Admission arrangements

Here you will find details of the Academy’s admission arrangements, including its selection and over subscription criteria, published admission number and the school’s process for applications through the local authority. Please select the following links to view more information.

Primary School Admission Timeline (link to external website)

Calderdale Council coordinates admissions to the academy. If you live within Calderdale, you must complete a Calderdale online application. Parents of children resident outside Calderdale, who want to apply at the academy school must apply through their home local authority.

Parents of children resident in Calderdale can apply for a school place online during the normal admissions rounds. This is if their child is due to:

• start reception class in September 2021;
• transfer from infant school to junior school in September 2021;
• transfer to a secondary school in September 2021;

In-year transfers

In general, the Local Authority does not encourage transfers between schools for reasons other than a house move. Evidence strongly indicates that they are rarely in the best educational interests of the pupil because of the disruption this would cause to their learning experience. If a parent, having considered carefully the effects that such a transfer may have, still wishes to request a transfer to a Calderdale primary school, they should complete an in-year application form available on the Calderdale website:

https://www.calderdale.gov.uk/v2/residents/education-and-learning/schools/admissions/year-transfers

Key Dates 2022-2023

If you want to transfer your child to another school or need a school place at any time other than transferring from nursery to primary school or from primary school to secondary school, you will need to apply as an In-year transfer . The In-Year-Transfer form is available from the school office or you can download a copy from the Admissions page on the academy website.

Parental preference

Parents/guardians have the legal right to state the school they wish their child to attend. The admissions authority has a duty to meet their stated preference unless:

1. this would prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources, or
2. for a voluntary aided or denominational school, this would be incompatible with the admission arrangements made by the school governors which are designed to preserve the religious character of the school, or
3. where a school whose admissions arrangements are based wholly or partly on selection by reference to aptitude or ability and this would be incompatible with selection under these arrangements (Secondary schools only).

How an offer is made

Parents/guardians are assured that every effort is made to offer their child a place at their preferred school. Many schools have more applications than there are places available. When a school is oversubscribed, places are allocated using the admissions/oversubscriptions criteria. There are common Admission criteria for Secondary schools and Primary schools for a number of schools within Calderdale. Calderdale Council will then determine which school should be allocated:

• where a child is eligible for a place at only one of the preferred schools, that school will be allocated to the child;
• where a child is eligible for a place at more than one of the preferred schools, they will be allocated a place at whichever of these is the higher ranked preference on their application form;
• where a child is resident in Calderdale and is not eligible for a place at any of the preferred schools, they will be allocated a place at the nearest school with vacancies, within Calderdale. For Primary schools only, this will be within a two-mile walking route wherever possible. For Secondary schools only, this will be within a three-mile walking route wherever possible.

Places will be allocated in community and voluntary controlled primary schools in the following order of priority:

1. Pupils who are in public care (children ‘Looked After’) or pupils who were previously looked after but ceased to be so because they became adopted or became subject to a child arrangements or special guardianship order immediately following having been looked after.
2. Pupils who have a brother or sister (including step / half brothers and sisters) permanently resident in the same household and currently attending the school or its associated junior school (excluding pupils in their final year).
3. Other children.

Notes

• A sibling link cannot be claimed where a sibling in receipt of a Statement of Special Educational Needs, or Education, Health and Care Plan, is attending a resourced unit within a mainstream primary school.
• If there is over-subscription within any category, then pupils will be admitted in the order of proximity of the pupil’s permanent home to the school.
• Distance will be calculated using a straight line measurement from the pupil’s permanent home to the nearest designated school gate.
• Distances will be calculated using the Local Authority’s GIS (Geographical Information System). To ensure consistency, all measurements will be carried out by this method and no other method of measuring distance will be considered.
• Each property has a coordinate taken from Ordnance Survey ADDRESS-POINT data. This is the point from which distance measurements will be taken.
• If two or more children live an equal distance from the school (as measured in note ii above), the decision will be made using random allocation.
• In voluntary controlled schools, no account is taken of church membership or affiliation.