Applying for a school place outside the normal admission rounds

In-year applications

An application is an in-year application if it is for the admission of a child to a relevant age group and it is submitted on or after the first day of the first school term of the admission year; or if it is for the admission of a child to an age group other than a relevant age group. (A relevant age groups refers to the age group at which pupils are or will normally be admitted to the school e.g., Reception, Year 3, Year 7 and Year 12.)

Requirements of the School Admissions Code (2021)

• A parent can apply for a place for their child at any school, at any time
• Local authorities (LAs) are not required to co-ordinate in-year applications for schools for which they are not the admission authority
• LAs may, however, co-ordinate in-year applications for any or all own admission authority schools in their area, with the agreement of the relevant admission authorities – see below for information about the schools in the North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) area, which are part of the NNC in-year co-ordination process
• NNC will publish information on the website by 31 August at the latest each year to explain how in-year applications can be made and how they will be dealt with from 1 September onwards in that year
• NNC will set out which schools they will co-ordinate the applications for and which schools will manage their own in-year admissions
• Contact details for any admission authority that manages its own in-year admissions will be provided.

Responsibility of own admission authority schools (OAAs)

• Own admission authorities must inform the local authority by 1 August at the latest each year whether they intend to be part of the local authority’s in-year co-ordination scheme for the following 1 September to 31 August (where this is offered) or whether they will be managing their own in-year admissions
  By 1 August, for schools that intend to be part of the local authority’s in-year co-ordination for the following academic year, they must also provide the local authority with all the information that the local authority is required to publish on its website, including application forms. Where a School does not intend to renew the Service Level Agreement [for NNC to co-ordinate in-year admissions] when it expires, notice must be given formally to the School Admissions Manager by 1 May of the year of expiry.
• NNC will provide a suitable application form (and a supplementary information form where necessary) for parents to complete when applying for a place for their child at a school for which the council co-ordinates in-year admissions
• Where NNC receives an in-year application for a school which manages its own in-year admissions, it will promptly forward the application to the relevant admission authority, which must process it in accordance with its own in-year admission arrangements

Actions required by OAAs and governing bodies of schools

• OAAs must set out by 31 August at the latest each year, on the school’s website how in-year applications will be dealt with from the 1 September until the following 31 August
• They must set out how parents can apply for a school place, and, where they manage their own in-year admissions, provide a suitable application form for parents to complete (and a supplementary information form where necessary), and set out when parents will be notified of the outcome of their application and details about the right to appeal
• If the admission authority is to be a part of the local authority’s in-year co-ordination scheme, it must provide information on where parents can find details of the relevant scheme
• An admission authority, governing body or local authority (NNC) must provide a hard copy of the information about in-year applications on request for those who do not have access to the internet
• Admission authorities must, on request, provide information to prospective parents about the places still available in all schools within their area
• The admission authorities for all schools in the area must provide the local authority with details of the number of places available at their schools whenever this information is requested, to assist a parent seeking a school place. Such details should be provided no later than 2 school days following receipt of a request from the local authority
• With the exception of designated grammar schools, all maintained schools, and academies, including schools designated with a religious character, that have places available must offer a place to every child who has applied for one, without condition or the use of any oversubscription criteria, unless admitting the child would prejudice the efficient provision of education or use of resources. For example, admission authorities must not refuse to admit a child solely because:
  a) they have applied later than other applicants
  b) they are not of the faith of the school in the case of a school designated with a religious character
  c) they have followed a different curriculum at their previous school; or
  d) information has not been received from their previous school
• Where an admission authority receives an in-year application for a year group that is not the normal point of entry and it does not wish to admit the child because it has good reason to believe that the child may display challenging behaviour, it may refuse and refer the child to the Fair Access Protocol (see School Admissions Code (2021) - paragraph 3.10 and footnotes 76, 77 and 78)
• Where an admission authority is dealing with multiple in-year admissions and does not have sufficient places for every child who has applied for one, they must allocate places on the basis of the oversubscription criteria in their determined admission arrangements only
• Parents must not be refused the opportunity to make an application or be told that they can only be placed on a waiting list rather than make a formal application

Timescales for in-year applications

• Upon receipt of an in-year application, the admission authority, or the local authority if it is co-ordinating the admissions authority’s in-year admissions, should aim to notify the parents of the outcome of their application in writing within 10 school days, but they must be notified in writing within 15 school days
• Where an application is refused, the admission authority must also set out the reason for refusal and information about the right to appeal in accordance with paragraph 2.32 of the Code
• Where an admission authority manages its own in-year admissions, it must also notify the local authority of every application and its outcome as soon as reasonably practicable, but should aim to be within 2 school days, to allow the local authority to keep up to date figures on the availability of places in the area and to ensure they are aware of any children who may not have a school place
• NNC will provide a suitable form for OAA schools to complete and return to NNC providing details of all applications and their outcomes
• Where an applicant is offered a school place following an in-year application, and the offer is accepted, arrangements should be made for the child to start school as soon as possible, especially where the child is out of school (5 school days)

Right to appeal

When an admission authority informs a parent of a decision to refuse their child a place at a school for which they have applied, it must include the reason why admission was refused; information about the right to appeal; the deadline for lodging an appeal and the contact details for making an appeal. Parents must be informed that, if they wish to appeal, they must set out their grounds for appeal in writing. Admission authorities must not limit the grounds on which appeals can be made.

The In-Year Co-ordination process in North Northamptonshire

• The School Admissions team will process in-year applications for school places in the NNC local authority area
• While Local authorities (LAs) are not required to co-ordinate in-year applications for schools for which they are not the admission authority, NNC co-ordinates in-year applications for the vast majority of own admission authority schools in its area
• NNC does not co-ordinate in-year applications for the schools listed below – these schools are responsible for managing their own in-year admission process

School which are not part of the NNC In-year Co-ordination scheme (for 2023 - 2024)

Bishop Stopford School
Glapthorn CE Primary School
Polebrook CE Primary School

NNC – In-year co-ordination Scheme 2023 - 2024

Aims

• Parents seeking school places in-year within NNC will be able to access clear, simple and consistent information and advice on the in-year application process either online or by contacting a member of the School Admissions Team via telephone or email
• The School Admissions Team will respond to all parental enquiries and aim to do so within 5 working days
• Parents will be able to access information on how to apply for an in-year school place, by referring to the Composite Prospectus of Schools in the local authority area: “Applying for a Primary / Secondary School Place in NNC” published each academic year and available online. Paper copies can be made available
• Parents will be able to use NNC’s online Schools’ Directory search engine on the website to help them to identify their local schools
• The School Admissions Team will provide on request parents and professionals with information to parents on the availability of school places within the LA.

The in-year co-ordination scheme for North Northamptonshire Council will operate as follows:

1. The LA will provide a Common Application Form for in-year applications. An online form will be available on the School Admissions website. A paper form will be available upon request from the School Admissions Team: [email protected]. The in-year application form will be the only acceptable form of application for schools and academies taking part in NNC scheme of in-year coordination
2. The application form allows parents, applying from both inside and outside the Local Authority (NNC) to express a preference for up to 3 NNC schools in ranked order. If parents or carers apply for more than one school, the ranked order of school preferences will remain confidential to the LA prior to allocation, but the information may be made available at appeal
3. The LA will also provide access to an application form (and Supplementary Information Form, where required) for all schools within NNC which do not take part in the NNC’s in-year Co-ordination Process. These forms can be accessed by visiting the School Admissions website
4. When the School Admissions team receives a completed in-year application form, the application will be placed on the computer data base within 2 working days and the application details will be forwarded to the admission authority of the school(s) applied for
5. The LA aims to provide outcomes for applications within 10 school days and parents must be made within 15 school days. Own admission authority schools must decide if they can offer places and these schools are expected to respond promptly to the LA with an outcome of the application so that the published timeframes are adhered to. Parents have a statutory right to appeal against the refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied
6. In-year applications should not be made more than a month in advance of when the school place is required as the LA (NNC) does NOT hold places open. In-year applications received more than four weeks in advance of when the school place is required are treated as ‘applied too early’. The School Admissions Team will contact (by email or letter) parents who apply too early, advising them to apply again within 4 weeks of the date the school place is required. The exception to this is in the case of children of UK service personnel and crown servants where the applications may be processed in advance
7. For families of service personnel with a confirmed posting, or crown servants returning from overseas, the School Admissions team will:
   a) allocate a place in advance of the family arriving in the area (as long as one is available), provided the application is accompanied by an official letter that declares a relocation date. Admission authorities (i.e., bodies such as NNC, the local authority, academy trusts and governing bodies of schools) must not refuse to process an application and must not refuse a place solely because the family do not yet have an intended address, or do not yet live in the area
   b) use the address at which the child will live when applying their oversubscription criteria, as long as the parents provide some evidence of their intended address. Admission authorities must use a Unit or quartering address as the child’s home address when considering the application against their oversubscription criteria, where a parent requests this
8. Families living overseas, and those living out of the NNC area, but intending to move to NNC or back to an existing NNC address, may apply for a North Northamptonshire school place on the NNC In-Year application form. However, the address used to process the application must be where the child lives at the time of application. The North Northamptonshire address will not be used until the LA / school has received proof that the child is living at that address
9. If an applicant owns a property in North Northants but is not living in it, for example: because they are working abroad at the time of application, the NNC address will not be accepted for the purposes of admission until the child is living at that address
10. NNC parents wishing to apply for a place at a maintained school or academy in a different local authority must apply directly to the LA where the school is situated
11. If the School Admissions team receives an application for an OAA school or academy which does not co-ordinate in-year applications within the NNC Co-ordination Scheme, details of the application will be forwarded directly to the school and parents will be informed. The school or academy must then notify the School Admissions team of the outcome of the application and inform the parent of their statutory right of appeal if a place is refused. The same timeframes apply to OAA schools (which manage their own in-year admissions) as to the LA i.e., 10 school days for schools to provide an outcome. However, a written outcome must be provided to parents by 15 school days at the latest
12. All admission authorities will remain responsible for school place allocation decisions and for ranking applications and waiting lists in accordance with schools’ oversubscription criteria. Own admission authorities may ask the School Admissions team at NNC to undertake the administration of in-year applications on their behalf
13. The School Admissions team will offer places at NNC community and voluntary controlled schools as well as at the other NNC schools or academies operating within the scheme. Places will be offered to children on a waiting list, as places become available. Waiting lists will be maintained accordance with the school’s oversubscription criteria
14. Where the School Admissions team manages the waiting lists for schools, numbers on roll will be requested weekly (and must be provided by schools within 2 school days), Places will be offered from the waiting list when they become available

How preferences work

15. Parents may apply for up to 3 schools, listed in order of preference. If more than one school has a place available in the relevant year group, a place will be offered at the highest preference where the child qualifies for a place. When a place cannot be offered at any of their preferred schools, the following process applies:
    • the School Admissions team will offer a place at the school nearest to the home address which has place available
    • the School Admissions team will advise parents, on request, about place availability in other schools or academies / Free Schools
    • the School Admissions team will not offer a place at an alternative school to pupils who are already on roll at a NNC school (unless the child/family has moved house)
16. If a place could be offered at a school within NNC’s In-Year Co-ordination scheme and a place has already been offered by a school outside the scheme (or vice versa), School Admission officers will contact the family to ascertain which is the preferred school
17. A place will be considered to be available (unless otherwise indicated) at a preferred school if the number on roll in the relevant year group does not meet or exceed the published admissions number (PAN)
18. Upon receipt of a completed application form, the LA will confirm place availability at the preferred schools
19. If a parent declines the offer of a school place, the School Admissions team will inform the school concerned. Parents and carers (of children of Compulsory School Age) who refuse offers of school places, must inform the LA about how they intend their children to be educated – this will be followed up by the School Admissions Team and/or the Children Missing Education Team
20. If parents need assistance with Transport they must contact the School Transport team.

What happens after places are allocated?

21. Schools are expected to contact parents about a start date and to place children on roll within 5 school days of allocation. Every effort must be made by the school to contact the parent. If the parent fails to respond, the place may be withdrawn and reallocated. Schools must follow their safeguarding procedures as advised in the allocation letter.

School Admission Appeals

22. Parents have a statutory right to appeal against the refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied
23. In the event of a school or an academy refusing to allocate a place, the School Admissions team (for community and voluntary controlled schools and on behalf of the governing bodies of own admission schools and authorities which have opted into the in-year co-ordination scheme) will include: the reason for refusal; information about the right to appeal; the deadline for lodging an appeal and the contact details for making an appeal. Parents will be informed that, if they wish to appeal, they must set out their grounds for appeal in writing. The LA and other admission authorities must not limit the grounds on which appeals can be made. Schools should not refuse admission if places are available, unless paragraphs 3.10 and 3.11 of the School Admissions Code (2021) apply
24. Some in-year applications will be complex and may have to be referred to the Fair Access Process where different timescales apply. For further information on Fair Access, the Fair Access Protocol
25. The School Admissions team (and OAA schools which manage their own in-year process) will write to parents to inform them both of their statutory right of appeal and of the waiting list process.

Operation of Waiting Lists

26. Waiting lists for all community and voluntary controlled schools will be held and administered centrally by the School Admissions Team for all year groups and will be ranked in accordance with the published admission criteria for the respective school
27. The LA administers the waiting lists at the request of some OAA schools. As in point 26 above, the waiting lists will be ranked in accordance with the published admission criteria of the respective schools
28. Waiting lists are cleared at the end of each full term. In order for children to remain on the waiting list, parents must submit their requests to the School Admissions Team in writing before the start of the next term
29. Applicants wanting their children to remain on the waiting list of a school in the following academic year must make a new application (as the application will be for a different year group)
30. Parents should contact OAA schools which manage their own in-year application process the waiting list policy for these schools may differ from the NNC’s process

Looked After and Previously Looked After Children

31. It is the clear expectation of North Northamptonshire Council that where a school receives an in-year application for a school place for a Looked After (LAC) or Previously Looked After Child (PLAC), that the school will ensure a place is offered to that child within 5 school days
32. Should any school for whom the Local Authority acts as the Admission Authority refuse to offer a place to a LAC or PLAC or fail to do so in a timely manner, the Local Authority will direct that school to make a place available for the LAC or PLAC with immediate effect. Should any ‘Own Admission Authority’ school refuse to offer a place to a LAC or PLAC or fail to do so in a timely manner then the Local Authority will refer the matter to the Regional Schools Commissioner or Office of Schools Adjudicator as appropriate, for further action (please see sections 3.27 – 3.29 of the Code for further information on local authority’s powers of direction)
33. NNC will seek to comply with the following notes within the Code, footnote 63 (relating to 2.32 ‘Right to Appeal’) in the 2021 Code states, ‘Where a looked after child has been refused a school place, it is likely to be more appropriate for the local authority looking after the child to use the powers of direction set out in paragraphs 3.27 to 3.29 of the Code, than to submit an appeal.’

You should be aware of the following when making an application:

• Moving into a school’s linked village or area does not necessarily guarantee your child a place at the linked school
• A high percentage of schools in North Northamptonshire have reached the published admission number (PAN) in most year groups and, therefore, it may not be possible to offer a place at your preferred schools
• For families with more than one child, it can be extremely difficult to allocate a place for all the children in the same school. The result of an in-year application may be that siblings have to be split across two or more schools and that, in order to keep the children together, we may only be able to allocate a school which is not your preferred school and which may be some distance away from the home address
• If you are moving to North Northamptonshire, documentary evidence in the form of a solicitor’s letter to confirm exchange of contracts or a copy of your signed tenancy, or rental agreement, will be required to verify your address

Moving from overseas

If you are moving from overseas your child may be entitled to a school place.

You should be aware that:

• children must be resident within the country before we will process an application - please note a visitor's visa does not entitle your child to a school place
• if your application is due to a move into the UK, documentary evidence to verify your address may be required - a copy of either a child benefit letter or Tax Credit letter is normally acceptable, along with a copy of your rental agreement or exchange of contracts letter (the council reserves the right to seek further documentary evidence as necessary)
• you must not send original documents in support of your application, as they will not be returned

Special conditions apply to UK Armed Service Personnel and other Crown Servants.

For families of service personnel with confirmed posting to their area, or crown servants returning from overseas to live in that area, admission authorities must allocate a place in advance of the family arriving in the area, provided the application is accompanied by an official letter declaring a relocation date and a Unit postal address or quartering area address.

Admission authorities must not refuse a service child a place because the family does not currently live in the area, or reserve blocks of places for these children.

Therefore, where places in the year group are available at the preferred school, it is expected that places will be allocated in advance.

However, this does not necessarily guarantee a place at the preferred school if the year group is already up to the published admission number (PAN).

The operation of the waiting list is not on a 'first come, first served' basis. When a place becomes available at a school, if there is only one child on the waiting list, the child will be offered the place. If, however, there are two or more children on the waiting list when a place becomes available, then the children will be ranked according to the school's oversubscription criteria.

A child's position on the waiting list may change if new applicants are added to the list.

Schools who do not keep a waiting list

Some academies in North Northamptonshire do not keep a waiting list. This means that parents who wish to secure a place for their child at one of these schools will have to continue to make additional applications throughout the year.

Normally, we will accept only one application per academic year in respect of the same school for the same academic year. We will, however, accept a second and subsequent application from a parent for those schools which do not continue to hold a waiting list. If the school remains up to the published admission number (PAN), and there has been no significant and material change in circumstances, the application will be refused. Parents or carers will receive a generic email response stating the school is still unable to offer a school place in the relevant year group and a second appeal will not be offered.

Contact details

Email: [email protected]

School Admissions Team
North Northamptonshire Council
Angel Street
Northampton
NN1 1ED
Phone: 0300 126 3000

​If your child has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan or a statutory statement of special educational needs (SEN), please see the special educational needs (SEND) page for information on how to apply as there is a different process for these applications.