School admission policies and statistics

It is your responsibility to make yourself aware of all the information relating to school admissions before you apply for your child's school place.

Starting primary, junior and secondary school

For admissions in the normal year of entry, the local authority is the admission authority for all community and voluntary controlled schools in North Yorkshire and makes decisions about the allocation of places for these schools.

For voluntary-aided, foundation, trust schools and academies, admission decisions are made by the governing body or academy trust of the school based on their admission policies. We co-ordinate the allocation of places and make the offers on their behalf.

Headteachers cannot offer your child a place or guarantee that a place at their school will be available.

In-year transfers

For admissions outside the normal year of entry, 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. This does not apply to designated grammar schools.

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 based on the oversubscription criteria in their determined admission arrangements.

Oversubscription criteria

Children with an EHCP

All governing bodies are required by Section 324 of the Education Act 1996 or the Children's and Families Act 2014 to admit to the school a child with an Education, Health and Care Plan - EHCP - which names the school. This is not an oversubscription criterion and relates only to children who have undergone statutory assessment and for whom an Education, Health and Care Plan has been issued.

Priority groups

Where possible, we will allocate your child a place at a school you have listed on your application form. However, if any of the schools you have applied for are oversubscribed - meaning that there are more applicants than there are places available - the oversubscription criteria will be applied.

The admission authority will consider all preferences - first, second, third, fourth and fifth - that a particular school receives equally. Children in a higher priority group will be offered a place ahead of children in a lower priority group. Where more than one preference can be met, the local authority will offer the highest ranked preference.

This table shows the priority groups for community and voluntary controlled primary and secondary schools in North Yorkshire.

Order	Priority group	More details
1	Looked after children and all previously looked after children for whom the school has been expressed as a preference. Children who appear to the admissions authority to have been in state care outside of England and cease to be in state care as a result of being adopted.	This applies to all looked-after children, including those who are in the care of another local authority or being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services function at the time of making an application. Previously looked after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted or became subject to a child arrangement order or special guardianship order. In the case of previously looked after children, a copy of the relevant documentation will be required in support of the application. This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 and children who were adopted under the Adopted & Children's Act 2002. 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. A child is regarded as being in state care outside of England if they were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation or any another provider of care whose sole purpose is to benefit society.
2	Children the authority considers have special social or medical reasons for admission.	We will only consider applications on social or medical grounds if they are supported by a professional recommendation from a doctor, social worker, or other appropriate professional. The supporting evidence should set out the particular social or medical reasons why the school in question is the only school and the difficulties that would be caused if the child had to attend another school. Panels of professionally qualified people will consider all applications made under priority group 2. Find more information in our application form guidance.
3	Children living within the catchment area of the school.	If there are not enough places for all the children in this priority group, we will give first priority to children with a sibling at the preferred school at the time of admission and then to children living nearest the school. In all cases, "sibling" refers to brother or sister, half-brother or half-sister, step brother or step sister, or the child of a parent or carer's partner, where the child for the school places sought is living at the same family unit and at the same address as the "sibling".
4	Children of staff at the school	Priority in this oversubscription criteria is given in either or both of the following circumstances: a) Where a member of staff has been employed at the school for more than two years at the time when the admission to the school is made, and/or b) the member of staff has been recruited to fill a demonstrable skill shortage.
5	Children living outside the normal area of the school.	If there are not enough places for all the children in this priority group, we will give first priority to children with a sibling at the preferred school at the time of admission and then to children leaving nearest the school. In all cases, "sibling" refers to brother or sister, half-brother or half-sister, step brother or step sister, or the child of a parent / carer's partner, where the child for the school places sought is living at the same family unit and at the same address as the "sibling".

Tie break

If there are not enough places for all the children in one of these priority groups, we will give priority first to those with a sibling at the school at the time of admission and then to those living nearest the school. In all cases sibling refers to brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step-brother or sister, or the child of the parent/carer’s partner where the child for whom the school place is sought is living in the same family unit at the same address as that sibling.

If within a priority group there are not enough places for all those with a sibling at the school at the time of admission, we will give priority to those children with a sibling living nearest the school.

All distance measurements are based on the nearest route recognised by our electronic mapping system from a child's home address to school. The measurement is made from a fixed point within the dwelling, as identified by Ordnance Survey, to the nearest school entrance using footpaths and roads. The routes measured to determine the allocation of school places will be those recognised by the electronic mapping system used by the admissions team, and no other mapping system.

If the distance tie-break is not sufficient to distinguish between applicants in a particular priority group, a random allocation will be used.

Random allocation procedure

Random allocations are necessary where:

There is more than one applicant ranked equally according to the published admission rules and there are insufficient places available to allocate all of the equally ranked applicants.
This occurs where applicants are equidistant from a school because the usual method of measuring distance to the school results in two unrelated applicants having the same distance measurement.

Each random allocation event only holds for the allocation of the currently available school place. On any waiting list the remaining applicants remain equally ranked and any further place is offered as the result of a further random exercise. In making a random allocation it is important that there is scrutiny from a person who is not involved in the allocation process.

This entire process is to be carried out in sight of, and under the scrutiny of, the independent scrutineer.

The admissions officer allocates each pupil to be included in the draw a number, and records it on the 'random allocation cross reference sheet'. This is placed in a sealed envelope.
The admissions officer prepares as many equal sized pieces of white paper as are necessary, which are numbered consecutively.
The admissions officer folds each numbered sheet and seals them in identical envelopes, that is, envelopes with no visibly identifiable differences.
The admissions officer shuffles the envelopes and hands them to the person who makes the draw, who shuffles the envelopes again, picks one envelope and opens it.
The admissions officer records the first number drawn on the 'random allocation record sheet'.
If more than one place can be offered they continue to draw envelopes and record numbers until all of the available places are allocated.
The admissions officer then opens the previously sealed envelope containing the 'random allocation cross reference sheet' and records the numbers drawn on the 'random allocation cross reference sheet', marking clearly which child(ren) has(have) been allocated a place and which have not.
Once the process has been completed, the admissions officer, independent scrutineer and person who makes the draw should sign and date both the 'random allocation record sheet' and the 'random allocation cross reference sheet' in order to certify that the procedure has been carried out correctly.

Definition of roles

independent scrutineer - this is a person who ensures the process is carried out in a correct and transparent way - the independent scrutineer must be independent of the school for which the allocation is to be made and also must be independent of the council's admissions and transport team
admissions officer - this is an officer from the council's admissions and transport team who is responsible for carrying out the administration of the random allocation procedure and recording the results, under the scrutiny of the independent scrutineer
person who makes the draw - this must be a person independent of the school for which the allocation is to be made and must be a person who is not part of the council's admissions and transport team

Coordinated admissions arrangements

Our determined admission arrangements apply to community schools and voluntary controlled schools.

For schools that are able to set their own admissions policy, such as voluntary aided, trust schools and academies, please check their specific admission arrangements which should be available on the school websites.

Co-ordinated admissions arrangements 2025 - 2026

Co-ordinated admissions arrangements 2024 - 2025

Co-ordinated admissions arrangements 2023-2024

Co-ordinated admissions arrangements 2022-2023

You can read the official 'determined' admissions policy documents for community and voluntary controlled schools here.

School admissions statistics tables

You can view and download the yearly data and statistics for school admissions. This includes:

which schools had appeals
published admissions numbers
whether your preferred school was oversubscribed

We don't have any statistical data prior to 2010.

View primary and secondary school admissions statistics on the Data North Yorkshire website

Further information about admissions policies

How can I make an objection about a school's admissions arrangements?

Any person or body who considers that any maintained school or academy's arrangements are unlawful, or not in compliance with the code or relevant law relating to admissions, can make an objection to the schools adjudicator.

Objections must be referred to the adjudicator by 15 May in the determination year. Further information on how to make an objection can be obtained from the office of the schools adjudicator:

Office of the Schools Adjudicator, Bishopsgate House, Feethams, Darlington DL1 5QE
Telephone: 01325 340402
Email: osa.team@schoolsadjudicator.gov.uk
Website: GOV.UK office of the schools adjudicator