Admission arrangements for 2025/26

Admission number 30

Where the school receives more applications than places available, the following oversubscription criteria will be applied once places have first been allocated to pupils who have a statement of special educational needs or education health and care plan which names the school:

1. Looked after children and children who were previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to adoption, a residency order, a child arrangements order or special guardianship order.  Applications for previously looked after children must be supported with appropriate evidence i.e. a copy of the adoption order, residence order or special guardianship order. Children who appear to the Epworth Education Trust to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
2. Children whose older brothers or sisters attend the school and will still be there at the time of admission.
3. Children who live closest to the school.

Tie-breaker

Where there are more children in one particular criterion than the number of places available, places will be allocated to the children who live nearest to the school. The distance will be measured in a straight line from the child’s home address to a central point at the school using a Geographical Information System (GIS) which is based on ordnance survey.

If we offer the last place available at a school to one of twins (or triplets, or so on), our policy is to admit the other twin or triplets too.

Occasionally, the distance from home to school is the same for more than one child (for example, if more than one child lives in the same block of flats). In these cases we will use a system to randomly pick who will be offered a place.

Child’s home address

When considering your child’s application, we will use the permanent home address we have for you at the closing date for applications. If parents are separated and the child spends time at each parent’s address, the address we use for admission to school is that of the main carer. We use the address of the parent who receives the Child Benefit for this.

Brothers and Sisters

We will include half-brothers and half-sisters; stepbrothers and stepsisters; and foster brothers and foster sisters who live at the same address as part of the same family unit.

Applications if your child attends a nursery

If your child goes to a nursery attached to the school:

• They do not have an automatic right to a place in a reception class at the school
• You must send in your application form or apply on-line by the closing date for applications

Deferred Entry

Parents can request that the date their child is admitted to the school is deferred until later in the school year or until the child reaches compulsory school age in that school year. Where entry is deferred, the place will be held open and not offered to another child. Parents cannot defer entry beyond the beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday, nor beyond the academic year for which the original application was accepted.

Part-time Attendance

Parents can request that their child attends part-time until the child reaches compulsory school age.

Late applications

Late applications (those received after the closing date) will only be considered after those received by the closing date. The only exception to this is applications for looked after children that are received by 15 February will be included with on time applications.

Waiting lists

Places may become available at a school after the offer date. We will:

• Put all children who we refuse a place on the waiting list for the school;
• Keep the list in priority order, decided by the oversubscription criteria for the school only;
• Offer any place that becomes available to the next child on the waiting list; and
• Maintain the waiting list until the end of the autumn term.

We cannot take into account the length of time a child’s name has been on the waiting list, only the admission criteria for the school. This means that your child’s position on the list may change if another parent asks to be put on the list and their child has higher priority in the oversubscription criteria.

Admission Appeals

Parents have the right to appeal an admission authority decision. Details for appeal are available on the Wigan council website, including the date by which the appeal must be submitted and the timetables for organising and hearing admission appeals.

Link to appeals: https://www.wigan.gov.uk/Resident/Education/Schools/School-Admissions/Appeals.aspx

Parents/carers will be notified of their appeal date at least 10 school days before the hearing.

A copy of the school’s statement of case will be sent to each parent/carer 5 school days before the hearing.

Any additional evidence parents/carers wish to submit in support of their appeal must be sent to the clerk at least 7 school days before the hearing. Any evidence not submitted by this deadline may not be considered by the independent appeal panel.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

Parents may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group, for example, to a higher year group if the child is gifted and talented or to a lower year group if the child has experienced problems such as ill health.

The parents of a summer born child (born between 1 April and 30 August) may choose not to send their 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

A decision is made on the basis of the circumstances of each case.  The process is as follows:

Stage 1 – request

Parents make a formal request to the Local Authority School Organisation Team in writing with any supporting evidence they wish to be considered.

• A request for delayed entry to reception class should be made at the same time as applying for a place for normal entry (i.e. by the closing date of 15 January) in order to give sufficient time for the case to be considered prior to the offer of school places on 16 April.
• A request for in year admission outside of the normal age group should be made on the normal in year transfer form.

We do not accept requests for early entry to reception class for children who will not be of statutory school age.

Stage 2 – decision

Requests for voluntary-aided, foundation and academy schools will be referred to the school to be considered.

Requests for community and voluntary controlled schools will be considered by the local authority. We will look at the following factors but these are not exhaustive:

• Parent’s views
• The needs of the child and the possible impact on them of being educated out of year group
• The child’s medical history and views of medical professionals if appropriate
• In the case of children born prematurely the fact that they may have naturally fallen into the lower age group if they had been born on their expected date of birth
• Whether delayed academic, social, emotional or physical development is adversely affecting their readiness for school;
• Any other information which the parent requests the local authority to consider.

Stage 3 – outcome

Parents are notified of the decision in writing by the School Organisation Team.

Request agreed

If the request is agreed the application will be considered for the year group requested and ranked alongside any other applications. There is no guarantee that a place will be offered at the preferred school. Parents have 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.

Where a child has been educated out of their normal age group, the parent may again request admission out of the normal age group when they transfer to secondary school. It will be for the admission authority of that school to decide whether to admit the child out of their normal age group.

Request refused:

There is no statutory right of appeal against the refusal of a request for admission outside the normal age group. However, if the parents are dissatisfied they have the right to complain through the Council’s complaints procedure for decisions made by the local authority or under the school’s complaints procedure where the decision has been made by the school.

1. A looked after child is a child who is in the care of a local authority in England, or is being provided with accommodation by a local authority in England in the exercise of their social services functions.
2. A child is regarded as having been in state care in a place outside of England if they were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation or any other provider of care whose sole purpose is to benefit society

In year admissions:

Please click on the link  for information on how to transfer schools: In-Year Admissions