Admissions

Parents considering sending their children to Woodnewton are most welcome to visit, to talk to the Head of Academy and to view some of the facilities we have to offer. Please telephone the office for an appointment (Tel: 01536 265173). Once you have decided you would like your child to attend Woodnewton, early registration is advisable as currently we only have places for 120 children in each year group.

For further information regarding admission to other year groups please contact us.

Alternatively please call North Northamptonshire Council on 0300 1263000 for more information on the admissions process.


Nursery Admissions

 

We currently have 65 FTE places (65 during the morning session and 65 in the afternoon).

Children may be registered from birth and you will be issued with a receipt.  A letter will be sent to you in May, prior to your child starting in September, to confirm that a place has been allocated.

A parent’s meeting will be held at the end of June allowing you to meet the FS1 staff.  You will be notified about ‘Transition Day’ when your child can visit school with you, during a morning or afternoon, according to the place offered.

A ‘Home visit’ will be offered to you in early September, before your child starts school, allowing you a chance to meet your key workers from FS1, in a familiar setting.  Your child starts on a part time basis but the number of sessions they attend will be gradually increased. More information is available in the FS1 booklet and the academy’s admission policy.

Please be aware that attending FS1 does not guarantee a place in the academy’s Reception class.  A Local Authority application form must be completed and returned to the Local Authority to request a place in Reception.


School Admissions 2023 / 2024

 

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. Applications should be made to your home local authority - those living
in North Northamptonshire should visit Primary school places | North Northamptonshire
Council (northnorthants.gov.uk)

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. This includes 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.

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).
  • 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. 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 Headteacher. 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 Headteacher’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 Headteacher 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 Headteacher. 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 by 31st August at the latest) 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

How to appeal for a place at our school

If you have applied and been refused a place at Woodnewton (in any year group), you are entitled to appeal against that decision.

Appeals are administered by the Diocese of Peterborough education team. For more information on the process please see: https://www.peterborough-diocese.org.uk/church-schools/admission-and-appeals/

If you wish to appeal please contact the Appeals Administrator by emailing education@peterborough-diocese.org.uk and ask for an appeals pack.

The pack includes some explanatory notes about the process of Admission Appeals and a Notice of Appeal form that, should you decide to proceed with an appeal, will need to be completed and returned by email if possible, but if not, to the Diocesan Office instead.

https://www.peterborough-diocese.org.uk/church-schools/admission-and-appeals/

 

Timetable for appeals – September 2024 applications

National Offer Day - 16 April 2024

Deadline for Lodging Appeal Notice - 20 May 2024

Appellant to be notified of Appeal Date and Time and receive Statement of Case - week commencing 17 June 2024

Deadline for Submission of Additional Evidence - 24 June 2024

Appeal Date - week commencing 8 July 2024

 

Note from the Independent School Appeal Clerk - The appeal process in 2024.

Your appeal will be heard remotely.

All Admission Authorities are required to comply with the School Admission Appeals Code. This was most recently updated in October 2022 and allows for the Admission Authority to make arrangements for appeals to be heard by video conference or, in the absence of that, by telephone. That is the decision of the Admission Authority for Priors Hall - a Learning Community.

All admission appeals for this school have been heard remotely since the beginning of the Pandemic in March 2020, and I have been happy - as well as a little surprised - at how well it has worked. During the Pandemic there was no other option than for the appeal to be heard in this way and ultimately it became clear that this format offered benefits to all participants including efficiency and convenience.

All you need is access to a PC, a mobile telephone, or a tablet. You can choose the most comfortable place from where to present your appeal case, you will not have to appear within a more formal setting and you will not have to travel to a venue to be heard.

Through the appeal administrator, the Admission Authority has made sure that no appellant has been disadvantaged by their appeal being heard in this way. Any unexpected issues that have arisen with the use of technology have been overcome to prevent any disadvantage and provide all appellants with a fair opportunity to put their appeal case to the Independent Appeal Panel.

If you have any personal issues or restrictions that you feel might undermine your appeal being heard in this way, you can contact the appeal administrator, and he will look to provide any reasonable adjustments to give you the chance to participate in the same way and to the same level as any other appellant.

The most important aspect for me is that you are offered a fair chance to present your appeal circumstances to the Independent Appeal Panel. If so, you will have had every opportunity to try and secure a place at this school by making an appeal.”

Robert Hartgroves – Independent School Appeal Clerk, February 2024.