Ex Corde Vita

Out of the Heart, Springs Life

Southfield Primary School

Admissions Statement
2023-2024
 Southfield Primary School Admissions Statement 2023-24

Introduction

This statement relates to admissions to Southfield Primary School. Please contact the
London Borough of Ealing for Reception to Year 6 admissions. Please see the statement
below for more detail regarding this.

Start primary school in September 2023

Children born between 1 September 2018 and 31 August 2019 are due to start the first year of
primary school (reception class) in September 2023.

Children currently in year 2 at an infant school are due to transfer to junior school in September
2023.

You must apply directly to the council that you are living in at the time of application, regardless of
the borough which the school is in. The deadline for applying for primary school is 15 January 2023.
Applications received after this date are late and will not be considered until after national offer day.

The national offer day for on time applicants is 17 April 2023. If you apply online, you will receive an
email in the evening on 17 April confirming the school that has been offered.

1. Before you apply

Please read the full details of the admissions process, applications timetable, and information on
Ealing schools in the primary school admissions prospectus.

2. How to apply

Apply online on the eadmissions website from 1 September 2022.

Download the step by step guide to applying online.

3. Post offer day guidance

Please read the primary school offer guidance for information on what to do after offer day on
17 April 2023.

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 ADMISSION CRITERIA FOR Southfield Primary School 2023 – 2024

PLEASE NOTE: This information has been taken from

Places in the normal (main) round are allocated according to the Pan London Co- ordinated
Admissions Scheme for admission to reception / junior school. In-Year places are allocated according
to the In-year coordinated scheme.

If there are fewer applicants than there are places available at the school everyone who applies will
be offered a place.

Children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan which names the school will be allocated a
place at the school.

If there are more applicants than there are places available after the admission of students with an
Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school, the following criteria will be applied to
determine who will be offered a place:

1. Children who are looked after or were previously looked after 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. Including
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 (See below for definitions of
children who are looked after or were previously looked after).

2. Siblings Children with a brother or sister who will be attending the main school (not the
nursery class) at the time of admission. Children with a brother or sister who will be attending
the main school (not the nursery class) on the same site (this refers only to Berrymede Infant
and Junior schools) at the time of admission (see below for definition of sibling).

3. Distance from home to school Places are allocated to applicants who live closest to the school
measured by straight-line. (See below for definition of distance).

Tie-breaker

If more applications are received in any one criterion than there are places available the tiebreaker of
distance will be used to determine priority. In cases where applicants live equidistant from the
preferred school the place(s) will be allocated using random allocation.

Children of multiple births

The local authority does not give priority under its admission criteria for twins, triplets or other
children from multiple births, however, the Local Authority will admit twins and children from
multiple births when one of the siblings is the thirtieth child admitted.

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Children of newly appointed staff

After the published offer date, where there is a demonstrable skills shortage for a vacant post
(independent evidence is required), the local authority will place the children of a new appointee for
the post in question, at the top of the waiting list for places at the school.

Children of UK Service Personnel (UK Armed Forces) and Crown Servants

Families of service personnel with a confirmed posting to the area, or crown servants returning from
overseas to live in the local authority are allocated a place in advance of the family arriving in the area
provided that the application is accompanied by an official letter that declares a relocation date to
the area and/or a unit postal address or quartering area address.

Deferred entry

Parents are entitled to a full-time school place in the September following their child’s fourth
birthday, however parents do not have to ensure their child receives full time education until the
start of the term following their fifth birthday.

Parents can defer the date their child is admitted to the school until later in the school year but not
beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age (the term after the child turns five)
and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year.

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.

Parents wishing to defer entry need to apply by the closing date and when an offer is made inform
the school that they want to defer entry or only attend part-time.

Delayed entry

Parents of a summer born child (born between 01 April and 31 August) may choose not to send that
child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are
admitted out of their normal age group to reception rather than year 1.

An application and written request must be made to the Head of Admissions by the closing date 15
January, providing all of the reasons for the request with any supporting documentation that the
parent wants taken into consideration.

The local authority must make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best
interests of the child concerned. This will include taking account of 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 previously been educated out 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. They must also take into account the views of the head teacher of the
school concerned.

If the parent’s case for delayed admission into reception is agreed the application for entry to
reception in 2021 will be withdrawn. A new application must be made the following year for entry to

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reception in 2021 and would be considered along with all the other applicants for admission in that
year. There would be no guarantee that a place would be offered in the preferred school.

If the parents request for delayed admission into reception is refused, the application for admission
to reception to the child’s normal age group will proceed. After the offer of a place has been made the
parent could then inform the school that they want to defer entry as outlined above.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

Parents may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group, for example, if the
child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health.

A written request must be made to the Head of Admissions at the time of application providing all of
the reasons for the request with supporting evidence i.e. school reports, medical reports,
professional recommendations or any other documents to be taken into consideration.

The local authority must make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the
best interests of the child concerned. This will include taking account of 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 previously been educated
out 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. They must also take into account the views of the head teacher
of the school concerned.

If the local authority agrees to a parent’s request for their child to be admitted out of their normal
age group the application will be considered alongside all other applications in the requested year
group. There would be no guarantee that a place would be offered in the preferred school.

Parents who are refused a place at a school for which they have applied have the right of appeal to
an independent admission appeal panel. They do not have a right of appeal if they have been offered
a place and it is not in the year group they would like. However, if the parents are dissatisfied with
the outcome of the request for delayed entry into reception or admission outside of their child’s
normal age group they would have the right to complain against the decision through the Council’s
complaints procedure for decisions made by council officers.

Waiting Lists

Children will automatically be placed on the waiting list for higher preferences than the school
offered, lower preferences are automatically withdrawn.

When vacancies arise, places will be allocated according to the oversubscription criteria. Vacancies
will be offered to the pupil with the highest priority on the waiting list. The position of a pupil on the
waiting list changes frequently and can move down as well as up if other pupils having higher priority
have their names added to the waiting list. Length of time on a waiting list does not give any priority.

The community schools in Ealing will hold waiting lists for all year groups for one term, after which
the waiting list will cease. If parents wish for their child to continue on the waiting list they will need
to advise the admissions team before the start of the following term.

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Definitions

Children who are looked after or were previously looked after - 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). 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 arrangements order or special guardianship
order immediately following having been looked after. Adopted children are those who were
adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see section 12 adoption orders) and children who were
adopted under the Adoption and Children’s Act 2002 (see section 46 adoption orders). Child
arrangements orders are defined in s.8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by s.12 of the Children
and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order
in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order. A special guardianship
order is defined by s. 14A of the Children Act 1989 as an order appointing one or more individuals to
be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians). A child is regarded as having been in state care in
a place outside of England if they were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation
or any other provider of care whose sole purpose is to benefit society.

Sibling - The words brother and sister refer to all blood, half, foster, step and adoptive brothers and
sisters (not cousins) who live at the same home and in the same family unit as the child on a
permanent basis or for the majority of time in any calendar year. A sibling relationship does not apply
when the older child(ren) will leave before the younger one starts.

Distance - The distance from home to school is measured by straight-line, from a point in the
property to a point in the school determined by the grid references for the centre of the school’s
postcode. The measuring system is an integral part of the admission software produced by Synergy.
It uses Ordnance Survey maps and the LLPG (Local Land Property Gazetteer) and is accurate to 2
metres

Home address - This must be the permanent home address where both parent and child are living on
the closing date of 15 January for admission in the normal round or on the dateat which an in-year
offer is made. Temporary addresses used solely or mainly to obtain a place at a school (whilst still
owning a property elsewhere) are not regarded as the permanent home address and will not be
accepted. If a place is obtained by that means, theplace will be withdrawn. Ealing council will check
internal council databases in order to verify the address. Where it is not possible to verify an address
or if there has been a recentchange of address proof will be required.

Where the parents have shared responsibility and the child is residing with one parent for the
majority of the time or on a permanent basis, the address of this parent will be used for the purposes
of the application.

Where parents have shared responsibility and the child lives with each parent for half of the calendar
year, the parents must come to an agreement as to whose address will be used for the application.
This address will be used to process the child’s application and can only be changed after the
beginning of the academic year unless the address of the chosen parent changes during the
admissions process. Proof of residency may be required.

In all other cases of personal or family arrangements the address of the parent(s) will be taken as the
main residence unless there is irrefutable evidence that the child lives elsewhere either full-time or
for most of the year with an adult under arrangements which have been endorsed by a court.
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Ealing Council takes very seriously any attempt to obtain a school place by deception. If a school
place is obtained using a false or misleading address prior to a child starting at the school this place
will be withdrawn. Serious consideration is also given to withdrawing the offer, even after the
child has started school. In deciding whether to withdraw the place, the length of time that the
child has been at the school will be taken into account.

REVIEW OF PROCEDURE

Governing Body Review Date To be Reviewed Author