Nursery Admissions Arrangements for 2024-25

View Nursery Admissions Arrangements for 2024-25 as a PDF

Leigh Academies Trust is the Admissions Authority of the Academy. Applications for places will be made in accordance with London Borough of Bexley’s co-ordinated admissions scheme and timetable. Although the process of admissions is managed by the Local Authority on behalf of the school, the Governing Body is responsible for decisions relating to admissions to the school.

Admission Number

Leigh Stationers’ Primary Academy has an agreed Published Admission Number (PAN) of 26 pupils for entry in nursery. The Academy will accordingly admit 26 pupils in the relevant age group each year if sufficient applications are received. All applicants will be admitted if 26 or fewer apply.

Oversubscription Criteria

If the Academy is oversubscribed, after the admission of pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan where the Academy is named in the Statement or Plan, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in priority order.

  1. Children in Care and previously Looked-After Children 

A Child in Care 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 Care functions (Section 22(1) of the Children’s Act 1989). A previously Looked-After Child is a child who was adopted or subject to a residence order, or special guardianship order, immediately following having been “Looked After”.

The highest priority must be given, unless otherwise provided in this Code, to looked after children and all previously looked after children, including those children 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. Previously looked after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangement order or special guardianship order). All references to previously looked after children in this Code means such children who were adopted (or subject to child arrangements orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after and those children 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.

  1. Child of a staff member

The son or daughter of a member of staff who has been employed at the academy for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the academy is made, or who has been recruited to fill a vacant post at the academy for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage. For this criteria son or daughter means a child who lives in the same house as the member of staff, including a natural son or daughter, an adopted child, stepson or daughter, or foster child. Children residing in the same households as part of an extended family, such as cousins, will not be eligible under this criterion.

  1. Children resident within the London Borough of Bexley.

All applications for nursery classes from Bexley residents will be considered before any applications from out-Borough residents.

Oversubscription Category 3A

This priority is given to children with a brother or sister who will be attending the school which hosts the nursery class of the parent’s preference at the time the child is due for admission to the nursery class.
Brother or sister includes a full, half, step or adopted brother or sister living at the same address.
A brother or sister in Year 6 at the time of application is not counted, as he or she will have left the school by the time the younger child starts.

Oversubscription Category 3B

This gives priority to pupils living nearest to the nursery class based on the distance from the home address to the school measured a straight line in accordance with the London Borough of Bexley’s policy on the measurement of home to school distance. Home will be taken as the address at which the child lives with the parent or registered guardian who is the main carer (the parent eligible to receive Child Benefit or/or Child Tax Credit) at the time of application.

  1. Children living outside the London Borough of Bexley

Applications from out-Borough residents will be considered after all applications from Bexley residents.

    • Oversubscription Category 4A
      This priority is given to children with a brother or sister who will be attending the school which hosts the nursery class of the parent’s preference at the time the child is due for admission to the nursery class.
      Brother or sister includes a full, half, step or adopted brother or sister living at the same address.
      A brother or sister in Year 6 at the time of application is not counted, as he or she will have left the school by the time the younger child starts.
    • Oversubscription Category 4B
      This gives priority to pupils living nearest to the nursery class based on the distance from the home address to the school measured a straight line in accordance with the London Borough of Bexley’s policy on the measurement of home to school distance. Home will be taken as the address at which the child lives with the parent or registered guardian who is the main carer (the parent eligible to receive Child Benefit or/or Child Tax Credit) at the time of application.

Tiebreaker

If it is necessary to use a tie-breaker to distinguish between two or more applications, a distance criterion will be used. Priority will be given to the applicants who live nearest to the Academy as measured in a straight-line using Ordnance Survey address point data. Distances are measured from a defined point within the child’s home to a defined point within the Academy as specified by Ordnance Survey. The same address point on the Academy site is used for everybody. In the event that two or more children in all other ways have equal eligibility for the last available place at the Academy, names will be issued a number and drawn randomly to decide which child should be given the place.

Operation of Waiting Lists

All children will be automatically added to the waiting lists of higher preference nursery classes than the one offered, unless parents ask the Local Authority to remove their child from a waiting list. Waiting lists will be kept in the sequence of the priorities. Waiting lists will also be prioritised according to the preference rank on the application form.

Where children from multiple births are not offered places, they will be on the waiting list in order. If one place becomes available and the children at the top of the waiting lists are twins/triplets etc., the parents will be contacted so they can decide whether or not to accept the one place available. It is not possible to offer two or more places if there is only one vacancy.

All waiting lists will be deleted at the end of the Summer Term.

Appeals

There is no right of appeal against decisions not to offer a nursery place.