Horsendale Admission Policy and Criteria 

Our applications and waiting list are maintained by Nottinghamshire County Council admissions. To apply for a place or for further information on admissions in general, please contact the team on 0115 9132331 or visit their website https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/education/school-admissions. 

For all admissions, we follow our policy for that year, our current one is below. Both in-year waiting lists and first application to school will all be ranked according to our 1-5 criteria noted within the policy.

Past and future admissions policies are all linked at the end of the page.

Horsendale Admissions Policy 

2021-2022

Admission arrangements for children starting school

Admissions for children about to start school is decided through implementation of the governors’ previously determined published arrangements and over-subscription criteria. The process is co-ordinated by Nottinghamshire County Council’s Admissions Office. 

The published admission number for Reception is 30.

Parents/Carers are required to apply on a common application form through their ‘home’ local authority, the local authority under which they live.  All information on school applications is available at:

Nottinghamshire County Council Admissions

Tel: 0800 500 8080 or enquiries@nottscc.gov.uk

http://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/education/school-admissions

Admission over-subscription criteria

In the event of over-subscription, the following criteria will be applied, in priority order, to determine which applications will be granted once places have first been allocated to pupils who have a statement of special educational needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan which names the school:

1. Children looked after by a local authority (LAC) and previously looked after children (PLAC), including children outside of England (IAPLAC).
2. Children who live in the catchment area* and who, at the time of admission, will have a brother or sister attending the school.
3. Other children who live in the catchment area* at the closing date for applications.
4. Children who live outside the catchment area* and who, at the time of admission, will have a brother or sister attending the school.
5. Children who live outside the catchment area*.

*NB: Catchment areas can be viewed and checked using the following county council website:

https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/education/school-admissions/school-catchment-areas

In the event of over subscription within all but the first criterion, preference will be given to children who live nearest to the school as the crow flies (by straight line). Distances are measured from the entrance to the child’s home to the principal entrance to the main administrative building of the school using the Nottinghamshire County Council’s computerised distance measuring software. 

In the event of two distances being equal, random allocation will be used as tie-break.  This process will be independently verified.

Where one child of a multiple birth can be admitted, the other child/children will also be admitted.

We shall keep waiting lists for Reception open to the end of the academic year. As a place becomes available, we shall contact the child next on the waiting list, according to our published over-subscription criteria, to offer the place. The waiting list will be closed at the end of the academic year and those on the waiting list who were not offered a place by this time will be removed. New applications should be made to Admissions by parents for the next academic year.

Children offered a place in our school who were born between 1 September and 31 August of the appropriate admission year, have the option to start full-time school from the beginning of the autumn term. Parents may choose to defer their child’s admission to the following term or until the beginning of the term following their child’s fifth birthday, provided that the child’s admission takes place within the current school year and following discussion with, and agreement of, the Head Teacher. Parents may request their child takes up the place part-time until the child reaches compulsory school age; this again is following discussion with, and agreement by, the Head Teacher.

Special consideration

The following groups of children will be given special consideration in their application for a particular school:  children whose particular medical needs, mobility support needs, special educational needs or social circumstances are supported by written evidence from a doctor, social worker or other relevant professional stating that the school is the only school which could cater for the child’s particular needs.  The evidence must be presented at the time of the application.

The governors will consider each case on its merits and determine the allocation of any such place on the basis of the written evidence.  Admission under ‘special circumstances’ will take precedence over all but the first of the numbered criteria. 

In-year admissions to year groups other than the intake year

Admission into school is determined via the published arrangement and over-subscription criteria decided by the governors of the school, but co-ordinated by Nottinghamshire County Council.  Applications can be made direct with Nottinghamshire County Council, https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/education/school-admissions/changing-school. 

Applications for admission to year groups other than the intake year group will be considered in relation to the published admission limit which applied when the year group was first admitted to the school, subject to infant class size restrictions.  If places are available within the year group, the child will be admitted.  If there are more applications than places available, the oversubscription criteria above will be used to determine which child can be offered a place.

A waiting list will be in operation for all other years where the school receives more applications than places available. The waiting lists will remain open whilst the number of places in the year group is full, or until the end of the academic year.

Where the number of pupils in a particular year group falls below the published admission number, the person whose name appears first on that particular year group’s waiting list will be offered a place.  A child’s position on this waiting list will be determined by the application of the school's published oversubscription criteria.

Parents are welcome to ask the position they currently hold on the list. However, because the school constantly receives applications for admission throughout the year, the waiting list is continually being re-ordered. Parents need to be aware that their position on the list may rise and fall over time and therefore a higher position on the list is not necessarily a good indicator of the likelihood of a place being offered. Length of time on the waiting list will not be a factor in offering a place.

Children who are the subject of a direction by a Local Authority to admit or who are allocated to the school in accordance with the In-Year Fair Access Protocols, will take precedence over those children on a waiting list.

Late applications

Late applications will be considered as long as they are received via Nottinghamshire County Council Admissions. The school will continue to use the published arrangements and over-subscription criteria for late applications. If there are no spaces due to the lateness of the application and on time allocations already being offered and accepted at the time of the school receiving the request from Admissions, these late applicants will go onto the school’s waiting list.

Admission of children outside the normal age group

Parents may seek a place for their child outside of the normal age group, for example, if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. In addition, the parents of a summer born child may choose not to send that child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1. Children should only be educated out of the normal age group in very limited circumstances.

Nottinghamshire residents should submit a request in writing to Nottinghamshire County Council’s school admissions team as early as possible. Designated officers will make decisions based on the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This will include taking account of the parent’s views; information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development; where relevant, the child’s medical history and the views of a medical professional; whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group; and whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely. The views of the Head Teacher of the school will also be taken into account. When informing a parent of the decision on the year group to which the child should be admitted, the parent will be notified of the reasons for the decision.

Where it is agreed that a child will be admitted out of the normal age group and, as a consequence of that decision, the child will be admitted to a relevant age group (i.e. the age group to which pupils are normally admitted to the school) the local authority and admission authority must process the application as part of the main admissions round on the basis of their determined admission arrangements only, including the application of oversubscription criteria where applicable. The parent has a statutory right to appeal against the refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied. This right does not apply if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group.

Transfer to secondary school

Where a child has been educated out of the normal age group it is the parent’s responsibility to again request admission out of the normal age group when they transfer to secondary school. It will be for the admission authority of the preferred school to decide whether to admit the child out of the normal age group. The admission authority must make a decision on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the child’s best interests, and will need to bear in mind the age group the child has been educated in up to that point.

IAPLAC – Internationally Adopted Previously Looked After Children

The 2021 School Admissions Code (the Code) requires 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 to be given equal first priority in admission arrangements, alongside looked after children (LAC) and children who were previously looked after by English local authorities (PLAC). This advice refers to these children as internationally adopted previously looked after children – “IAPLAC”.

Paragraph 1.7 of the new Code will require that highest priority is given to “looked after children and all previously looked after children, 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”.

This new provision will necessitate variations to determined admission arrangements to take effect from 1 September 2021.

All applications received before 1 September 2021 will have been processed in accordance with the existing (2014) Code, and offers made and places allocated will be unchanged.

Any applications received on or after 1 September 2021 will need to be processed in accordance with the new Code. By way of example, when dealing with in-year applications for the 2021/2022 academic year, children who are determined as being IAPLAC must be given equal highest priority with LAC and PLAC.

Any child who is on a waiting list for a school before 1 September 2021 and meets the definition of an IAPLAC must be ranked again on 1 September 2021 following the new Code coming into force so that the child is given equal highest priority with LAC and PLAC.

Definitions

Home Address

The child’s place of residence is taken to be the parental home, other than in the case of children fostered by a local authority, where either the parental address or the foster parent(s) address may be used. If a child’s parents live at separate addresses, the address where the child permanently spends at least three ‘school’ nights (i.e. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday) will be taken to be the place of residence. Addresses of other relatives or friends will not be considered as the place of residence, even if the child stays there for all or part of the week. Evidence that a child’s place of residence is permanent may also be sought. The evidence should prove that a child lived at the address at the time of the application. Informal arrangements between parents will not be taken into consideration.

Parents

The mother of the child, the father of the child where he was married to the mother either when the child was born or at a later date, the father of the child if (since 1 December 2003) he was registered as the father on the birth certificate, an adoptive parent or any other person who has acquired ‘parental responsibility’ through the courts. Evidence of this may be required. In all cases all those with parental responsibility must be in agreement with the preferences made.

Siblings (brothers or sisters)

A brother or sister who shares the same parents, a half-brother, half-sister or legally adopted child living at the same address, a child looked after by a local authority placed in a foster family with other school age children or a stepchild or children who are not related but live as a family unit, where parents both live at the same address as the child.

A looked after child

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 in accordance with section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989 at the time of making an application to a school.

Previously looked after children (PLAC)

Are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order).  This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 and children who were adopted under section 46 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002.

Internationally adopted previously looked after children (IAPLAC)

From 1 September 2021, children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order), outside of England, will also be prioritised as PLAC children noted above. Paragraph 1.7 of The School Admissions Code agreed by Parliament on 13 May 2021 which comes into force 1 September 2021.

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).

Further guidance on the way in which applications are dealt with can be found in the current Nottinghamshire County Council’s “Admissions to Schools” booklet and the County Council website www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk.  This also outlines how the co-ordinated admissions scheme works and late applications are processed.

Appeals

In the event of oversubscription and applications being refused, applicants have the right to an independent appeal. 

As an academy our appeals arrangements are handled directly by the school as part of The Flying High Trust. All appeals received by the school are handled by an independent appeals clerk who will make all the necessary arrangements to ensure all appeals are compliant with statutory guidelines.

Applicants wishing to make an appeal should do so within 28 days of the date of the letter notifying you of the decision to refuse admission to the school. An appeals form should be completed in every case and submitted to The Flying High Trust within the 28 days. The form is available on the school’s website https://www.horsendale.co.uk/admissions/, by contacting the school directly 0115 913 2331 or by contacting The Flying High Trust directly:

The Flying High Trust, Admissions and Appeals

0115 989 1915

info@flyinghightrust.co.uk

C/O Flying High Partnership, 2a Vickery Way, Chilwell Nottingham  NG9 6RY

Fair Access Protocol

Horsendale Primary School participates in Nottinghamshire County Council’s Fair Access Protocol.