN and associated staffing structure would place significant and ongoing pressure on the school’s annual budget.
Reducing the PAN to 30 would enable the school to operate as one form of entry, with one class per year group. This would provide greater consistency in class organisation and class sizes, while also allowing more effective use of the available space throughout the school.
Without a reduction in PAN, the school may need to operate a changing structure of mixed-age classes, potentially resulting in fluctuations in class sizes and a lack of consistency across year groups. This could impact on the effective organisation of the school and the educational experience of pupils.
The local authority will continue to monitor pupil numbers, demographic trends and the demand for school places within the local area. The John Bamford Primary School also has sufficient accommodation to admit additional pupils, where appropriate, should there be an increase in demand for school places in the future.
You may find the following information useful when considering this proposal.
Past Pupil Admission Numbers
| Admission Year | Admission number | School catchment area births | No. allocated | No. of 1st preferences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 2023 | 45 | 18 | 44 | 38 |
| Sept 2024 | 45 | 18 | 38 | 36 |
| Sept 2025 | 45 | 14 | 34 | 32 |
| Sept 2026 | 45 | 15 | 27 | 27 |
Forecasts for the planning area
The combined published admission number for the planning area is 360.
Forecast reception intakes are not expected to exceed 240 pupils in any of the next four years. This indicates that, even with the proposed reduction of 15 places in the school’s PAN, there would continue to be sufficient reception capacity across the planning area to meet forecast demand.
Please send any queries or comments on this proposal by 5pm on 1 December 2026 to:
admissionsconsultation@staffordshire.gov.uk
or
School Admissions and Transport
Staffordshire County Council
2 Staffordshire Place
Tipping Street
ST16 2DH