Ashton West End Primary Academy 

ACADEMIC YEAR 2027-2028

Introduction

Ashton West End Primary Academy is an inclusive school and welcomes children from the local community. We believe that strong parental or guardian involvement is essential for the success of every pupil and all parents, guardians and pupils will be invited to meet with staff at the Academy after a place has been offered.

These admission arrangements do not apply to those children being admitted for nursery provision (please see our Nursery Admission Arrangements document). Having a child in our nursery does not guarantee entry into our Reception Classes and a separate application for Reception Admission will have to be made to Tameside Local Authority.

Criteria for Admission

Children become of compulsory school age in the term following their fifth birthday but can apply to start at Ashton West End Academy at the beginning of the school year in which they reach five years of age.

Children in Tameside are eligible for a Reception place from the beginning of the school year in which they become 5 years old. However, they do not become of compulsory school until the start of the term after their fifth birthday. Parents may therefore request that their school place be deferred until later in the school year and if they do this the place will be held for the child. However, they cannot defer entry beyond the beginning of the term after the child’s fifth birthday, and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which it was made.  Parents can also request that their child attend on a part time basis until the child reaches compulsory school age.

 

Admission outside normal age range 

Parents are entitled to request a place for their child outside of their normal age group.

Parents considering requesting a place for their child outside of their normal year group should contact the school in the first instance.

Decisions on requests for admission outside the normal age group will be made on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. In accordance with the School Admissions Code, this will include taking account of:

 

• Parents’ views
• Information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development
• Where relevant, their medical history and the views of a medical professional
• Whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group
• Whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely
• The headteacher’s views

 

Wherever possible, requests for admission outside a child’s normal age group will be processed as part of the main admissions round. They will be considered on the basis of the admission arrangements laid out in this policy, including the oversubscription criteria listed. Applications will not be treated as a lower priority, if parents have made a request for a child to be admitted outside the normal age group.

 

Parents will always be informed of the reasons for any decision on the year group a child should be admitted to. Parents do not have a right to appeal if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group. 

 

Admissions Procedure

If you are a Tameside resident, and wish to attend Ashton West End Academy, please register your interest at the school by the end of October 2026. 

For all children who have been registered, the school will send out details of how to apply in November 2026.  You should use your application to apply for Ashton West End Academy and any primary school, whether this is in Tameside or in another Local Authority area. Application details may also be obtained from the Admissions Section at Tameside MBC - https://www.tameside.gov.uk/admissions

If you are not a Tameside resident but wish to apply to Ashton West End Academy you must make your application to the Local Authority where you live. Applications must be returned in accordance with your own local authority’s specific instructions and not to Tameside.

 

THE PROCESS

The application will invite parents to indicate a preference for up to 6 schools, and then to rank the schools in order of preference, parents will also be able to give reasons for each preference.

Your application must be submitted by the closing date of 15^th January 2027, with any supporting information / evidence if appropriate.

Ashton West End Academy will follow the timetable set out in the coordinated admissions scheme. Late applications will be dealt with as late and ranked after all applications received by the deadline.

Changes to preferences, ranking order, or pupil details, will not be allowed after the closing date of 15^th January 2027 except in exceptional circumstances, for example, if the family has recently moved address. Evidence must be provided to support the request. An intention to change address cannot be considered until the move has taken place and proof is available, or parents may provide a solicitor’s letter confirming an exchange of contracts on a property, or a tenancy agreement and proof of disposal of current property. No changes can be considered even where there are exceptional circumstances, once information has been exchanged with other admission bodies because the allocations process has commenced. In the case of primary schools this cut-off date is 21^st January 2027. 

 

Notification of offers of a single school place will be sent out to parents on 16^th April 2027. These notifications will also inform parents of their right of appeal, and who to contact, if an application has not been successful.

 

Parents will not receive multiple offers.

 

Ashton West End Primary Academy has an admission number of 60 pupils for entry into Reception. All applicants will be admitted if 60 or fewer apply.

 

Where applications for admission to Ashton West End Academy exceed the number of places available, the following criteria will be applied, in the order set out below, to decide which children to admit.

 

 

CRITERIA FOR ALLOCATING PLACES TO OVERSUBSCRIBED SCHOOLS

 

 

Children with Education Health Care Plans where Ashton West End Academy is named will be allocated places before the oversubscription criteria are applied. The criteria for over-subscription at Ashton West End Primary Academy is: 

 

1. Looked after children and all previously looked after children, including those children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased 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  (or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order

 

 A 'looked after child' is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school.  A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society.

 

2.    Children and families with exceptional medical or social needs

 

Written evidence must be provided by a suitably qualified professional – e.g. a GP or consultant for medical needs, or a social worker for social needs – the information must confirm the exceptional medical or social need and demonstrate how the specified school is the only school that can meet the defined needs of the child. A panel of officers from Ashton West End Academy will make a decision as to whether to admit a child under this criterion, using the evidence provided. Parents/carers are responsible for providing all information in support of an application by the closing date, officers of the Council will not ask for additional information. All information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence.

 

3.   Sibling

 

This will apply where there are brothers or sisters attending Ashton West End Academy at the time of application, who will still be attending at the time of admission, i.e. in the September when a pupil is admitted to Reception. Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school.

 

The sibling criterion includes; natural sisters/brothers; half-sisters/brothers; step sisters/brothers; adopted sisters/brothers; sisters/brothers of fostered children; children of the parent/carer’s partner, and in each case living at the same address. This allows for the admittance of children whose siblings will still be attending the preferred school.

 

4.    All other applications on distance

 

Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school

 

Distance will be measured as a straight line from the child’s home address, using the address point assigned by the National Land and Property Gazetteer, to the main gate to the school property. Measurements will be made using the local authority’s school admissions data mapping software, which uses a Geographical Information System based on Ordnance Survey.

 

Where oversubscription occurs in applying either criteria 1, 2 or 3, priority will be given to those pupils living nearest the school, measured as a straight line (as above).

 

The address from which distance will be measured will be the permanent residential address, at the time of application, of the parent with whom the child is normally resident. Where a child lives with parents with shared responsibility, each for part of a week, the home address is the address from which the child travels to school for the majority of school days per week.

 

In the event of distances being the same for 2 or more applications where this distance would be the last place/s to be allocated, the place will be allocated to the pupil that is nearer using walking distance as measured using the local authority’s school admissions data mapping software.

 

In the event of two or more applications with distances, which are exactly the same competing for a final place, e.g. blocks of flats, the place will be decided by drawing lots, the first name drawn will be offered the place.

 

An adoption order is an order under section 46 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002. A

 

‘residence order’ is as an order settling the arrangements to be made as to the person with whom the child is to live under section 8 of the Children Act 1989. Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).

 

In cases where twins, triplets, or other multiple birth siblings are split when allocations take place, they will be allocated a place over the Published Admission Number and will remain excepted pupils for the time they are in an infant class or until the class numbers fall back to the current infant class size limit.

 

WAITING LISTS

 

If the school is oversubscribed a waiting list will be maintained. The waiting list will operate until the end of the relevant school year. Parents who have expressed the school as a preference and have not been offered a place at the school, will automatically be placed on the waiting list. All pupils on the waiting list will be ranked according to the oversubscription criteria. When a place becomes available children, who have been referred under the local authority’s Fair Access protocol or who are the subject of a direction by the local authority to admit will be given precedence over any other children on the waiting list. Then any places will be offered to the highest ranked application received by the date the place becomes available. If new or late applications have a higher priority under the oversubscription criteria, they will be ranked higher than those who have been on the list for some time. If the circumstances of children on the waiting list change (e.g. they move to a new house) they should inform the school immediately and provide appropriate supporting evidence).

 

The school operates a waiting list through the local authority for in-year transfers. This is for all year groups e.g. from reception to year six and they will be in operation for the duration of the academic year.

 

APPEALS

 

If an application for a place at Ashton West End Academy is not successful parents have the right of appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel. Parents should make their appeal in writing, setting out clearly the reasons they believe their child should attend the academy, and providing any substantiating evidence. Parents will receive information about appeals with the letter confirming which school they have been allocated. This information is also available on the School Admissions webpage http://www.tameside.gov.uk/admissions 

Introduction

Ashton West End Nursery Academy is an inclusive school and welcomes children from the local community. We believe that strong parental or guardian involvement is essential for the success of every pupil and all parents, guardians and pupils will be invited to meet with staff at the academy after a place has been offered.

 

Criteria for Admission

All children are entitled to a free part-time nursery education place from the term after their third birthday. Each child is entitled to a maximum of 15 hours free early years education per week in the year before the child enters Reception class.

 

In the first instance places will be allocated to Tameside residents who will be four years old between the 1^st September of the year prior to admission and the 31^st August of the year of admission.

 

Admissions Procedure

 

Ashton West End will admit 52 nursery children for the school year September 2027 to July 2028. The school offers either five morning sessions of three hours each, or five afternoon sessions of three hours each during each school week.

 

Prospective parents should register their interest with the academy as soon as possible by completing and submitting an application form which is available from the school office. Forms should be submitted to Ashton West End Primary Academy no later than February of the year the child will start nursery school.

 

All parents who have returned an application form before the end of February of the year the child will start nursery school will be contacted in writing by Ashton West End in the following month, March. The letter will ask parents to confirm that they wish to take up a place, if available, by returning an enclosed confirmation slip.

 

The confirmation slip must be returned to the academy before the date stated in the letter for the child to be considered for a place. If the confirmation slip is not returned by the specified date the offer will be withdrawn and the place offered to another child.

 

Oversubscription Criteria

Ashton West End Academy has an admission number of 52 pupils for entry into the nursery. All applicants will be admitted if 52 or fewer confirm their application.

Preferences for morning or afternoon nursery sessions will be given in the order in which the confirmation forms are returned to the academy.

When the number of applicants exceeds 52 the governing body will apply the following oversubscription criteria, in order:

 

1. Looked after children (a looked after child is a child who is in the care of a local authority or is being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions as defined in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989).

 

1. Children with Special Educational Needs, exceptional medical needs or home

 

circumstances (independent information from professionals involved with the child must be submitted to provide full details and substantiate these conditions and all information will be treated in the strictest confidence). The governing body will consider each of these cases according to the evidence provided before making a decision regarding admission.

 

1. A child who is four years old by the 31^st August prior to the September of the year of admission and has brothers or sisters who will be pupils of Ashton West End Primary Academy during the academic year of admission.

 

1. The age of the child; priority will be given to children in the following order:

 

1. Children who will be four years old by the 31^st December of the relevant academic year

 

1. Children who will be four years old by the 31^st March of the relevant academic year

 

1. Children who will be four years old by the 31^st August of the relevant academic year

 

Proximity to the school will be used to make a final decision for applications in categories 2 to 4 above.

 

A waiting list will be kept of any children who have not been granted a place and parents contacted if one should become available.

 

Decisions made by the governing body to allocate places are final and there is no right of appeal against such decisions.