Admissions

The Academy is a co-educational academy and provides education for children aged between 4 and 11 years. The published admission number for the relevant age group is 120. Children are admitted in September in the academic year in which they have their fifth birthday.  Children with Education, Health and Care Plans are admitted outside this policy but count towards the published admission number.  Applications to this Academy must be made through the Local Authority’s co-ordinated admission system. An on-line application must be made at: https://www.northnorthants.gov.uk/primary-school-places.  Where applications for admission exceed the number of places available, after the admission of children with an Education, Health and Care Plans where the Academy is named in the Plan, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in order:

• Looked After Children and Previously Looked After Children (see definition).
• Children whose home address is within the Academy’s defined catchment area.
• Children who have a sibling currently attending the Academy, where that sibling will still be attending at the time of the admission of the applicant child.
• Children of staff members; where the member of teaching and non-teaching staff has been employed at Woodnewton – a learning community for two or more years, when the application for admission to the Academy is made and/or the member of teaching and non-teaching staff is recruited to fill a vacant post, for which there is a demonstrable skills shortage.
• Proximity of the child’s home address to the Academy, those living nearer being accorded the higher priority. Measurements will be straight line distances taken using the Local Authority’s computerised measuring system.

 

Tie-breaker

Where it is necessary to choose between two or more applicants, the tiebreaker will be distance with the child who resides the nearest to the Academy being given the place. Where there is more than one applicant at the relevant distance, then the tie-breaker will be random allocation. The random allocation process will be independently supervised.

Definitions used in this policy

Looked After Child/Previously Looked After Child

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 (according to the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to the Academy. Previously ‘looked after children’ are children who were looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted, became subject to a child arrangements order or became subject to a special guardianship order.

Catchment Area

The Academy’s catchment area is the area within the line marked on the attached map. Where there is a dispute as to whether a particular address is within the Catchment area, the Academy’s decision shall be final.

Sibling

A brother or sister sharing the same parents.
A half brother or half sister, where two children share one common parent.
A step-brother or step-sister, where two children are related by a parent’s marriage or partnership. The partners must be living together in a permanent relationship (as if they were husband and wife or civil partners).

Adopted or fostered children

A sibling must be living at the same address when the application is made.

Home address

The child’s home address is the address of the parent or legal guardian with whom the child spends the majority of the time during the Academy week (Sunday-Thursday nights). If the child spends equal amounts of time at two addresses, the parents must agree which address they wish to be the child’s main address before we can process the application. If we receive more than one application for the same child (made by separated parents) and where the home address and/or the preferences do not match, neither application will be processed until such time that the parents can agree on both the address and the preferences. If no agreement can be made, parents are recommended to seek legal advice. If an agreement cannot be reached before the closing date, this may affect the chances of your child being allocated a place at the school.

Parents/legal guardians may be asked to produce evidence of residency/home address at any time during the admissions process. The address used must be the home address at the time of application. If a house move is planned, the new address may only be used once Exchange of Contracts has taken place or a Tenancy Agreement has been signed.

Fraudulent or Misleading Applications

The admissions authority has the right to investigate any concerns we may have about an application and to withdraw the offer of a place if it is considered that there is evidence that an applicant has made a fraudulent claim or provided misleading information.

Late applications

Late applications are any common application form (for the normal point of entry) received by the Local Authority after its statutory closing date of 15 January (5.00 pm). Late applications will not receive an offer of a school place by the Local Authority on National Offer Day (16 April)

Where children below compulsory school age are offered a place at the school/academy, they will be entitled to attend the academy full-time in the September following their fourth birthday.

Parents/carers may defer their child’s entry to the allocated academy until later in the academy year but not beyond the point at which the child reaches compulsory school age, and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the academy year for which the offer was made
when the place will cease to be available for the child. Where parents/carers wish, children may attend part-time until later in the academy year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age.

Admission of children outside their normal age group (Summer Born)

Parents/carers who wish to apply for a place in Reception out of the normal age group, should make their request to delay their application in writing to the Academy in the first instance to the Principal. The request should be accompanied by reasons for such a request and should be made by 1 December of the year prior to the year the child should enter Reception if they
had not requested to delay applying. This will ensure that if the admission authority does not agree to the request, there is still time for parents/carers to submit an application for the normal year of entry by the statutory deadline (15 January). The admission authority will make a decision 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/carer’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 the child has previously been educated out of their normal age group; whether the child may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely; the Principal’s views.

The Admission Authority will inform the parents/carers of its decision on the year group the child should be admitted to when they have to start school (i.e. Reception or Year 1) and will set out clearly the reasons for their decision.

If the Admissions Committee agrees to the parent’s/carer’s request to delay the application for a Reception place, they will inform the local authority and the parents/carers will then need to make an application for a place in Reception in the normal round of admissions in the following academic year.

Please note – in this following normal admissions round, if the Academy is oversubscribed, all applications (including delayed applications) for the Academy will be ranked in accordance with the School’s oversubscription criteria. If the application is not successful, parents/carers will have the right to appeal but, as the purpose of the appeals process is to consider whether a child should be admitted to a particular Academy, parents/carers do not have a right of appeal if they have been offered a place and it is not in the year group they would like;

If the Admissions Committee does not agree to the application being deferred, there is no right of appeal against that decision and the parents/carers will need to make an application to the local authority for a place in Reception by 15 January or make an in-year application for a Year 1 place at the appropriate time.

Admission of children outside their normal age group (not Summer Born)

Parents may request that their child is admitted outside their normal age group. When such a request is made; the Academy Trust will make a decision based on the circumstances of the case and in the best interests of the child concerned, taking into account the views of the Principal and any supporting evidence provided by the parent. Parents requesting such an admission should do so in writing to the Chair of the Local Governing Body who will make a decision on the matter in consultation with the Principal. A decision will be based on the individual circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This includes taking into account the parent's views; information about the child's academic, social and emotional development; where relevant their medical history and the views of a medical professional; whether they have been previously educated outside 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

In-Year Admissions

An in-year admission refers to an application for an academy place made during the academy year or an application for admission to an academy made at the start of the academy year for any year group other than the normal year of entry. All in-year applications should be made to the Local Authority on their website https://www.northnorthants.gov.uk/primary-school-places

Waiting List

A waiting list will operate for each year group. Where in any year the Academy receives more applications for places than there are places available, a waiting list will operate until the end of each term. The admission authority will maintain this 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.

Appeals

If your child is not successful in obtaining a place at this Academy, you have a right of appeal
to an independent panel. If you wish to appeal, please contact the Academy office for further
information.