Appendix 3 - Determined admissions policy for community and voluntary controlled schools 2026 to 2027

All governing bodies are required by section 324 of the Education Act 1996 to admit to the school a child with an educational health and care plan that names the school. This is not an oversubscription criterion. This relates only to children who have undergone statutory assessment and for whom a final educational health and care plan has been issued.

If the number of applications exceeds the published admission number, after the admission of children where the school is named in the education health and care plan the following oversubscription criteria will apply:

Order of priority	Notes
Priority group 1 Looked after children, all previously looked after children and 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. Previously looked after children are children who were looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted (1) or became subject to a child arrangement order (2) or special guardianship order.	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. In the case of previously looked after children, a copy of the relevant documentation will be required in support of the application. 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. (1) This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 and Children who were adopted under the Adopted and Children's Act 2002. (2) Child Arrangement Orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a Child Arrangement Order.
Priority group 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 reason(s) why the school in question is the only school which can meet the child’s needs 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.
Priority group 3 Children living within the normal area of the school.	Refer to tie break.
Priority group 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 post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage
Priority group 5 Children living outside the normal area of the school.	Refer to tie break

Order of priority

Notes

Priority group 1

Looked after children, all previously looked after children and 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.

Previously looked after children are children who were looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted (1) or became subject to a child arrangement order (2) or special guardianship order.

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.

In the case of previously looked after children, a copy of the relevant documentation will be required in support of the application.

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.

(1) This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 and Children who were adopted under the Adopted and Children's Act 2002.

(2) Child Arrangement Orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a Child Arrangement Order.

Priority group 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 reason(s) why the school in question is the only school which can meet the child’s needs 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.

Priority group 3

Children living within the normal area of the school.

Refer to tie break.

Priority group 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 post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage

Priority group 5

Children living outside the normal area of the school.

Refer to tie break

Normal area, as outlined in this policy, is also known as the catchment area for a home address.

Children in higher priority groups will be offered places ahead of those in lower priority groups (priority group 1 being the highest and priority group 5 being the lowest). All applications within each priority group will be considered equally (for instance, all applications, regardless of order of preference).

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 in September 2026, who live the nearest to 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 who live permanently at the same address where the child for whom the school place is sought is living in the same family unit) and then to those living nearest the school.

All distance measurements are based on the nearest route which is recognised by North Yorkshire Council's 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 school admissions team.

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

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 when 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.

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.

Process to be followed

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, for instance, 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 the 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.

Admission of children outside their normal age group

Families may seek a place for their child outside of his/her normal age group under various circumstances such as ill health, if the child is gifted and talented or when the child has experienced problems.

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