Admissions 2024

If your child was born between 1^st September 2019 and 31^st August 2020, he or she will be due to start school in September 2024.

To apply for a place at Smeeth Community Primary School for your child for September 2024 you will need to complete a special form called a Common Application Form (RCAF).  The application process starts on Friday 3rd November 2023.  You will need to fill in the forms online by Monday 15th January 2024 or return your completed paper copies to Smeeth Community Primary School.  We would strongly recommend that you apply online at www.kent.gov.uk/ola.  Please read through the Admission to Primary School Booklet carefully before filling in your RCAF.

Online applications will receive an email after 4.00pm on Tuesday 16th April 2024 advising parents with an offer for a Primary School place.  Letters of notification of a place will also be sent out, including those who have applied online, from the LA on Tuesday 16th April 2024.  Only parents who apply online can receive their offer of notification via email, parents who apply on paper will need to wait for their formal letter through the post.  You will need to inform the school in writing as to whether you will accept the place or not.

Admissions and Oversubscription Criteria

If the number of children wanting a place at Smeeth Community Primary School exceeds the planned admission number of 20, then the local authority will allocate places according to the following criteria.

Before the application of Oversubscription Criteria, children who have an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) which names the school, will be admitted.  As a result of this the PAN will be reduced accordingly.

1. Looked After Children and previously Looked After Children: 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.  A previously looked after child means such children who were adopted (or subject to child arrangements orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after and 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.  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.
2. Children with siblings in school at the time of entry: This includes: natural or adopted siblings; step or foster siblings; those who live as siblings in the same house.  The sibling link is maintained as long as the family lives at the same address as when the first child applied, or has moved closer to the school than when the first child was offered a place, or has moved to an address that is less than 2 miles from the school using distance measured by the method outlined in the distance criterion.
3. Health and special access reasons: Medical, health, social and special access reasons will be applied in accordance with the school’s legal obligations, in particular those under the Equality Act 2010.  Priority will be given to those children whose mental or physical impairment means they have a demonstrable and significant need to attend a particular school.  Equally, this priority will apply to children whose parents/guardians physical or mental health or social needs means they have a demonstrable and significant need to attend a particular school.  Such claims will need to be supported by written evidence from a suitably qualified medical or other practitioner which can demonstrate a special connection between these needs and the particular school that parents feel is the only school that can accommodate their child’s needs.
4. Nearness of children’s homes to school: We use the distance between the child’s permanent home address and the school, measured in a straight line using the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) address point.  Distances are measured from a point defined as within the child’s home to a point defined as within the school as specified by NLPG.  The same address point on the school site is used for everybody. When we apply the distance criterion for the school, these straight line measurements are used to determine how close each applicant’s address is to the school.  A child’s home address is considered to be a residential property that is the child’s only or main residence (not an address at which the child may sometimes stay or sleep) and which is either owned by the child’s parent, parents or guardians or leased or rented to them under a lease or written rental agreement,  Where parents live apart but share responsibility for the child, and the child lives at two different addresses during the week, we will regard the home address as the one at which the child sleeps for the majority of weeks days.

Tie break

In the case of 2 or more applications that cannot be separated by the oversubscription criteria outlined above, the school will use the distance between the school and a child’s home as a tie breaker to decide between applicants.  Priority will be given to children who live closest to the school.  Where the distance between 2 children’s homes and the school is the same, random allocation will be used to decide between them.  This process will be independently verified.

If your child is offered a place at Smeeth Community Primary School, you will need to come into school with proof of the address of the only or main residence of your child.  This will need to be in the form of the following documents:

1). A child tax and working tax credit letter (TC602), the child’s medical card or a letter from a medical centre, hospital or GP to confirm the child’s residence, a letter from the child’s nursery or playgroup or a bank statement of a savings account in the child’s name.

AND

2). A utility bill or Bank or Credit Card Statement.

These documents should not be more than three months old and preferably should show that the child was resident at the address at the time of closing date of Monday 15th January 2024.  We will need to see these documents for every child being admitted (even those children who have siblings at the school already).  If you are unable to provide documents, to prove your child’s only or main residence, the Local Authority has their right to take your child’s place away.

Withdrawal of an offer of a place

After a place has been offered the school reserves the right to withdraw the place in the following circumstances:

• when a parent/carer has failed to respond to an offer within a reasonable time; or
• when a parent/carer has failed to notify the school of important changes to the application information; or
• when the place was offered on the basis of fraudulent or intentionally misleading application from a parent/carer.

Admission for Year Groups Other than Reception

Parents seeking admission of children in years other than Reception should contact the school office for an application form.  Once the published PAN for the year group has been reached no other children can be offered a place.  (In 2024 the PAN for Year R to Year 6 will be 20).

Waiting Lists

Parents of children who have not been offered a place at the school may ask for their child's name to be placed on a waiting list.  The waiting list will be operated using the same admissions criteria listed above.  The school's waiting list will be re-ranked, in line with the published oversubscription criteria, every time a child is added.

Appeals

Parents have a statutory right of appeal to an independent appeal panel if their child has been refused admission.  Smeeth Community Primary School uses the services of KCC to set up the Appeal Panel Hearing.  Parents should contact the school office in the first instance for an appeal form which should be completed and returned for the attention of the Clerk to the Governors.

If your child is due to start primary school in 2024 you can appeal between April & May 2024 (dates to be confirmed) to guarantee that your appeal will be heard by July 2024.  For applications made in the normal admission round, appeals must be heard within 40 school days of the deadline for lodging appeals.  For late applications, appeals should be heard within 40 school days from the deadline for lodging appeals where possible, or within 30 school days of the appeals being lodged.

Admission outside normal age group

Requests for admission outside of the normal age group should be made to the Head Teacher as early as possible in the admissions round associated with the child’s date of birth.  This allows the school and admissions authority sufficient time to make a decision before the closing date.  Each case will be considered on it’s own merits.  Parents are not expected to provide evidence to support their request, however, where provided it must be specific to the child in question and may include medical or Educational Psychologist reports.  There is no legal requirement for this medical or educational evidence to be secured from an appropriate professional, however, failure to provide this may impede the school’s ability to agree to a request for admission outside of the normal age group.

Parents are required to complete an application for the normal point of entry at the same time, in case their request is declined.  This application can be cancelled if the school agrees to accept a deferred application for entry into Year R the following year.  Deferred applications must be made via paper CAF to the Local Authority, with written confirmation from the Head Teacher.  Deferred applications will be processed in the same way as all applications for the cohort in the following admissions round, and offers will be made in accordance with the school’s oversubscription criteria.

If you have any queries about the Admissions process, please ring the school on 01303 813128.  You can also contact the Kent Admissions Team on 03000 412121 or visit their website www,kent.gov.uk/primaryadmissions.

Please see our Admissions Policy under the Policy section on our website.