School admissions, primary transfer 2023
Introduction
The 17th April 2023 is National Allocation Day when parents/carers of children throughout England will learn which primary school place has been offered to their child for September 2023. Parents of children moving from infant to junior school will also hear the outcome of their application on this date.
All parents/carers of children in Gloucestershire who applied for a school place on-line will receive an email confirming the school place after 9:00am on 17th April 2023. Those parents who did not apply on line will receive a letter.
The Process
The County Council co-ordinates Reception admissions to all maintained schools and academies. The national closing date for primary school applications was 15th January 2023 and parents/carers in Gloucestershire were given the opportunity to apply for up to five schools.
Allocations of school places are determined by the level of preference stated by the parent and the oversubscription criteria for schools (where too many children request places at particular schools). The oversubscription criteria for community and voluntary controlled schools is determined by the County Council; Governing Bodies of all foundation and voluntary aided schools and academies are responsible for their own criteria.
Where a parent’s/carer’s preferred schools are unable to offer places to their child, the child will be offered a place at the nearest school to the home address which has places available
2023 Allocations
This year 6325 children will be offered a place in one of Gloucestershire’s primary schools – 88 of whom live in a neighbouring county. In addition, there are 124 Gloucestershire children who will be offered their preferred school in a neighbouring county.
92% of parents/carers who have submitted applications have been offered their first preference school and 99% have been offered places at one of their preferred schools.
Advice for parents/carers
Those parent/carer’s who were allocated their first preference school and who applied on-line will not receive a letter or paper reply form and can simply accept their place on-line. All other parents will receive a reply form with their allocation letter and it is important that they return these to the Co-ordinated Admissions Team.
Some parents will be anxious that their child has not been offered a place at their preferred school. It may be helpful to know that places will always become available after the initial allocation and we have therefore tried to make it clear in our information that there is a second stage of allocations where we may be able to reconsider their preferences. This happens when some parents refuse the school place offered (moving out of the area or attending independent school etc.) so we are able to offer that place to the child at the top of the waiting list.
If parents would like their preferences to be reconsidered, they should state this on the reply form. Since we cannot guarantee that a place at the preferred school will become available, we strongly recommend that parents/carers who ask for reconsideration also accept the school place offered to them initially - this will not affect reconsideration of their preferred school, but will ensure that they have the certainty of a school place for their child in September.
The results of this reconsideration will be sent to parents/carers after 15th May 2023. It is therefore recommended that only those who are still unhappy with their child’s school allocation after this date contact the co-ordinated admissions team. Parents/carers have a third opportunity to secure their preferred choice by means of a formal appeal and will receive information about this process with their final decision letter.
If you are contacted by any parent after the initial allocation on 17th April, it would be helpful if you could outline this process and explain that the co-ordinated admissions team will endeavour to reconsider parental preferences, where possible, during the second round of allocations (between 24th April – 14th May 2023).
If Members have any questions regarding the admissions process, please contact:
Clare Medland, Joint Head of Education Planning & Infrastructure on 01452 328686 clare.medland@gloucestershire.gov.uk
or
Gareth Vine, Joint Head of Education Planning & Infrastructure on 01452 427547 gareth.vine@gloucestershire.gov.uk
Parents should be advised to contact Co-ordinated Admissions staff within the Education Planning & Infrastructure at Shire Hall, Westgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 2TP, t: 01452 425407 or email: school.admissions@gloucestershire.gov.uk.