Edna G.

Olds Academy
L.E.A.D. Academy Trust
Admissions Policy

Policy/Procedure management log

Document name Admissions Policy

Date approved Trust approval January 2024
Please add the date of AGB approval
Date issued February 2024
Date of review February 2025
Contents
1. Aims ................................................................................................................................................................. 2
2. Legislation and statutory requirements .......................................................................................................... 2
3. Definitions ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
4. How to apply.................................................................................................................................................... 3
5. Requests for admission outside the normal age group................................................................................... 3
6. Allocation of places.......................................................................................................................................... 4
7. In-year admissions ........................................................................................................................................... 5
8. Appeals ............................................................................................................................................................ 6
9. Monitoring arrangements ............................................................................................................................... 6

1. Aims
This policy aims to:
Explain how to apply for a place at Edna G. Olds Academy.
Set out the academy’s arrangements for allocating places to the pupils who apply
Explain how to appeal against a decision not to offer your child a place

2. Legislation and statutory requirements

This policy is based on the following statutory guidance from the Department for Education (DfE):
School Admissions Code 2021
School Admission Appeals Code

As an academy, the school is required by its funding agreement to comply with these codes, and with the
law relating to admissions as set out in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.
This policy complies with our funding agreement and articles of association.

3. Definitions
The normal admissions round is the period during which parents can apply for state-funded school places at
the school’s normal point of entry, using the common application form provided by their home local
authority.
Looked-after children are children who, at the time of making an application to a school, are:
In the care of a local authority, or
Being provided with accommodation by a local authority in exercise of its social services functions
Previously looked-after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they:

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 Were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 or the Adoption and Children Act 2002, or
Became subject to a child arrangements order, or
Became subject to a special guardianship order
This includes children who appear to have been in state care outside of England and have ceased to be in
state care due to being adopted.
A child reaches compulsory school age on the prescribed day following his or her fifth birthday (or on his or
her fifth birthday if it falls on a prescribed day). The prescribed days are 31 December, 31 March and 31
August.
Social and medical need are children who have a serious medical condition, which can be supported by
medical evidence, significant caring responsibilities, which can be supported by a social worker or where one
or both parents or the child has a disability that may make travel to another school more difficult, which can
be supported by medical evidence.
Siblings include step siblings, foster siblings, adopted siblings and other children living permanently at the
same address.

4. How to apply
For applications in the normal admissions round you should use the application form provided by
Nottingham City Council local authority. You can use this form to express your preference for 4
schools/academies, in rank order.
You will receive an offer for a school place directly from your local authority.
Please note, pupils already attending our nursery will not transfer automatically into the academy. A
separate application must be made for a place in reception.

5. Requests for admission outside the normal age group

Parents are entitled to request a place for their child outside of their normal age group.
Decisions on requests for admission outside the normal age group will be made on the basis of the
circumstances of each case and the best interests of the child concerned. In accordance with the School
Admissions Code, this will include taking account of:
Parents’ views
Information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development
Where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional
Whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group
Whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely
The headteacher’s views
Wherever possible, requests for admission outside a child’s normal age group will be processed as part of
the main admissions round. They will be considered on the basis of the admission arrangements laid out in
this policy, including the oversubscription criteria listed in section 6. Applications will not be treated as a
lower priority if parents have made a request for a child to be admitted outside the normal age group.

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Parents will always be informed of the reasons for any decision on the year group a child should be admitted
to. Parents do not have a right to appeal if they are offered a place at the academy but it is not in their
preferred age group.

6. Allocation of places

6.1 Admission number

The academy has an agreed admission number of 30 pupils for entry in Years Reception, 1, 2,3,4,5 & 6.

6.2 Oversubscription criteria

All children whose education, health and care (EHC) plans name the academy will be admitted before any
other places are allocated.
If the academy is not oversubscribed, all applicants will be offered a place.
In the event that the academy receives more applications than the number of places it has available, places
will be given to those children who meet any of the criteria set out below, in order listed, until all places are
filled.
1. Looked-after children and all previously looked-after children
2. Places will then be allocated to pupils who, at the closing date for applications, are resident within the
relevant catchment area, whose parents have requested a place at the relevant academy and who, at the
time of admission, will have a brother or sister attending the academy.
3. Places will then be allocated to other pupils who, at the closing date for applications, are resident within
the catchment area and whose parents have requested a place at the academy.
4. Places will then be allocated to pupils who are resident outside the relevant catchment area, whose
parents have requested a place at the academy and who, at the time of admission, will have a brother or
sister attending the relevant academy.
5. Places will then be allocated to other pupils who are resident outside the catchment area of the relevant
academy, whose parents have requested a place at the academy.

6.3 Tie break

In the case of 2 or more applications that cannot be separated by the oversubscription criteria outlined
above, the academy will use the distance between the academy and a child’s home as a tie breaker to decide
between applicants. Priority will be given to children who live closest to the academy.
Distance will be measured in a straight line from the child’s home address to the academy’s front gates on
Church Street. A child’s home address will be considered to be where he/she is resident for the majority of
nights in a normal academy week.
Where the distance between 2 children’s homes and the academy is the same, random allocation will be
used to decide between them. This process will be independently verified.
The decision will be made by random sealed envelopes with name of one child per envelope,

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6.4 Children below compulsory school age
Where children below compulsory school age are offered a place at the academy, they will be entitled to
attend the academy full-time in the September following their fourth birthday.
Parents may defer their child’s entry to the academy until later in the school year but not beyond the point
at which the child reaches compulsory school age, and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the
school year the offer was made for.
Where the parents wish, children may attend part-time until later in the school year but not beyond the
point at which they reach compulsory school age.

6.5 Challenging behaviour

We will not refuse to admit a child on behavioural grounds in the normal admissions round or at any point in
the normal year of entry, except for where paragraph 3 and 8 applies.
Where an in-year application is received for a year group that is not the normal point of entry and our
academy does not wish to admit the child because it has good reason to believe that the child may display
challenging behaviour, admission may be refused. In this case, we will use the Fair Access Protocol to refer
the child to the Fair Access team. We will not refuse admission on these grounds to looked-after children,
previously looked-after children and children with EHC plans listing the academy.

6.6 Fair Access Protocol

We participate in Nottingham City Councils’ Fair Access Protocol. This helps ensure that all children,
including those who are unplaced and vulnerable, or having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, get
access to a school place as quickly as possible.

7. In-year admissions
Parents can apply for a place for their child at any time outside the normal admissions round. As is the case
in the normal admissions round, all children whose EHC plans name the academy will be admitted.
Likewise, if there are spaces available in the year group you are applying for, your child will be offered a
place.
If there are no spaces available at the time of your application, your child’s name will be added to a waiting
list for the relevant year group. When a space becomes available, it will be filled by 1 of the pupils on the
waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria listed in section 6.3 of this policy. Priority will not
be given to children on the basis that they have been on the waiting list the longest.
Applications for in-year admissions should be applied for on Nottingham City Council’s website.
Parents will be notified of the outcome of their in-year application in writing within 15 school days.

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8. Appeals
If your child’s application for a place at the academy is unsuccessful, you will be informed why admission was
refused and given information about the process for hearing appeals. If you wish to appeal, you must set out
the grounds for your appeal in writing and send it to the following address:

You have 28 days from the date of the letter to lodge an appeal.

You can complete an appeal form online at www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/schooladmissions or contact School

Admissions Team for a form on Tel: 0115 841 5568 or email [email protected]

9. Monitoring arrangements
This policy will be reviewed and approved by the governing board every year.
Whenever changes to admission arrangements are proposed (except where the change is an increase to the
agreed admission number), the governing board will publicly consult on these changes. If nothing changes, it
will publicly consult on the academy’s admission arrangements at least once every 7 years.