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If you would like your child to attend our school, please see details of our admission arrangements below.
LARKFIELDS INFANT SCHOOL: 2025-26
ADMISSION ARRANGEMENTS
Larkfields Infant School is a 4-7 school. The governing body are the admissions authority for the school.
1. Primary First Admissions – applying for a school place in the normal admissions rounds (Reception and year 3 if transferring from an infant school). First admissions are handled by the local authority.
1.1 Applications to the Reception Year will be determined by the published admission number (PAN). This is the number of children who can be admitted into the Reception Year and preferences are agreed until the PAN for first admission has been reached. Larkfields Infant School’s PAN is 60.
1.2 The admission round opening date will be available to view on the Nottinghamshire County Council website: www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk the national closing date for applications is 15th January 2025.
1.3 Parents can request that the date their child is admitted to school is deferred until a later date in the academic year or until the term in which the child reaches compulsory school age. Parents can request that their child takes up a place part-time until the child reaches compulsory school age. Requests should be discussed with the Head Teacher of the school.
2. Applications
2.1 Larkfields Infant School participate in the coordinated first admissions process via Nottinghamshire County Council. All information is available at www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk. Parents/carers are required to apply on a common electronic application form. The form to use is available from the home local authority within which the family address is located. These are found on the county council website.
3. Admission Oversubscription Criteria
When an academy is oversubscribed, after the admission of children who have an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) where the school is named in the Statement, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in priority order.
3.1 Children looked after by a local authority and previously looked after children, including those 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.
3.2 Children who live in the catchment area (https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/education/school-admissions/school-catchment-areas) at the closing date for applications and who, at the time of admission, will have a brother or sister attending the school or the linked school of Larkfields Junior School
3.3 Children who do not live in the catchment area at the closing date for application and who, at the time of admission, will have a brother or sister attending the school or the linked school of Larkfields Junior School.
3.4 If places remain beyond criteria 3.3, then these will be offered to other children who live in the catchment area at the closing date for applications
3.5 If places remain beyond criteria 3.4, then these will be allocated on proximity to the school measured ‘as the crow flies’ from the entrance to the child’s home to the principal entrance of the main administrative building of the school.
In event of oversubscription in any of the categories, proximity to the school measured ‘as the crow flies’ form the entrance of the child’s home to the principal entrance of the main administrative building of the school will be used as the determining factor.
Where one child of a multiple birth can be admitted, the other child/children will also be admitted
4. Special Circumstances
The following groups of students will be given special consideration for a particular place.
4.1 Children whose particular medical needs, mobility support needs or social circumstances are supported by written evidence from a doctor, social worker or other relevant professional stating that the academy is the only school which could cater for the child’s particular needs. The evidence must be presented at the time of application.
4.2 The governing body will consider each case on its merits and determine the allocation of any such place on the basis of the written evidence. Admission under ‘special circumstances’ will take precedence over all but the first numbered criterion:
‘Where a governing body does not wish to admit a child with challenging behaviour outside the normal admissions round, even though places are available, it must refer the case to the local authority for action under the Fair Access Protocol 66. This will normally only be appropriate where a school has a particularly high proportion of children with challenging behaviour or previously excluded children. The use of this provision will depend on local circumstances and must be described in the local authority’s Fair Access Protocol. This provision will not apply to a looked after child, a previously looked after child or a child with an Education, health and Care Plan (EHCP) or Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school in questions as these children must be admitted.’
6. Applications outside the normal year of entry (in-year applications)
All applications made outside of the normal year of entry should be made directly to the school and will be administered by the governors. In the event of a place being available in the appropriate year group an offer of a place at the school will be made. If no place is available, the parent will be informed of this along with the right of appeal for the refusal of a place.
7. Waiting List
Where a school is oversubscribed, a waiting list will be in operation. The waiting lists will remain open whilst the number of places in the year group is full, or until 20th July each year. A child’s position on this waiting list will be determined by the application of the school's published oversubscription criteria.
Definition of terms
Admission of children outside the normal age group
Parents may seek a place for their child outside the normal age group, for example if the child is gift and talented or has experienced ill health. For First Admissions, parents considering delaying their child’s admission should submit their request alongside their formal application for a school place that is made to the child’s home local authority by the closing date (15th January for Reception age/year 3 places).
The school, as the admission authority, is responsible for making the decision about which year group a child should be admitted to and designated offers will consider the circumstances of each case, the child concerned and take account of the views of the headteacher. This will include taking account of the parent’s views; information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development; where relevant, the child’s 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 for not being born prematurely.
Appeals
Parents have the right to an independent appeals panel if they are not happy with the outcome of their application. As an academy our appeals arrangements are handled directly by the school as part of East Midlands Education Trust. (EMET) All appeals received by the school are handled by an independent appeals clerk and panel who will make all the necessary arrangements to ensure all appeals are compliant with statutory guidelines. Repeat applications in the same academic year will not be considered unless there is a significant and material change in circumstances.
Any appeal must be made to the Admissions Officer, Larkfields Infant School, Coronation Road, Nuthall, NG16 1EP within 20 school days from the date of the refusal letter.
Applications outside the normal year of entry (in-year applications)
All applications made outside of the normal year of entry should be made directly to the school and will be administered by the governors. In the event of a place being available in the appropriate year group an offer of a place at the school will be made. If no place is available, the parent will be informed of this along with the right of appeal for the refusal of a place.
Catchment Area
This includes our historical catchment area, which has remained unchanged for many years. A map of the catchment area can be downloaded from https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/search-for-a-school#/catchments
Coordinated admission scheme for first admission to Infant/Primary/Junior school
All applications for places in the normal year of entry are made on the Common Application. Applications must be made through your home local authority. For entrance to the school in September 2025 the closing date of the coordinated admission scheme is 15th January 2025 and places are allocated on 16th April 2025. Outcomes are communicated to parents by the child’s home local authority on National Offer Day, 16th April or the next working day where this falls at a weekend
Delayed Admission
The parents of a summer born child (born between 1 April and 31 August) may choose not to send their child to school until the September following their fifth birthday. Typically, this means their child will start school in year 1, forfeiting reception. If a parent wishes to delay their child’s admission to school until compulsory school age, and wants their child to be admitted to reception, the parent must request that the child is admitted out of the normal age group – to reception rather than year 1. The process is outlined above. Parents should discuss the request with the head teacher of the school.
Fair Access Protocol
Larkfields Infant School participates in Nottinghamshire County Council’s Fair Access Protocol
Infant class sizes
The School Admissions (Infant Class Sizes) (England) Regulations 2012 permit children to be admitted as exceptions to the infant class size limit. Section 1 of the SSFA 1998 limits the size of an infant class (that is, a class in which the majority of children will reach the age of five, six or seven during the school year) to 30 pupils per school teacher. The School Admissions Code 2014 (2.15) states that additional children may be admitted under limited exceptional circumstances.
These children will remain as ‘excepted pupils’ for the time they are in an infant class or until the class numbers fall back to the current infant class size limit.
Late applications
Late applications are those submitted after the closing date for the Nottinghamshire coordinated admissions scheme (www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/education/school-admissions) and will be dealt in accordance with that scheme. Late applications will be considered up to the date specified in the coordinated scheme providing the applicant can evidence that they have moved into the area after the closing date for applications or can establish at the time of completing the form that there were exceptional reasons for missing the closing date. Examples include family bereavement, hospitalisation, family trauma. Supporting evidence may be required. When the school is informed by the local authority that a place has been offered, the local authority will write to the parent(s) seeking written confirmation that they will take up the place. If this confirmation is not received within 14 days, the school will notify the local authority that the offer of a place should be withdrawn and offered to the child ranked highest on the waiting list
Looked after children and 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 in accordance with section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989 at the time of making an application to a school.
Previously looked after children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a residence order or special guardianship order), including those children who the admissions authority determine, based on the evidence provided, that were in state care outside of England, but who were then adopted. This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 and children who were adopted under section 46 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. Child arrangements orders are defined in section 8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by section 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. 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.) 1-5
1 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) at the time of making an application to a school.
2 A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society.
3 This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see Section 12 adoption orders) and children who were adopted under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (see Section 46 adoption orders).
4 Child arrangements orders are defined in Section 8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by Section 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.
5 See Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 which defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).
Measuring Distance ‘As the Crow Flies’
For applications in the normal year of entry (first admissions) which are managed under the coordinated admissions arrangements distance is measured using software available to the Local Authority and the school governors use this information to rank order applications. For all other applications the governors of the school use Google Maps to measure distance.
Parent/Parental Responsibility
The person making the application must hold parental responsibility. Kimberley Primary School considers the parent to be:
- The mother of the child
- The father of the child where he was married to the mother either when the child was born or at a later date
- The father of the child if (since 1 December 2003) he was registered as the father on the birth certificate
- An adoptive parent
- Any other person who has ‘acquired ‘parental responsibility through the courts; evidence of this may be required
- Authorisation may also be given for another person to speak on the parent’s behalf.
Residence
The child’s place of residence is taken to be the parental home, other than in the case of children fostered by a local authority, where either the parental address or that of a foster parent(s) may be used. If a child’s parents live at separate address, the address where the child permanently spends at least three ‘school’ nights (that is, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday) will be taken to be the place of residence. Addresses of other relatives or friends will not be considered as the place of residence, even if the child stays there for all or parent of the week. Evidence that the child’s place of residence is permanent may also be sought and this should prove that the child lived at the address at the time of application. Informal arrangements between parents will not be taken into consideration.
Sibling
The governors define sibling as being those children who share the same biological parents. This includes brother, sister, half-brother or half-sister or legally adopted child living at the same address as the child.
Tie breaker
In the event of the need for a tie breaker in any of the over-subscription criteria listed in this policy, random allocation will be used. In these circumstances, If a child is offered a place as a result of random allocation yet also has a sibling of the same age seeking a place and residing at the same address, the sibling will also be offered a place. This process will be supervised by someone independent of the school.
Waiting List
Where a school is over-subscribed, all unsuccessful applicants will be placed on the waiting list which will be administered by the governors of the school. The position on this waiting list will be determined by the school’s published over-subscription criteria.
Withdrawing an offer of a place
Any offer of a place found to be made on the basis of inaccurate information can be withdrawn. Such examples would include fraudulent applications, intentionally misleading applications, a false claim to residency in the catchment area and the failure of a parent to respond to an offer of a place within 14 days.
Special Circumstances
The following groups of students will be given special consideration for a particular place.
- Children whose particular medical needs, mobility support needs or social circumstances are supported by written evidence from a doctor, social worker or other relevant professional stating that the academy is the only school which could cater for the child’s particular needs. The evidence must be presented at the time of application.
- The governing body will consider each case on its merits and determine the allocation of any such place on the basis of the written evidence. Admission under ‘special circumstances’ will take precedence over all but the first numbered criterion:
‘Where a governing body does not wish to admit a child with challenging behaviour outside the normal admissions round, even though places are available, it must refer the case to the local authority for action under the Fair Access Protocol 66. This will normally only be appropriate where a school has a particularly high proportion of children with challenging behaviour or previously excluded children. The use of this provision will depend on local circumstances and must be described in the local authority’s Fair Access Protocol. This provision will not apply to a looked after child, a previously looked after child or a child with an Education, health and Care Plan (EHCP) or Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school in questions as these children must be admitted.’
It should be noted that 2.10 of the Admissions Code of Practice makes it clear that admission authorities must not provide any guarantees to applicants of the outcome of their application. In accordance with 2.10 of the Admission code of Practice our governors make no promise or commitment to any family that a place can be offered for their child and this statement supersedes anything we may have previously published or been quoted as saying.