Admission information

Introduction

Cornwall Council is the admission authority for all community and voluntary-controlled infant, primary and junior schools in Cornwall and therefore sets the admission arrangements for those schools which include the criteria that will be used in the event that any of those schools has more applications than places available.

Related documents

•         Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme for September 2022 entry to infant, junior and primary schools
•         Co-ordinated In-year Admissions Scheme 2022/23
•         School Admissions Code 2014 and related Regulations

Community and voluntary-controlled schools

These arrangements apply to the following schools:

Applying for a place

All applications for places in reception or year 3 must be made direct to the applicant’s home local authority on the Common Application Form.  The application form and supporting information will be available on Cornwall Council’s website.  Applications for places during the school year can be made to Cornwall Council using the In-year Application Form.

However, if a child has an Education, Health and Care Plan parents do not need to complete an application form as a school place will be identified through a separate process.  Contact the Statutory SEN Service for more information (01872 324242).

Part-time or deferred entry to school and admission of children outside their normal age group (early or delayed entry to reception)

All children are entitled to start school full-time in the September following their fourth birthday.  However, parents may choose deferred or part-time entry to the reception year for their child, bearing in mind that by law, children have to be in full-time education by the start of the term following their fifth birthday – when they reach ‘compulsory school age’.   Parents of summer-born children may also seek a place for their child outside their normal age group i.e. entry to reception a year later than normal, for example if the child may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely.  Parents choosing part-time or deferred entry must contact the school they have been allocated or hope to be allocated to arrange this.  Those wishing to delay entry to the reception year or request a place outside the normal year group must contact the School Admissions Team.

Appeals

If an applicant is not allocated a place at their preferred school(s) they will have the right to appeal to an independent panel.  The refusal letter will explain how to do this.  For refusals in the normal admissions round parents will have 20 school days after they receive the notification to appeal the decision.  Appeals must then be heard within 40 school days of this deadline.  Further details and a timeline can be found in the Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme for September 2022 entry to infant, junior and primary schools or Co-ordinated In-year Admissions Scheme 2022/23.

Waiting lists

If the school is oversubscribed, a waiting list will be held for the whole of the academic year for all year groups and parents/carers can request that their child is added to this list if they are refused a place.  The waiting list will be based on the school’s oversubscription criteria and a child’s place on a waiting list is subject to change according to additional information received about applications or children being added to the list – so their place on the list might move up or down.  No priority is given to the length of time that a child has been on the list.  Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan and children in care or children that were previously in care will take precedence over those on the waiting list.  Children admitted under the Fair Access Protocol will also be given priority over children on the waiting list.

Fair Access Protocol

All local authorities are required to have a Fair Access Protocol which applies to all schools. This document sets out how Cornwall Council and schools will ensure that, during the school year, any children without a school place can be offered a place at a suitable school as soon as possible, even if the school is full.  It does not apply to applications in the normal admissions round.  To find out more about admissions during the school year and the Fair Access Protocol visit www.cornwall.gov.uk/admissions or contact the School Admissions Team.

Early years/nursery places

Cornwall Council is responsible for making decisions about admissions to an early years or nursery class in the case of community and voluntary-controlled schools.  The Oversubscription Criteria will be used, if necessary, to determine admission to early years or nursery classes.

Oversubscription Criteria

Oversubscription criteria for admission to reception through to year 6 in community and voluntary-controlled infant and primary schools

The following priority order will be used to decide which children should occupy any vacant places, after the admission of children where the school is named in their Education, Health and Care Plan: 

1.                   Children in care and children who were previously in care but immediately after being in care became subject to an Adoption, Child Arrangement, or Special Guardianship Order including those who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in care as a result of being adopted.
   
2.                   Children with a sibling who will still be attending the preferred school at the time of their admission.
3.                   Children of teaching or teaching support staff at the school where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made or the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

4.                   Children who live in the designated area of the preferred school or whose parents can provide evidence at the time of making the application that they will be living in the designated area of the preferred school by the date from which admission is required.

If there are more designated area children wanting places at a school than there are places available after the allocation of children under criteria 1 to 3, the following criteria 5 to 6 will be used to decide which of these children should have priority for admission.  If there are still places available after all the designated area children have been allocated places, criteria 5 to 6 will be used to decide which of the remaining children should have priority for any spare places.

5.                   Children with an unequivocal professional recommendation that non-placement at the preferred school would not be in the best interest of the child and that placement at the preferred school is essential. 

6.                   All other children using the tie-breakers as defined later in this document as necessary.

Oversubscription criteria for admission to year 3 through to year 6 the community junior schools

The following priority order will be used to decide which children should occupy any vacant places, after the admission of pupils where the school is named in their Education, Health and Care Plan: 

1.                  Children in care and children who were previously in care but immediately after being in care became subject to an Adoption, Child Arrangement, or Special Guardianship Order. including those who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in care as a result of being adopted.
2.                  Children attending the partner infant school for the preferred community junior school.

If there are more children attending the partner infant school wanting places at a junior school than there are places available, the following criteria 3 to 7 will be used to decide which of these children should have priority for admission.  If there are still places available after all the children attending the partner infant school have been allocated places, criteria 3 to 7 will be used to decide which of the remaining children should have priority for any spare places.

3.                  Children with a sibling who will still be attending the preferred school at the time of their admission.

4.                  Children of teaching or teaching support staff at the school where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made or the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

5.                  Children who live in the designated area of the preferred school or whose parents can provide evidence at the time of making the application that they will be living in the designated area of the preferred school by the date from which admission is required.

6.                  Children with an unequivocal professional recommendation that non-placement at the preferred school would not be in the best interest of the child and that placement at the preferred school is essential. 

7.                  All other children (using the tie-breakers as defined later in this document as necessary).

Notes and definitions

Children in care and children who were previously in care

A ‘child in care’ is also referred to as a ‘looked after child’ and 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 (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989). 

A ‘child arrangement order’ is an order settling the arrangements to be made as to the person with whom the child is to live under Section 8 of the Children Act 1989. 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).

A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society (see Section 23ZZA(8) of the Children Act 1989 (inserted by Section 4 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017)).

Partner infant schools to community junior schools

Carbeile Junior School – Torpoint Nursery and Infant School

St Ives Junior School – St Ives Infant School

Please note that there are other infant and junior school partnerships in Cornwall, however only those which include community junior schools are listed here as this document refers to the criteria for those schools only.

Siblings

‘Siblings’ means brothers or sisters. They are defined as children with at least one natural or adoptive parent in common, living at the same or a different address.  Children living permanently in the same household at the same address would also be counted as siblings, regardless of their actual relationship to each other.  To qualify as a sibling a child must be on the roll of the school in question at the date of application, allocation and admission.

If a child is a sibling of a multiple birth (e.g. twins, triplets, etc.) and has been offered a place at the requested school, every effort will be made to offer places to siblings at the same school, which may mean allocating places above the Published Admission Number (PAN) where this is possible. However, where this is not possible, parents will be invited to decide which of the children should be allocated the available place(s). 

Designated areas

Cornwall Council has divided Cornwall into geographical areas called ‘designated areas’ (sometimes called ‘catchment areas’) which are each served by a specific school or schools.  Designated areas assist Cornwall Council in ensuring there are enough school places and are also used to determine entitlement to school transport.  The designated school for an address may not always be the one nearest to that address.

Not all schools include ‘living in the designated area’ as a priority in their oversubscription criteria (the criteria that will be used to decide who should be allocated places when there are more applications than places available).  However, entitlement to transport to all schools is determined by Cornwall Council with regard to whether the school is in the designated area for a child’s home address or is their nearest school.

Designated areas can be viewed using the mapping system at www.cornwall.gov.uk/admissions or by contacting the School Admissions Team.  If a property is near a designated area border shown on the mapping system it is advisable to check the designated school with the School Admissions Team.

Families planning to move into the designated area of a school and apply for a place at that school will need to submit evidence of their new address by the deadlines stated in the Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme for the year of entry, either a copy of a signed and dated tenancy agreement or confirmation that contracts have been exchanged.

Children with an unequivocal professional recommendation

Applicants will only be considered under this criterion where the parent/carer can demonstrate that only the preferred school can meet the exceptional medical or social needs of the child, supported by a recommendation from, for example, a doctor, school medical officer or educational psychologist.  Such recommendations must be made in writing to the School Admissions Team by the deadlines stated in the Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme for the year of entry and must give full supporting reasons.  Cornwall Council will make the final decision on whether or not to accept an application under this criterion.

Home address

Each child can have only one registered address for the purposes of determining priority for admission and transport entitlement.  This address should be the place where the child is normally resident at the point of application or evidence of the address from which a child will attend school, in the form of written confirmation of a house purchase or a formal tenancy agreement.  Exceptional circumstances in relation to the provision of a home address will be considered on a case-by-case basis.  If there is shared residence of the child or a query is raised regarding the validity of an address, Cornwall Council will consider the home address to be with the parent with primary day to day care and control of the child.  Residency of a child may also be clarified through a Child Arrangement Order where it is shown who has care of the child.  Evidence may be requested to show the address to which any Child Benefit is paid and at which the child is registered with a doctor’s surgery. 

It is expected that parents will submit only one application for each child.  Any disputes in relation to the child’s home address should be settled before applying, the admission authority will not become involved in any parental disputes.  If agreement cannot be obtained before an application is made then parents/carers may need to settle the matter through the courts.  Where no agreement is reached or order obtained, Cornwall Council will determine the home address.

For information on disputes between persons with parental responsibility in relation to school preferences please see Cornwall Council’s Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme for the relevant year.

Applications for children of Service Families will be processed and places allocated based on the proposed address (with supporting evidence) or, if the family are not able to confirm a proposed address and a unit or quartering address is provided, an allocation will be made based on the unit or quartering address.  Until a fixed address is available, the unit postal address or quartering area address will be used to determine allocation of a school place.  For the purposes of measuring distances, the main entrance of the unit will be used.

Tie-breakers

If any of the criteria outlined in this document leave more children with an equal claim than places available priority will be given to the child who lives nearer to the preferred school.  Should this tie-breaker still leave children with an equal claim because distances are exactly the same, random allocation, which will be independently verified, will be used to decide on priority.  Cornwall Council’s Random Allocation Protocol is available from Cornwall Council on request.

Distances

Home to school distances used for tie-breaking will be established using a straight-line measurement as determined by Capita One and supported by Cornwall Council’s nominated Geographic Information System software.  Measurements will be between the home address (the centre of the main building of the property) and the main gate of the school (as determined by Cornwall Council).

Distances used to identify the nearest suitable school with a space available are measured as the shortest available route as determined by Cornwall Council’s Geographical Information System.  This is considered to be the walking route of up to two miles for primary school children up to the end of Year 3 and three miles from Year 4 onwards.  For schools outside these distances, driving route will be used.  Unlike when eligibility for free home to school transport is assessed, the suitability and safety of the walking route is not taken in to consideration when determining these distances.

Published Admission Numbers

The Published Admission Number (PAN) is the maximum number of children that a school will admit to a year group at the normal point of entry (e.g. starting in reception in an infant or primary school).  It is agreed by the admission authority before the admissions process begins and normally the admission authority will not offer more places than this number.

The PANs for entry to reception (infant and primary schools) or year 3 (junior school) in September 2021 to community and voluntary-controlled schools are as follows:

Prepared by:

School Admissions Team

Education Access and Sufficiency

Together for Families

If you would like this information
in another format please contact:

Cornwall Council
County Hall
Treyew Road
Truro TR1 3AY

Telephone: 0300 1234 100

Email: enquiries@cornwall.gov.uk