Children with an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) will be placed under the latest Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) regulations. Children with an EHCP that names a school will be allocated a place before other children are considered. In this way, the number of places available will be reduced by the number of children with an EHCP that has named the school. Placements in special schools and special resource units located in Hillingdon are determined outside of these arrangements using the London Borough of Hillingdon SEND published protocols.
Parents must apply directly to the admission authority for a community school or schools of their preference. The Local Authority is the admission authority for Community Schools. Academies, Voluntary Aided Schools, Foundation Schools, Free Schools are their own admission authorities. Parents can either apply directly to the non-community schools or through the Local Authority.
The relevant admission authority will make available a suitable form on which an application may be made. The Local Authority will make available a suitable form for parents to complete when applying for a place at any school for which they are not the admission authority as required.
Every admission authority is required to notify the Local Authority of both the application and the outcome of the application so that the Local Authority can meet its statutory duty to keep up to date figures on the availability of school places in the area.
Admission authorities must inform parents of their right of appeal against refusal of a place.
In accordance with the co-ordination of junior school places, parents can complete a common application form naming up to 6 preferences for a junior school.
Priority is given to pupils already attending year 2 in an infant school for admission to the linked junior school. In Hillingdon, infant and junior schools are linked where they share the same name
Hillingdon residents with children attending year 2 in an infant School in Hillingdon must apply to continue their education at any junior school by completing the application form available from LB Hillingdon and online.
Hillingdon residents with children attending year 2 in an infant School not in Hillingdon will need to complete a Hillingdon application form. Details of the application will be forwarded to the maintaining local authority.
Residents whose children attend year 2 in an infant School in Hillingdon but do not live in Hillingdon will need to submit an application through their own local authority in order to be considered for a year 3 place in a Hillingdon junior school.
Any resident wishing to transfer from an infant school to a primary school at the start of year 3 should complete an In-Year application.
The local authority has delegated the admissions of nursery children to the governing body of community schools/nurseries. Applicants wishing to apply for a place must complete the application form and submit it directly to the school or nursery that they wish to apply for, in accordance with the dates set by the school.
Each nursery class within community infant and primary schools will either operate one or two part-time sessions of up to 3 hours a day or may also operate full-time provision for children of parents who meet the criteria for an offer of a full-time nursery place for children of working parents, depending on the school. This means that children might normally attend in the morning or afternoon, although if the school is offering the place more flexibly this could be over a longer period. Children attending a nursery in a community infant or primary school would normally either attend for 5 morning or 5 afternoon sessions per week. If the school is offering full-time nursery provision for working parents (as defined by government guidelines), children would normally attend both morning and afternoon sessions, 5 days per week. Further information about individual nursery arrangements can be sought from the nursery school direct.
Attendance at a nursery does not guarantee a place in the reception of the school. In some instances, not all children attending the nursery will be allocated a place in the full-time school as there may be children not in the nursery who have a higher priority in respect of a full-time place.
Waiting lists for Community Schools are maintained by the LA in accordance with the published admission criteria. Children’s names will be added to the list at the request of a parent (in the case of in year applications) and places will be offered throughout the year as vacancies arise. Children may move down the waiting list if another family applies, with a higher priority under the admission criteria.
In the case of a new reception application, the child’s name will automatically be placed on the waiting list for Hillingdon Community schools which were a higher preference than the offer made. Parents who wish their child to be added to the waiting list of a lower preference must reapply for a place at that school. Waiting lists are not compiled on a first come first served basis and so time on the list does not give any priority. A child’s position on the waiting lists will be held for the academic year in which they apply.
Waiting lists for community schools will be maintained until the last day of the Summer term 2023 when they will be cancelled. Parents will be prompted to re-register their interest with the School Placement and Admissions Team should they wish to remain on a waiting list for future academic years.
Where two or more children share a priority for a place, eg where two children live equidistant from a community school and only one place remains, Hillingdon Council will use a computerised random allocation to determine which child should be given priority.
Where the child lives in a block of flats with a communal entrance the centre point used is the central point of the block of flats (as defined by Ordnance Survey) and not the individual flat. If children are tied for the final place(s) to be allocated within a single block of flats, priority for the final place(s) will be determined by random allocation (as described above).
Generally, a sibling means a child’s brother or sister, stepbrother or stepsister, with at least one parent in common, and/or an adopted brother or sister living in the same household. Cousins or other family members (even if living in the same household) do not qualify as a sibling. To qualify for the sibling criterion, the sibling must be attending the school named at the time of admission. If the sibling is already in year 6 and, come September, when the applicant will be starting the school, the sibling will no longer be attending, the sibling criterion may not be met.
The Fair Access Protocol is used by local authorities to place pupils applying for an in-year school place in schools where the child is hard to place, for example where there are no vacancies at a school within a reasonable distance or where there are behaviour concerns. Please see the London Borough of Hillingdon’s website for the Fair Access Protocol. The Protocol will not apply to a looked after child, or a child with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school in question, as these children must be admitted.
In Hillingdon, children can start school in the September immediately following the child’s fourth birthday. Parents can request that the date their child is admitted to school is deferred until later in the year or until the child is statutory school age and can request that their child takes up the place parttime until this time. Parents should discuss all the options with the Headteacher of the school taking into account their views of a child’s maturity and readiness to enter reception class.
Where a place cannot be offered parents/applicants have the right of appeal under the School Standards & Framework Act 1998 against the refusal of a place at any of the schools for which they have applied.
Hillingdon Council is the admission authority for all community primary schools in Hillingdon and is responsible for arranging and hosting the appeal hearings for these schools. The timetable for organising and hearing community school appeals is as follows:
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