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Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools

If your child was not offered a place at a Community and Voluntary Controlled School, you can find details on how to appeal.

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How admission is decided and oversubscription criteria for community and voluntary controlled schools

Each of your preferences is considered separately by the admission authority for the school. This is the London Borough of Bexley for community and voluntary controlled schools and the Governors of the school for voluntary aided and free schools and Academies. The application is considered against the school’s oversubscription criteria.

If your child would qualify to be offered more than one of your preferences, the London Borough of Bexley will offer the highest of your preferences for which your child qualifies.

The oversubscription criteria that are used for community and voluntary controlled schools are set out below. The oversubscription criteria for the voluntary aided schools, Academies and free schools in Bexley can be viewed on the individual school's websites.

If you wish to request a particular oversubscription priority, you must do so at the time of application. You must provide any supporting evidence for medical and social priorities with your application. Later requests will only be considered if the circumstances change after the closing date for applications.

No priority is given to children already attending the nursery class of a school or for existing or future childcare arrangements.

Admission arrangements for Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools in Bexley

Reception classes

  1. Children born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021 will be admitted in September 2025.
  2. Admission numbers for schools are given below.
  3. Children with a statement of special educational need or an Education, Health and Care Plan naming a school will be admitted to that school as a result of that process and will be given precedence for admission.
  4. In the event of there being more applications than places, the following oversubscription criteria will be used:

Priority 1

Priority is given to children in public care (looked after children) and children previously looked after immediately before being adopted or subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order. This includes children who were adopted (or subject to child arrangements orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after, as well as 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. To qualify for this priority, children must fall within the definition of ‘looked after’ as in section 22 (1) of the Children Act 1989 and Paragraph 1.7 of the 2021 School Admissions Code.

Priority 2

This is given to children with a medical condition such that it is essential, on medical grounds, for the child to attend the preferred school. Equally, this priority will apply where either the disability or medical condition of a parent or sibling would cause significant hardship if the child did not attend the preferred school. The London Borough of Bexley’s own medical adviser may be asked for a professional opinion on the case presented. Priority will normally only be given if the school applied for is the closest school to the home address unless the medical adviser considers that an alternative school is essential for medical reasons.

Requests for this priority must be made with supporting evidence at the time of application. Later requests will be considered only if the medical condition occurs after the closing date for applications. Medical conditions consequential from a failure to obtain the preferred school, for example, emotional distress (whether or not leading to a recognised medical condition), do not fall within this priority.

Priority 3

This is given to children with a brother or sister who will be attending the school of parental preference at the time the child is due for admission to that school. This will also be given to children due for admission to the infant school whose brother or sister will be attending the associated junior school at the time of admission or vice versa.

This priority does not include brothers or sisters due to transfer to secondary school in the next academic year. For this priority, brother or sister includes a full, step, half or adopted brother or sister living at the same address.

Where in an allocation of places, children who are twins, triplets or from other multiple births would qualify for fewer places than the number of children, all will be treated as siblings and therefore accorded the sibling priority. That means that in these circumstances only, twins, triplets or children from other multiple births will be given priority over all other children who qualify to be admitted on distance.

Priority 4

Priority will be awarded to children with a parent employed at the preferred LA-maintained school where;

a) 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,

and/or

b) the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

Priority 5

This gives priority to children living nearest to the school based on the distance from the home address to the nearest school entrance measured as a straight line in accordance with the London Borough of Bexley’s policy on the measurement of home-to-school distance (please see Applying for a primary school place for a full description). 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 and/or Child Tax Credit) at the time of application.

Where one or more applicants live exactly the same distance from the school applied for and all would qualify for the last available place, the allocation of the last place will be made by drawing lots. The first child drawn will be offered the place, and the remaining children placed on the waiting list in the order of the draw.
 

Nursery pupils

A child who attends the nursery class attached to a school is given no priority over children who did not attend the nursery.

Infant/junior transfer

  1. Children born between 1 September 2017 and 31 August 2018 will be admitted from September 2025.
    Applications will only be accepted from children in Year 2 of an infant-only school. All other applicants will be treated as in-year applicants.
  2. Admission numbers for junior schools at Year 3 are shown in Primary schools in Bexley.
  3. Children with a statement of special educational needs or Education and Health Care Plan naming a school will be admitted to that school as a result of that process and will be given precedence for admission.
  4. In the event of there being more applications than places the following oversubscription criteria will be used:
    Priority A: Children in public care (looked after children) and children previously looked after immediately before being adopted or subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order. To qualify for this priority, children must fall within the definition of ‘looked after’ as in section 22 (1) of the Children Act 1989
    Priority B: Pupils attending the associated infant only school. If the junior school is oversubscribed from applications from parents of pupils in the associated infant school, allocations will be made according to priorities 1 to 5 above.
    Priority C: All other applicants, with allocations made according to priorities 1 to 5 above.

For all primary admissions

Any Bexley resident applicants not offered a place at any of their preferred schools, will be allocated a place at a school that is either nearest to the home address or within a reasonable travelling distance which has a vacancy.

Parents may request that their child be included on the waiting lists for higher preference schools than the one allocated. These will be kept in the sequence of the oversubscription criteria. Waiting lists for junior school places will be merged with in-year waiting lists from 1 May 2025. Waiting lists for reception places will be merged with in year waiting lists from 1 September 2025.

Where parents are not offered a place at the school of their preference, they will also be informed of their statutory right of appeal to an independent School Appeals Panel and sent further information on the appeal process on request.