In This Section
Admissions
Application process for places in Reception
Parents wishing to apply for a Reception place at this school for September 2024 will need to apply via their local authority by completing the Local Authority’s Common Applications Form to apply for places at up to 2 other primary/infant schools.
More information about this, and details of how to apply for places at the school, can be obtained by contacting Nicholas Hawksmoor Primary School admissions team on:
Telephone - 01327 351466
Email - enquiries@nhps.thlt.academy
Website – www.nicholashawksmooracademy.com
In – Year Application Process
If you are moving into the area or wish to change schools during the school year you will need to make an application for an in-year place. This type of application should be made as soon as possible directly to the school.
All in-year applications will be considered, depending on the availability of places and prioritised according to the oversubscription criteria. If places are oversubscribed, applications can be placed on a waiting list, if requested.
Please contact the school directly for an admission form for an in-year application.
Oversubscription Criteria
When the academy is oversubscribed, after the admission of pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan naming the school, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in priority order:
- 1. Looked after children and children who were previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to adoption, a child arrangements order, or special guardianship order.
- 2. Children who will have a brother or sister continuing at the school at the time of admission.
- 3. Children of staff.
- 4. Children who live closer to Nicholas Hawksmoor Primary School than any other school.
- 5. Children who are eligible for Pupil Premium and/or Service Premium.
- 6. Other children.
Tie-break
Where it is necessary to choose between two or more applicants within criterion 2-6 for a final place, the tiebreaker will be distance, with the child who resides the nearest to Nicholas Hawksmoor Primary School being given the place. See below for further details of the distance criterion. Where there is more than one applicant at the relevant distance, then the tiebreaker will be random allocation. The random allocation process will be independently supervised. See below for information on Random Allocation.
Deferred Entry for Infants
Children are admitted in the September following their 4th birthday. Parents offered a place in Reception for their child have a right to defer the date their child is admitted, or to take the place up part-time, until the child reaches compulsory school age. Places cannot be deferred beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which the offer was made.
Children reach compulsory school age on the prescribed day following their 5th birthday (or on their 5th birthday if it falls on a prescribed day). The prescribed days are 31 August, 31 December and 31 March.
Admission of children outside their normal age group
Parents may request that their child is admitted outside their normal age group. When such a request is made, the school will make a decision on the basis of the circumstances of the case and in the best interests of the child concerned, taking into account the views of the Headteacher and any supporting evidence provided by the parent.
The process for requesting such an admission is as follows:
All requests must be submitted in writing to the Head of School, including in full your grounds for the request. A decision will be based on the individual circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This includes taking into account the parent’s 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 been previously educated outside of their normal age group and whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely.
Waiting Lists
The school will operate a waiting list for each year group, including the Reception year group after entry in September until 30th June in the academic year. Where in any year the school receives more applications for places than there are places available, a waiting list will be in operation. This will be maintained by the school and it will be open to any parent to ask for his or her child’s name to be placed on the waiting list, following an unsuccessful application.
Children’s position on the waiting list will be determined solely in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. Where places become vacant, they will be allocated to children on the waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. The waiting list will be re-ordered in accordance with the oversubscription criteria whenever anyone is added to or leaves the waiting list.
Appeals
All applicants refused a place have a right of appeal to an independent appeal panel constituted and operated in accordance with the School Admission Appeals Code. The Academy uses the services of the Local Authority Appeals Team to coordinate its appeal process.
Appellants should go to West Northants County Council’s website for information about the appeals process. For applications made in the normal admissions round appeals will be heard within 40 school days of the deadline for lodging appeals. For applications for in year admissions, appeals will be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.
Random Allocation
If in criteria 2-6 above a tie-break is necessary to determine which child is admitted, random allocation undertaken by an independent body will be used as a tiebreak to decide who has highest priority for admission if the distance between a child’s home and the academy is equidistant in any two or more cases.
Random allocation will not be applied to multiple birth siblings (twins and triplets etc.) from the same family tied for the final place. We will admit them all, as permitted by the infant class size rules and exceed our PAN.
Distance Criterion
If in criteria 2-6 above a tie-break is necessary to determine which child is admitted, the child living closest to the school will be given priority for admission. The distance used in a ‘tiebreaker’ for any oversubscribed criterion will be a straight line distance from the address point of the school to the address point of the applicant’s address using a geographical information system.
Definitions
- A ‘looked after child’ 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).
- The definition of a brother or sister (sometimes referred to as a ‘sibling’):
- ‘Sibling’ means a natural brother or sister, a half brother or sister, a legally adopted brother or sister or half-brother or sister, a stepbrother or sister or other child living in the same household as part of the same family who, in any of these cases, will be living at the same address at the date of their application for a place. A brother or sister must be living at the same address when the application is made.
- Children of staff who are employed at Nicholas Hawksmoor Primary School. The school may give priority in their oversubscription criteria to children of staff recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
- The ‘home address’ / ’the child’s place of residence’ is the address of the parent or legal guardian with whom the child spends the majority of the time during the school week. Where a child lives with one of their separated parents for different parts of the week, we will consider the child’s home address to be where the child sleeps for most of the school week (e.g. Sunday night – Thursday night). If the child spends equal amounts of time at two addresses, the parents must agree which address they wish to be the child’s main address before we can process the application. Parents/legal guardians may be asked to produce evidence of residency/home address at any time during the admissions process.
- Proof of eligibility for Pupil Premium and/or Service Premium will be required for places allocated under this criteria. Children given priority under this criterion fall into the following categories:
Pupil Premium Admission Priority
Those eligible for Pupil Premium admission priority are children who:
- Are currently registered as eligible for free school meals.
- Who have been registered as eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years.
Children for whom their parents cannot provide evidence that their child is currently registered for free school meals, but where the child or its parents receive any of the following:
- Universal Credit
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
- An income related employment and support allowance.
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
- Child Tax Credit (provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit) and have an annual income limit that, from 6th April 2-11, does not exceed £16,190 (as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs).
- Where a parent is entitled to the Working Tax Credit run-on (the payment someone received for a further four weeks after they stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit).
- The Guarantee element of State Pension Credit.
Service Premium Admission Priority
Children are eligible if:
- One of their parent(s) are serving in the regular UK armed forces (including pupils with a parent who is on full commitment as part of the full time reserve service).
- They have been registered as a ‘service child’ on the January school census at any point since 2016.
- One of their parents died whilst serving in the UK armed forces and the child is in receipt of a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) and the War Pensions Scheme (WPS).
Parents will be required to provide evidence of eligibility with their application.