Primary community and voluntary controlled schools admissions policy September 2024

1. All applications must be made in accordance with the Buckinghamshire coordinated admissions scheme (the scheme).

2. All governing bodies are required by section 324 of the Education Act 1996 to admit to the school a child with an Education, Health and Care Plan that names the school. These children will therefore be admitted prior to applying the admission rules.

3. Once a child is allocated a reception place under the scheme the school will offer a full-time place in September 2024.

4. Deferred/Part time Entry: Parents can choose whether to defer this offer or to accept the offer on a part time basis as they wish. This deferment /part time attendance period can be up to the point at which the child is legally required to start school (i.e. the start of the term after the child’s fifth birthday) and cannot be beyond the end of the normal academic year of entry for the child (i.e. the latest any child could start is during the summer term of reception/foundation 2) otherwise they must re-apply for admission to Year 1 or have formally obtained agreement to delay their child’s admission for one year. Parents of children younger than five have the right to defer entry until no later than the term after the child’s fifth birthday if deferring within the same academic year. If a place is taken up part-time, then parents cannot take the remainder of the 30 hours that are unused at another provider.

5. Staggered intake into reception: Historically many schools offered a staggered start to school with children gradually increasing their hours or starting over a period of a couple of weeks. The increased uptake of nursery provision means most children will have been in a setting for at least 15 hours per week for a year prior to starting school and many will have been in a nursery full time. Whilst schools may choose to continue this practice under the Admissions Code each parent still has a right to a full-time place at the start of the autumn term following their child’s 4th birthday. Parents may therefore choose to either access their child’s full-time place from the start of the term or to take part in a staggered intake.

6. Delayed Entry for Summer Born Children: Delayed entry to school is where a parent applies to hold back their child from joining the correct year group for their age so that they start school a year later than they are due to, into the Reception class. Parents considering delayed entry are still advised to apply for a school place for the September following the child’s 4th birthday. This can then be withdrawn or declined if it is agreed that the child should be held back a year. Information about this process is on the council’s website, and parents seeking a delayed entry for their child should contact the Admissions Team in the first instance who will advise about the process. Each application will be reviewed, and you will receive confirmation of our agreement and the schools that it relates to. Once the decision is made to admit a child out of year group their admission will be managed in the same way as any other child in the intake with no reference being made to the child’s age.

7. If there are more applications received than the places available at a school, then the places will be allocated within the scheme in accordance with the published admission rules for the school.

8. Details of the dates for timely applications and how late applications are handled are given in the scheme.

9. Where a child is admitted to a school’s Foundation 1, (nursery or pre-school provision) there can be no guarantee of a place in the main school as the coordinated admissions scheme is used to decide who should be admitted to the main school.

Once children with an EHCP are admitted then the following rules are used:

1. Looked after children and previously looked after children. (see Note1)
2. Children who have exceptional medical or social needs, which can only be met at that school, supported by written evidence from an appropriate professional person. (See Note 2)
3. Children of staff where either:
   1. The member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or
   2. The member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage. (See Note 3)
4. Children attending a primary school linked to the school named in the list of ‘linked primary’ schools at the time allocations are made. (See Note 4)
5. Children living within the catchment area of the school. (See Note 5)
6. For the main point of entry: Siblings of children who are attending the school or a ‘linked primary’ school in Year R – Year 5 at the time allocations are made, and are expected to be on the school roll or linked school roll at the time of the proposed admission, or who have already been offered a place to start in the current academic year at the school or a ‘linked primary school’. (See Note 6)
7. For immediate in year admission after the normal point of entry: Siblings of children who are in Year R to Year 6 at the time of admission to the school.(See Note 7)Once the above rules have been applied then any further places will be offered in distance order; using the distance between the family's Normal Home Address (See Notes 8 and 9) and the school's nearest open entrance gate offering the closest first. We use a straight line distance. (See Note 10)
8. Where a school can take some, but not all, of the children who qualify under one of these rules, we will give priority to children by taking account of the next rule (or rules) in the numbered list to decide who has priority for places.
9. If it still not possible to decide between two applicants who are equidistant then an independently scrutinised random allocation will be made to allocate the final place. An explanation of the method of making random allocations is on the council website (See also Note 11 below regarding twins and multiple births)

For admissions purposes a 'looked after child' or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order including those 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. A looked after child is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989).

This rule includes children who were previously looked after and immediately after being looked after became the subject of an adoption, child arrangement order or special guardianship order as set out below.

Child arrangements order: is an order setting the arrangements to be made as to the person with whom the child is to live under the Children and Families Act 2014

Special guardianship order: is an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child's special guardian (or special guardians) under Section 14A of the Children Act 1989

A panel comprising education professionals will consider the applications under this rule on receipt of written information from the parent indicating their reasons for the child attending a particular school. When making an application parents should send evidence from an independent professional person (this might be a doctor, health visitor, or Education Welfare Officer, for example) who knows about the child and supports the application to the school. It must clearly show why the school is the most suitable and any difficulties if alternate schools were offered.

The panel will consider which children can be considered under this rule prior to each admission round.

‘School staff’ includes:

i.teaching staff on a permanent or fixed term contract exceeding 11 months in duration, and

ii.all other staff on permanent or fixed term contracts exceeding 11 months in duration for posts of in excess of 15 hours per week.

‘Demonstrable skill shortage’ is a post which the school has had difficulty in filling. An example might be where the school has taken part in a recruitment drive to fill the post either across the country or worldwide and/or where the post was not filled at the first attempt.

Linked Primary Schools where the receiver school is a voluntary controlled or community school.

There may be additional links where a foundation school, voluntary-aided school or academy also retain or adopt a feeder school rule)

The primary school catchments can be viewed via the ‘Find my child a school place’ mapping service at:

https://schools.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/school-admissions/schools

A sibling is a brother or sister. For admission purposes we mean one of two or more individuals who have one or more parent in common, or any other child (including an adopted or fostered child) who lives at the same address and for whom the parent also has parental responsibility or, (in the case of a fostered child) delegated authority.

We will only consider a pupil in a primary school as a ‘sibling’ if he or she is attending, in the specified year groups, the school or a linked primary school at the time the allocations are made or, for in-year admissions the time of admission), or has been formally offered a place at the school in the operation of the Coordinated Primary Admissions Scheme. In all cases they are expected to still be at the school at the time of proposed admission.

This is as defined in law (the Education Act 1996) as either:

• any person who has parental responsibility (defined in Children Act 1989) for the child or young person; or
• any person who has care of the child or young person.

This is the child’s home address. This must be where the parent or legal carer of the child and the child live together unless it is proved that the child is resident elsewhere with someone who has legal care and control of the child. The address should be a residential property which can be permanently occupied 52 weeks of the year without any restrictions on occupation and not subjected to any planning or contractual restrictions on the duration of occupancy and is your child’s only or main residence that is owned, leased or rented by the child’s parent(s) or person with legal care and control of the child.

If the residence is not split equally between the Parent(s)/Carer(s), then the relevant address used will be the address at which we are satisfied that the child spends the majority of the school week.

Where there is an equal split or there is any doubt about residence, we will make a judgment about which address to use for the purposes of allocation. In making this judgment we will take into account the following:

• any legal documentation confirming residence
• the pattern of the residence
• the period of time over which the current arrangement has been in place
• confirmation from the previous school of the contact details and home address provided to them by the parents
• which parent is in receipt of child benefit
• where the child is registered with their GP
• any other evidence the parents may supply to verify the position

The straight line distance definition: is 'the distance from the address point of the pupil’s normal home address, as set out by Ordnance Survey, to the nearest open school gate available for pupils to use'.

As part of the computer system we use for school admissions there is a program that measures the ‘straight-line’ distance from the nearest open school gates to the child’s normal home address.

The point we measure to at the child’s normal address is determined by the Ordnance Survey ADDRESS-BASE which is an Ordnance Survey data product that provides a National Grid coordinate and a unique reference for each postal address in Great Britain that is on the Royal Mail’s Post Office Address File (PAF®).

The PAF contains postal address data and includes premises such as buildings or permanent mobile and park homes, plus other features such as temporary buildings and houseboats.

Where Service families or families of other Crown Servants, who often move within the UK and from abroad are posted to the area, school places can be allocated in advance of the family move if an official government letter declaring a relocation date and an intended address is provided. A unit postal address or quartering area address will be sufficient if there is not a confirmed new home address. Where Service families are returning to live in a property they already own, evidence of ownership will be needed.

This evidence should be provided by 30 January (Secondary allocation) 13 February (Primary allocation) to be included in the first allocation round.

In cases where there is one remaining place and the next child on the waiting list is one of a twin, triplet or other multiple birth group then both twins (or all the siblings in the case of multiple births) will be admitted and whilst that child is in the class they will be an excepted pupil under the Schools Admissions (Infant Class Sizes) (England) Regulations 2012 which permit Key Stage 1 class sizes to exceed 30 following the admission of a twin for as long as necessary until a child leaves the class at which point the class size will remain at the lower figure.