Community and Voluntary Controlled (LA) schools

1.    Looked after children and children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or subject to residence orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following being looked after.

2.    Children who will have a brother or sister* at the school (or linked junior school) at the time of admission and who live at the same address, within the pre-defined community area**.

3.    Other children living within a pre-defined community area**.

4.    Children who will have a brother or sister* at the school (or linked junior school) at the time of admission who live at the same address, outside the pre-defined community area**.

5.    Other children.

*Children are ‘siblings’ if they are full, half, adoptive or foster brother or sister living in the same household including siblings attending sixth forms.

Children who have a brother or sister who joined the school prior to 1 September 2017 (1 September 2018 for Polegate & Willingdon primary schools) and who is still on roll, will be assigned to priority 2 under the previous arrangement which gave priority to brothers and sisters regardless of whether they live in the pre-defined community area or not. This condition no longer applies to Frant CE Primary School as these priorities were adopted with effect from September 2012 and children admitted before that date have now left the school.

**Each home address in the county falls within a community area although living in a community area does not guarantee a place. (See our booklet for details of these)

Where a child has been unable to secure a place at a school in his/her community area and has been directed to attend a school outside the community area as an alternative, any applications for younger siblings to attend the school will be treated as if the family were resident in the community area, as long as the sibling will still be attending the school when the younger child starts.

Tiebreaker

In the event of oversubscription within any priority, place allocation will be decided by prioritising applications on the basis of home to school distance measured in a straight line. This will be measured from the address point in the school (supplied by Ordnance Survey) to the address point in the family home. For split site schools, we will measure to the site where the child will attend for the majority of lessons at the point of entry.

In the event that applicants cannot be prioritised using the tiebreaker because the distance measurements are the same, the Authority will use random allocation to decide which children will be offered the remaining places. This will be done electronically using the Authority’s admissions software.

Out of area siblings

Since September 2017, the admissions criteria give priority to children living in a community area (priority 3) above siblings who live outside of the area served by the school (priority 4). You can still apply for and get schools outside of your community area. However, there is no guarantee that younger children in your family will be able to follow their brother or sister. You will therefore need to consider the possibility that your children may end up at different schools if you send your child to a non-local school.