Schools with nursery classes

37 infant and primary schools in Bexley have nursery classes for children aged three and four years old.

You can apply for most nursery classes on the London Borough of Bexley’s online or paper application form, but some Voluntary Aided (faith) Schools and Academies have their own separate admission process. Please see Voluntary Aided Schools and Academies for details of these schools and how to apply.

Nursery class sessions

Nursery classes are part-time for 12 and a half to 15 hours each week during the school term time.

Usually, children attend either a morning or afternoon session of 2 and a half or 3 hours, but some schools offer full days and flexible combinations of sessions.

Where a school offers both morning and afternoon sessions, the school will decide how to allocate sessions. Sessions may be allocated randomly, and some schools may allow parents to express a preference. No guarantee is made of the session time when a place is offered. Children from multiple births will be offered the same session unless it is school policy to separate them.

Nursery class places are not available for fewer than the number of sessions available to a child each week. If your child is offered a nursery class place, it is on the understanding that he/she will attend all the sessions available. If the full entitlement of 15 hours is not available in a single nursery class, you may take up the remainder of the entitlement elsewhere, but you cannot take fewer than the number of hours a week offered in a Bexley school nursery class.

If a nursery session does not have enough applications to make it educationally or financially viable, the session may be withdrawn.

Start dates

If your child was born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021, you can apply for a place in a nursery class for your child to start during the school year 2024/2025. Children normally attend the nursery class for two or three terms before moving into primary school. Usually, they will be between 3 and a half and 4 years old when they start in the nursery class.

The Council’s policy is that children born between 1 September 2020 and 28 February 2021 will start a nursery class in September 2024, and children born between 1 March 2021 and 31 August 2021 will start in January 2025. In practice, many schools invite all children to start in September. The school where your child is allocated a place will let you know when your child can start.

There may not be enough places for all nursery children to start in September, for example, where parents of younger children opt to delay their start in Reception until January or where more children born between September and February have been allocated a place than the number of places available in September. In this case, places will normally be allocated according to age, in order of date of birth from oldest to youngest.

How and where to apply

If you live in the borough of Bexley, you can apply online for most nursery classes from 16 January 2024.

Apply online

Paper application forms will be available on request for Bexley residents who cannot apply online, and for families living outside the Bexley borough, by emailing schooladmissions@bexley.gov.uk from 16 January 2024. Residents of other boroughs must complete a paper application form, as the online system is only open to Bexley residents.

Completed paper application forms should be returned to the school with the nursery class that you would prefer your child to attend, or by post or in person to the School Admissions Team, Civic Offices, 2 Watling Street, Bexleyheath DA6 7AT.

When you apply you must include evidence of your address and your child’s date of birth. You can scan and upload copies online, take the originals to your local primary school for checking, or send photocopies to the School Admissions Team either attached to your application form or clearly marked with your child’s name and online reference number.

We need this information to verify your child’s home address and the parent who is responsible for the child.

You must provide a copy of your Council Tax bill or commercial tenancy agreement as evidence of address and the child’s birth certificate, passport or medical card as evidence of date of birth. Utility bills, driving licences and bank/building society statements are not acceptable as proof of address. If you are living with a friend or relative, and not named on the Council Tax account, you must provide a copy of your Child Benefit statement or Tax Credits letter.

You must apply direct to the school for places at:

• Days Lane Primary School
• Haberdashers’ Crayford Temple Grove
• Haberdashers’ Slade Green Temple Grove
• Holy Trinity CE Primary School
• Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School
• Sherwood Park Primary School
• St Fidelis Catholic Primary School
• St Michael’s East Wickham CE Primary School

If you are applying for a faith school, you must also complete a Supplementary Information Form and return it directly to the school. Supplementary Information Forms can be obtained from the school.

You can apply for all other nursery classes online. Paper application forms will only be available to those who are unable to apply online.

Preferences

You can list up to three preferences for nursery classes on the Council’s application form. The lowest preferences will not be considered if you list more than three preferences.

All first-preference applications for a nursery class will be considered before second and third-preference applications, and second-preference applications will be considered before third preferences. This allocation process is not repeated for reception applications.

Completing the form

Parents should only complete one online or paper application form. If more than one application is received, the Council will take the application with the latest date as a valid one and withdraw any earlier applications. If two or more applications are completed on the same day, the Council reserves the right to decide which application to accept and which one to disqualify.

When signing the application form, parents are asked to confirm they have received, read and understood the information provided on these pages. You are also signing to confirm the information you have given on the form is accurate and complete, and that you understand if it is not, the Council has the right to withhold or withdraw the offer of a place.

Applications must be made by the child’s parent or the person with parental responsibility. If you are not the parent of the child on the application form, you must include evidence of parental responsibility i.e. a Court Order, a solicitor’s letter, or a letter from the parent named on the child’s birth certificate giving you permission to care for their child. If you are not a blood relative, you must register with the Local Authority as a private foster carer. The School Admissions Team will refer applications to the Council’s Social Care Team if it has concerns about who a child is living with. Make sure that you answer all the questions on the form, and include a contact telephone number and email address.

Closing date

The closing date for all applications is Saturday 6 April 2024. The online site will be open until 11.59pm on 6 April 2024.

All applications made during the application period are treated in the same way in accordance with the procedure described in the following sections.

Applications are not processed on a first-come, first-served basis.

It is important not to apply late because applications made after the closing date will be considered only after places have been allocated to children whose parents applied on time. Nursery class places are in considerable demand, and most schools will not have vacancies once all on-time applications have been processed.

How your application is processed

The applications for each nursery class are considered in turn. If there are fewer applications than the number of places available, then it will be possible to offer a place to every applicant for that nursery class. If more applications are received for a nursery class than the number of vacancies, places will be allocated according to the criteria set out in How admission is decided (below).

Home address

Most applications will be decided by home-to-school distance. We will use the home address stated on your application form and that you provide evidence of. If you move after you submit your application, but before the closing date of 6 April 2024, you must notify the School Admissions Team.

The new address will be used if you provide evidence of the closing Council tax account from your previous address and the opening account for your new address, but places offered will be withdrawn if it later becomes known that you were not living at the address given on your application form on 6 April 2024. Address changes after 6 April 2024 will not be taken into account until initial offers of places have been made on 16 May 2024.

The home address must be the address where the child lives permanently with the parent who is the main carer. This is normally the parent in receipt of Child Benefit.

The address you supplied on your form may be checked with the Council Tax department and any other agencies we feel appropriate. If it is found to be incorrect, your application may be withdrawn.
When a nursery class place is offered, the school will ask to see evidence of address before the child is admitted. A place may be withdrawn if it transpires that a child is not living at the address given on the application form, or that the address given is not the child’s permanent place of residence with the parent in receipt of Child Benefit.

How admission is decided

The London Borough of Bexley will always try to meet your wishes by allocating a place for your child at the nursery class you named as your first preference.

However, some nursery classes are likely to be oversubscribed - that is, they have more applications than places available. When this happens, places at community and voluntary controlled schools and most Academies will be offered to children who meet the criteria in the sequence of the oversubscription categories set out below. A small number of Academies have slightly different criteria.

Statements of special educational needs

Children with a statement of special educational needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan naming a school will be admitted to that school’s nursery class and will be given precedence for admission to that school.

Policy for the measurement of home-to-school distance

All home-to-school distances will be calculated by the London Borough of Bexley’s computerised pupil database to ensure consistency.

Home-to-school distances will be measured using the intersection of the geographical grid co-ordinates (known as eastings and northings) supplied by the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), or equivalent database, for the home address and for the nearest school entrance approved by the Governors as an official entrance.

Home-to-school distances will be measured by radial distance (straight line) from the intersection of the NLPG coordinates of the home address to the nearest official school entrance.

This method applies to home-to-school distance measurements for applications for community and voluntary controlled schools, and for all other schools where the admission authority commissions the London Borough of Bexley to measure distances on its behalf.

Notification of decisions

If you apply online, you will receive an email during the evening of Thursday 16 May 2024, and you will be able to view the outcome of your application online and accept the offer online. If you are offered your first preference school, you will not receive a separate letter, and the offer will be accepted automatically.

A letter will be posted by first-class post to all other applicants on 16 May 2024.

If offered a school other than your first preference, you will be asked to accept or decline the offer by 30 May 2024 by returning a form to the school or the Council, or online if the original application was made online.

Faith schools and some Academies will notify you separately if they can offer a place. You may receive more than one offer if you have applied directly to schools as well as to the London Borough of Bexley.

You can only accept one place.

You must accept or decline the offer of a place by 30 May 2024 so that unwanted nursery places can be reallocated. If you do not reply by 30 May 2024, the offer may be withdrawn.

If it is not possible to offer a place at any of the nursery classes you list as your preferences, we can let you know in June 2024 which nurseries still have vacancies that you can apply for. Your child will also be placed on the waiting list for your preferred nursery classes.

Waiting lists

All children will automatically be added to the waiting lists of higher preference nursery classes than the one offered unless parents ask us 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 list 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.

Post offer process

Unsuccessful applicants will automatically be added to the waiting list for their preferred schools, following the oversubscription criteria for that school. At this stage, consideration will be given to late applicants alongside those that were unsuccessful in the initial round of admissions.

Appeals

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

Toilet training

Schools are not able to toilet-train pupils. Therefore unless your child has a disability, as defined under the Disability Discrimination Act, it is expected that you will have trained your child to be clean and dry before they start in a nursery class.

Admission to Primary School

Whether or not your child is accepted for a nursery class place, you will need to apply separately for a place in the Reception class of a primary school. There is no automatic right of transfer from the nursery class to the Reception class in the same school, and attending a nursery class does not give any priority for admission to Reception at the same school.

You can apply for a Reception place at a different primary school to one where your child attends the nursery.

Children eligible for nursery classes in 2024/25 would normally start primary school in September 2025.

The application period for admission to Reception will be from 1 September 2024 to 15 January 2025. Information about applying for a Reception place will be available online from 1 September 2024.

Data Protection Act 1998

Any information provided by parents when applying for a nursery class or school place will be entered on a computerised database. The information is protected by the Data Protection Act 1998, which ensures the information can only be used for defined purposes and can only be passed to specific people.
The defined purposes are:

1. administering the admissions process as set out on this page, and matters arising from that process
2. preventing any fraud/criminal offence or to ensure the safety of any child

The people who may receive the information are:

1. the current school (if any)
2. the schools listed on the application form
3. the school to which the pupil is to be admitted
4. other admission authorities, to ensure that parents do not receive more than one offer of a primary or secondary school place
5. any organisation legitimately investigating allegations of fraud, criminal offences or child protection
    

Important points

• in 2023, the most popular nursery classes were heavily oversubscribed, and a number of children could not be offered a place at one of their preferred schools. Please remember that there are many high-quality private, voluntary and independent providers in the borough
• if your child is offered a place in a nursery class, he or she will have no special priority for a Reception place in the same school. It is sometimes possible to offer nursery places to children living quite far from a school when they would not live close enough to be offered a Reception place. Please bear this in mind when deciding which nursery and Reception classes to apply for
• all first preference applications for a nursery class will be considered before second and third-preference applications, and second-preference applications will be considered before third preferences. Waiting lists will also be prioritised according to the preference rank on the application form
• children who do not live in Bexley will only be considered for nursery places when all applications from Bexley children, regardless of preference rank, have been dealt with. This applies even if an out-of-borough child has a brother or sister already attending the same primary school
• for community and voluntary controlled schools and academies, you stand more chance of being offered a place if you apply for the schools closest to your home address
• make sure you submit your application before the closing date of 6 April 2024. If your application is late, it will not be considered until all on-time applications have been dealt with

Changes to the school admissions code - looked after children and all previously looked after children

Changes to the School Admissions Code have come into force from 1 September 2021 and include changes to the oversubscription criteria. The new Code requires that the highest priority is given 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 state care as a result of being adopted.

These changes apply to all schools and the ‘looked after children’ oversubscription criteria from 1 September 2021 for all schools within this admission information will now incorporate this change. Visit Born Ready, School Ready, Bexley Ready to find out more.

'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’.