Cottesbrooke Infant and Nursery School

When to apply

Parents can apply for a place in the Autumn of the year before their child turns 4. You must apply for a place as soon as possible:

• attendance at a nursery class does not give a child automatic priority for a place.
• do not wait until your child is five years old, or your preferred school may already be full.

School to apply

• You can list up to three different primary schools as preferences in your application. This list of preferences can include schools outside of Birmingham.
• Birmingham City Council runs a coordinated admissions scheme with neighbouring local authorities.
• If you are applying for schools in another local authority, we recommend you contact them for their admissions arrangements. This will help you decide if your application will likely be successful.
• Birmingham City Council will only deal with applications for school places if you live in Birmingham and pay council tax to the authority.
• If you live in Birmingham, you must still make your application to Birmingham City Council.

Supplementary information

• some schools (mainly faith schools and some academies) will ask you to send supplementary information directly to them
• supplementary information forms are available from the school
• once you have submitted your supplementary information form to the school, make sure you also submit your online application, or you will not be considered for a place at that school

The supplementary information form for Birmingham's Voluntary Controlled schools is available below. These schools include Al-Furqan Primary School, Christ Church CE Primary School, St James CE Primary School, St Matthew's CE Primary School and St Saviour's CE Primary School.

Waiting lists

If you do not receive an offer of a place at your higher preference Birmingham schools, your child's name will automatically be placed on the waiting lists for those schools.

Note that waiting lists are compiled in the same order as the oversubscription criteria. For example, children with siblings are a higher priority. Late applicants are also added according to this order, so your child's name could move down and up a waiting list. Having a place on the waiting list does not mean a place will become available.

Information on waiting list positions will not be available until Tuesday 7 May.

From 7 May , you can phone children's services on 0121 303 1888, who will let you know who holds the waiting list for the school you want. This will be either school admissions or the school itself.

Waiting list advice will not be available before 7 May to allow time for offers to be accepted and refused.

The admissions team will contact you if a school place becomes available for your child from a waiting list.

For schools outside of Birmingham, check the relevant local authority's website for information about their waiting lists.

Appeals

You can appeal at a school where you have applied and been refused admission.

If you plan to appeal, read the advice carefully. You can only appeal against the refusal of a place at a school that is currently one of your live preferences.

Appeals are heard and decided by panels that are independent of the council and the school(s) you may appeal for.

It is important you understand that the circumstances in which an appeal panel may uphold an infant class size appeal (reception class, year 1 or year 2 only) are extremely limited.

For an appeal to be successful, an appeal panel must be satisfied that:

• the admission of additional children would not breach the infant class size limit
• the child would have been offered a place if the published admission arrangements had been properly implemented
• the child would have been offered a place if the arrangements had not been contrary to mandatory provisions in the School Admissions Code and the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, and/or
• the decision to refuse admission was not one that a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case

Appeals are generally only successful if you or your child have exceptional reasons for needing admission to a particular school.

There are no guarantees that any appeal will be successful. Below you can find a table of the number of heard and successful appeals administered by the council over the last 3 years.