Norfolk Schoolfinder

School admission policy : 2026/27 (Agreed)

When there are more children requesting places than there are places available, the criteria for over subscription will be used.  

In the event of there being more applications for admission, than places available, the following criteria will be used to allocate such places as are available – and in this order of priority:

1. Children with a statement of special educational needs naming this school.

2. Looked after children.

3. Children living within the school’s designated catchment area, who have a sibling attending the school at the time of admission.

4. Children living within the school’s designated catchment area, who do not have a sibling attending the school at the time of admission.

5. Children living outside the school’s designated catchment area, who have a sibling attending the school at the time of admission.

6. Children living outside the school’s designated catchment area, who have a medical condition, for which attendance at the school is both desirable and supported by a doctor, in writing.

7. All other children.

In the event of a tie, between children within the same category living outside the school’s designated catchment area, allocation will be given to the child living nearest to the school and then to the child living next nearest to the school and so on, until all places are exhausted.

Show School admission policy : 2027/28 (Agreed)

School admission policy : 2027/28 (Agreed)

If the number of applications for a reception place is greater than the school’s PAN, we use the admissions oversubscription criteria below to decide who gets a place. 

Children who have an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) which names the school must by law be offered a place at that school. EHCP admissions are arranged via a separate admissions process, and enquiries should be made directly with the child’s home LA about this. Admissions to a specialist unit or a specialist resource base within a USP primary school are also arranged via the EHCP admission process. 

The following admissions oversubscription criteria show the order of priority for places at USP Primary Schools. 

For applications to the normal year of entry (Reception), these criteria will be applied according to the evidence provided to show the circumstances existing before midnight at the end of the closing date.

For in-year applications, these criteria will be applied according to the evidence provided to show the circumstances existing at the time of application. 

1) Children in care (looked after children as defined in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) and children who were previously in care (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 in care, including those 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). 

2) Sibling: where the child has a sibling in the school or a sibling has already been offered a place at the school, and where the sibling will still be attending the school at the time of admission but not in a nursery attached to the school. Priority will be given, where necessary, to applications where there is the smallest age gap in calendar days between the child’s date of birth and the date of birth of any sibling already attending the school, or who has been offered a place at the time of application. The term ‘sibling’ includes natural, half, step, and adopted brothers and sisters; a child of the partner of the parent; and children who are fostered into the family. In all these cases, the child and their sibling will both be living at the same address (that is where the child is ordinarily resident as defined below) in a single-family unit. This means that children from different family units, where separate families are living together at the same address, are not considered siblings under this criterion. 

3) Children who are ordinarily resident in the catchment area (as defined below) who live nearest to the school. We will measure the distance by a straight line (‘as the crow flies’). All straight-line distances are calculated electronically by Suffolk/Norfolk County Council using data provided jointly by the Post Office and Ordnance Survey. The data plots the coordinates of each property and provides the address-point of the child’s home (where they are ordinarily resident as defined below) and the main school gate between which the straight line distance is measured and reported to three decimal places. Where there is more than one home within a single building (for example apartments) we will measure to a single point within that building irrespective of where those homes are located. 

4) Children who live outside the school’s catchment area who live nearest to the school. We will measure the distance by a straight line (‘as the crow flies’) as set out in criterion 3) above. 

Sibling tie-breaker 

Priority will be given, where necessary, to applications where there is the smallest age gap in calendar days between the child’s date of birth and the date of birth of any sibling already attending the school, or who has been offered a place at the time of application. In the unlikely event that two applicants competing for a single place at a school have the same number of days difference in age from their closest aged sibling, the place will be offered to one applicant on the basis of lots drawn by someone independent of the school. 

Distance tie-breaker 

It is possible that the PAN of the school will be reached in any one of the categories set out above. For this reason, all applications will be prioritised according to the criteria described. Decisions will be made about the offer of places in accordance with those priorities. If it is necessary to use a tie-breaker to distinguish between two or more applications (other than in the case of a sibling tie-breaker as described above), a distance criterion will be used. We will give priority to the applicants who live nearest to the school as measured by a straight line as per the approach described in 3) above. In the unlikely event that two applicants competing for a single place at a school live the same distance from the school, the place will be offered to one applicant on the basis of lots drawn by someone independent of the school.

Twins, triplets and other multiple births 

If the final place available at a school is offered to a twin, triplet or other multiple birth and the remaining sibling/s would ordinarily be refused, we will offer places to the remaining sibling/s at the same school. The law requires that this will apply even in those primary schools where this would mean that more than 30 pupils would be admitted to an infant class. Where a sibling of a twin, triplet or other multiple birth has a school named on their EHC plan, we will from the date of issue of the EHC plan treat their twin, triplets or other multiple births under the sibling oversubscription criterion for the named school. This does not apply to siblings of children in a specialist unit or a specialist resource base for Hearing Impaired provision or a nursery, because they do not meet the sibling definition in the oversubscription criteria. 

Show School admission policy : 2026/27 (Agreed)

Show School admission policy : 2027/28 (Agreed)

Show School admission policy : 2026/27 (Agreed)