2024 admission arrangements

• Infant and primary school admissions
• Oversubscription criteria
• Junior school admissions
• Home address
• Catchment areas
• Waiting lists
• Delayed entry of summer born children
• Nursery places
• In-year applications
• Right of appeal
• Trafford community / voluntary controlled primary, infant, junior schools

Infant and primary school admissions

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. 

In Trafford, all children may commence primary education earlier than the legal admission date, if parents so wish, through a single intake in September of children who will become 5 between 1 September and 31 August in the admission year. 

Parents can defer their child’s entry until later in the school year.  In this instance, the place will be held for the child and is not available to be offered to another child. However, parents cannot defer the child’s entry beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which it was made. 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. 

In addition, the parents of a summer born child may submit a request for their child’s entry to be delayed until the September following the child’s fifth birthday, so that the child is admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1.  Alternatively, parents can choose to provide efficient full-time education otherwise than at school. 

Applications for children born between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020 can be submitted from the beginning of the 2023 autumn term. The closing date for applications is 15 January 2024.

Decisions regarding the allocation of places will be emailed to parents on 16 April 2024. Applications received after the closing deadline, 15 January 2024, will only be considered after all other applications received on time have been processed.

Oversubscription criteria

Quite often, there are not enough places at a school to satisfy every parent who wants to send their child there. This is what is meant when a school is oversubscribed. When schools are oversubscribed the admissions authority has to adopt criteria for deciding which children are to be offered the available places.

All children whose Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan names a school, must be admitted to that school.

Trafford is the Admission Authority for all community and voluntary controlled schools in Trafford (listed below).

Where the number of applications for a Trafford community or voluntary controlled school exceeds the number of places available at the relevant school, the following over-subscription criteria will apply:

1. Looked after children and children who were previously looked after.
   A looked after child is a child who is in the care of a local authority in England, or is being provided with accommodation by a local authority in England in the exercise of their social services functions. 
   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)*  This includes children who have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.  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.
   *Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).
2. Children who live in the catchment area of the requested school, who will have a sibling attending the requested primary, infant or partner junior school at the time of the applicant's proposed admission (This includes half/step/adopted/foster brothers or sisters, and any other children, who are living at the same address as part of the same family unit).
3. Children who live in the catchment area of the requested school.
4. Children, who live outside the catchment area of the requested school, with a sibling attending the requested primary, infant or partner junior school at the time of the applicant's proposed admission (This includes half/step/adopted/foster brothers or sisters, and any other children, who are living at the same address as part of the same family unit).
5. Children who live nearest to the requested school, calculated in a direct straight line from the child's permanent place of residence to the school.

The distance from the home address will be calculated from the seed point of the property, which is defined by co-ordinates held in Trafford’s Local Land and Property Gazetteer (BS7666), and are available for each individual property on request from Trafford’s School Admission Team. For applicants resident outside Trafford, the seed point data will be provided by the Home Authority. Royal Mail Postal Address Information may be used in some instances. The co-ordinates used for each school are held in Trafford’s School Admissions and Transfer system and are listed in the Directory of Primary Schools.

In the case of a child living in a block of flats, co-ordinates will be obtained in the same way.

If there are more applicants than can be accommodated at a school in criteria 1 to 5, places will be offered to those children in each criterion, whose place of residence is nearest to the school, as defined in criterion 5.

Where two or more applications cannot be otherwise separated, the final place will be determined through a random draw, conducted and scrutinised by persons independent from the School, and from the Children's Services Directorate.

Final tie-break arrangements

Each random allocation event only holds for the allocation of the currently available school place. On any waiting list, the remaining applicants remain equally ranked and any further place is offered as the result of a further random exercise.

The draw

The draw will be made by a person independent of the relevant school and from the Children's Services Directorate.

The draw will be scrutinised by another person independent from the relevant school, and from the Children's Services Directorate.

The application reference number for each pupil to be included in the draw will be recorded in Part 1 of the ‘Random Draw Record Sheet’.

Each application reference number will be recorded on a separate sheet and sealed into an envelope.

The envelopes will be shuffled by the person designated to make the draw and an envelope will be chosen.

The person designated to make the draw will open the chosen envelope and record the name in Part 2 of the ‘Random Draw Record Sheet’

This process will be repeated until all the available places are allocated.

The person designated to make the draw and the Independent Scrutineer will sign the declarations in Part 3 of the ‘Random Draw Record Sheet’ to confirm that the process has been carried out in accordance with this procedure.

Junior school admissions

Trafford community junior schools will admit into year 3 all pupils from year 2 of their partner Infant school whose parents so wish, regardless of their published admission number. Other pupils will be admitted provided that the prospective year 3 age group has not reached the school’s published admission number.

Should the school receive more applications from “non partner infant school” pupils than can be accommodated, places will be offered in accordance with the published oversubscription criteria.

Home address

The criteria used by Trafford in determining admissions to Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools refer, in every instance, to the child's home address. This means the address where the child lives most of the time, not the address of any child-carer, grandparent or other relative. 

It is always assumed that the correct factual information will be provided when an application for a school place is submitted. However, proof of the child’s residency may be requested so that the application can be considered correctly alongside other applicants.

The documentation required is not prescribed and applicants can submit whatever evidence is available, that is sufficient to demonstrate the claim. 

In the case of parents who are separated the application will also be considered from the address where the child lives, even though the child may regularly spend some time at another address.

Where it is claimed that the child’s residency is shared equally between two addresses parents may decide which address will be used for the purpose of the application.

Applications for children who move into or within Trafford by the 15 January 2024, who have submitted an on time application, will be considered in light of the new address details.  Applications for children who move after the 15 January 2024 will be considered from the new address in the review of allocation decisions in May 2024, following the same criteria as used for initial allocations.

The Admissions Team must be informed immediately of a change of address, or of an intention to change address, at any time during the transfer process, as this may change a child's priority for a particular school.  Failure to advise a proposed change of address may be considered as a misleading application.

Trafford takes very seriously any attempt to gain an unfair advantage in the admissions process by giving false information and will make every effort to ensure that sufficient documentary evidence is provided to support a claim. If a place is offered at a school and then it is discovered that the offer was made on the basis of fraudulent or misleading information (for example, a false claim to be living at an address) the place will be withdrawn and offered to the next eligible child.  A place may also be withdrawn even after a child has started school.

Catchment areas

All Trafford Community/Voluntary Controlled Infant and Primary Schools have a catchment area. Property information on catchment areas is held in Trafford’s Local Land and Property Gazetteer which complies with BS7666. A catchment area lookup facility and full street lists for each catchment area are available on Trafford’s School Admissions page.

A number of community schools share an area with an adjacent community school and children who live in such a "shared" area are considered, for admissions purposes, to live within the catchment area for both schools.

Waiting lists

Admission authorities must maintain a clear, fair and objective waiting list for at least the first term of the academic year of admission. Waiting lists for Trafford’s community and voluntary controlled schools are run throughout the year for every year group. Each added child will require the list to be ranked again in line with the published oversubscription criteria.

Delayed entry of summer born children

In a very few circumstances, a parent may feel that their summer born child is not ready to begin school before their fifth birthday. In this case, where a child is born between 1 April and 31 August a parent can request that their child’s admission to school is delayed, so that the child is admitted into the reception class, out of their normal age group, at the point at which other children in their age range are beginning Year 1.

1. Request process

   Parents will be required to approach all the preferred schools to discuss their child’s circumstances by 15 January 2024. Each school will complete a Delayed Entry Request Form with the parent. Each school will consider the information provided and complete the Decision Outcome Section of the Delayed Entry Request Form.

2. Decision making process

   A decision panel will be constituted. The Panel will include at least 3 headteachers; this will be the headteachers from all the preferred schools and any other nominated headteachers and 2 officers from Trafford’s primary team. The Panel will consider the decision outcomes from the relevant schools and a final decision will be agreed. All schools participating in the scheme will abide by the final decision of the Panel.

3. Notification of decision

   Parents will be advised of the outcome of their request by 16 April 2024. Where the request is agreed, the application for the normal age group will be withdrawn and no place will be offered.

   If the request is refused, the parent will receive the offer of a school place for admission to the normal age group on 16 April 2024. The parent must decide whether to accept the offered place, and may choose to defer admission until later in the reception year, or to refuse it and make an in year application for admission to year one in the September following the child’s fifth birthday.

4. Application/ allocation process

   Where a request is agreed, this is an agreement in principle and does not reserve a place or guarantee that the child will be allocated a place at a preferred school in the next admission round. Therefore, where a parent’s request is agreed, they must make a new application as part of the main admissions round the following year. That application will be considered, alongside all the other applications received for admission that year, according to the published oversubscription criteria. Where a place cannot be allocated at any of the preferred schools, a place will be allocated at the nearest participating school with a vacancy. Again, the parent must decide whether to accept the offered place, and may choose to make an in year application for admission to year one at a preferred school.

   Parents who are refused a place at a school for admission to the normal age group have the right of appeal to an independent 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, they may make a complaint. In the case of schools participating in the Trafford scheme they should complain through Trafford’s complaints procedure. For all other schools or academies, parents should make a complaint under the school’s complaints procedure.

   Although it is the case that one admission authority cannot be required to honour a decision made by another admission authority, all participating schools agree to abide by the decision of the Panel and will consider the delayed entry application, if required, in accordance with the published oversubscription criteria, for admission in the next admission round.

Nursery places

Applications for admission to a nursery class should be made to the headteacher of the school who decides on admissions, in accordance with the policy adopted by the governing body of the school. Attendance at a nursery class attached to a community/ voluntary controlled school does not give a child any additional priority when applying for a place in the reception class of the school.

In-year applications

Applications received outside the normal admissions round “In-year”, will be determined by the same oversubscription criteria.

Children in public care, who require admission to a school outside the normal admissions round, will normally be offered a place at the school serving the address at which the pupil is living, subject to the requirements of infant class regulations. Applications will normally be processed within ten school days of the application.

In-year applications for admission outside the 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.  These applications will be considered on the basis of the circumstances of each case and determined in the best interests of the child concerned.

Right of appeal

In accordance with the School Standards and Framework Act applicants have the right to appeal against any decision made by the Admission Authority. An independent appeals panel has been set up specifically for this purpose. To exercise this right, an appeal form must be requested from the Legal and Democratic Services Team, Town Hall, Talbot Road, Stretford, M32 0YT, telephone number 0161 912 4221 or can be downloaded from the school admissions appeals webpage.

Trafford community / voluntary controlled primary, infant, junior schools

• Broadheath Primary School
• Brooklands Primary School
• Broomwood Primary School
• Cloverlea Primary School
• Davyhulme Primary School
• Firs Primary School
• Flixton Primary School
• Gorse Hill Primary School
• Heyes Lane Primary School
• Highfield Primary School
• King's Road Primary School
• Kingsway Primary School
• Moorlands Junior School
• Moss Park Primary School
• Navigation Primary School
• Oldfield Brow Primary School
• Seymour Park Community Primary School
• Springfield Primary School
• St. Matthew's C.E. Primary School
• Stamford Park Primary School
• Templemoor Infant and Nursery School
• Urmston Primary School
• Victoria Park Infant School
• Victoria Park Junior School
• Well Green Primary School
• Wellfield Infant and Nursery School
• Wellfield Junior School
• Willows Primary School
• Woodheys Primary School
• Woodhouse Primary School
• Worthington Primary School

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