Dixons Pennine Academy

Admissions Policy for Dixons Pennine Academy

2027 - 2028

Responsibility for Review: School and College Trust Leader

Date Approved: February 2026

Review Date: December 2027

1.0 Aims

This policy aims to:

• Explain how to apply for a place at the school
• Set out the school’s arrangements for allocating places to the pupils who apply
• Explain how to appeal against a decision not to offer your child a place

2.0 Legislation and statutory requirements

This policy is based on the following advice from the Department for Education (DfE):

• School Admissions Code
• School Admission Appeals Code

As an academy, the school is required by its funding agreement to comply with these codes, and with the law relating to admissions as set out in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.

This policy complies with our funding agreement and articles of association.

3.0 Definitions

The normal admissions round is the period during which parents can apply for state-funded school places at the school’s normal point of entry, using the common application form provided by their home local authority.

Looked after children are children who, at the time of making an application to a school, are:

• In the care of a local authority, or
• Being provided with accommodation by a local authority in exercise of its social services functions
• 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.

Previously looked after children are children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they:

• Were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 or the Adoption and Children Act 2002, or
• Became subject to a child arrangements order, or
• Became subject to a special guardianship order

A child reaches compulsory school age on the prescribed day following his or her fifth birthday (or on his or her fifth birthday if it falls on a prescribed day). The prescribed days are 31 December, 31 March and 31 August.

Published Admission Number (PAN)

This is the number of pupils in each year group that the admission authority (Dixons Academies Trust) has agreed will be admitted. The PAN for Dixons Pennine Academy for 2027/28 is as follows:

Please Note: The Additional Resource Base Provision is admission in addition to PAN to be allocated via the EHCP consultation process.

4.0 How to apply

For applications in the normal admissions round you should use the application form provided by your home local authority (regardless of which local authority the schools are in). You can use this form to express your preference for a minimum of 6 state-funded schools, in rank order.

You will receive an offer for a school place directly from your local authority.

5.0 Requests for admission outside the normal age group

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 in section 6.

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.

6.0 Allocation of places

6.1 Admission number

The school has an agreed admission number of 150 pupils for entry in year 7.

6.2 Oversubscription criteria

All children whose Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan names the school will be admitted before any other places are allocated.

If the school is not oversubscribed, all applicants will be offered a place.

In the event that the school receives more applications than the number of places it has available, places will be given to those children who meet any of the criteria set out below, in order until all places are filled.

1. Highest priority will be given to 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 who apply for a place at the school. 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.
2. Priority will next be given to children on the basis of social or medical need. 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 from the Academy Trust 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. All information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence.
3. Priority will next be given to children with siblings at the academy at the time of admission

For admission purposes, a sibling is a child who resides at the same address as the child for whom a place is being requested, and is one of the following:-

1. brother/sister
2. half-brother/sister (i.e. share one common parent)
3. stepbrother/sister (i.e. related by a parent’s marriage)
4. any other child for whom it can be demonstrated that s/he is residing permanently at the same address (e.g. under the terms of a residence order).

The sibling connection only applies where families have a sibling attending the school at the time of the application as well as at the time of admission.

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 (PAN).

1. Priority will next be given to children who attend named feeder primary schools on the closing date for applications. Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school. Our named feeder schools are:
   1. Arlies
   2. Buckton Vale
   3. Gorse Hall
   4. Millbrook
   5. Silver Springs
   6. St Paul’s C of E Stalybridge
   7. St Peter’s RC
   8. St Raphael’s RC
   9. Stalyhill Junior
   10. Wild Bank.
2. Priority will next be given on the basis of distance of residence from the school.

Preference will be given to pupils living nearest to the school. Distance will also be used as a tie-breaker where oversubscription occurs within any of criteria 1 to 4. 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.

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 parents have shared responsibility for a child and the child lives with both parents for part of the week then the main residence will be determined as the address where the child lives for a majority of the school week. If the child equally shares living with both parents, the parents must inform the local authority which address should be used for admission purposes and which parent will make the application. Parents may be requested to supply documentary evidence to support the address used for the application.

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.

The home address of a pupil is considered to be the permanent residence of a child in a residential property when the place is offered. Documentary evidence relating to house moves taking place between National Offer Day and the start of the academic year in September, will be considered. The address must be the child’s only or main residence and is either:

1. owned by the child’s parent(s) or guardian(s)
2. Leased to or rented by the child’s parent(s), carer(s) or guardian(s) under lease or written rental agreement.

6.3 Tie break

In the case of two or more applications that cannot be separated by the oversubscription criteria outlined above, the school will use random allocation as a tie breaker to decide between applicants. This process will be independently verified.

6.4 Children of UK Services Personnel

The Trust acknowledges that service families are subject to movement within the UK and from abroad. Although the council is not able to reserve places for blocks of pupils, we will consider requests, if accompanied by an official MOD letter declaring a relocation date and a Unit postal address or quartering area address. In-year admissions places will be allocated, subject to a place being available in the relevant year group, prior to moving. If we are unable to allocate a place at that time, parents will be offered the right to appeal.

6.5 Waiting list

For admissions in the normal admissions round, if there are no spaces available at the time of your application, your child’s name will be added to a waiting list for the relevant year group. When a space becomes available it will be filled by one of the pupils on the waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria listed in section 6.2 of this policy. Priority will not be given to children on the basis that they have been on the waiting list the longest. The school operates its waiting list for the statutory period of up to the 31 December.

6.6 Additional Resource Base Provision

Entry into the Additional Resource Base Provision requires an EHCP, the consultation and EHCP process will determine entry.

7.0 In-year admissions

You can apply for a place for your child at any time outside the normal admissions round. As is the case in the normal admissions round, all children whose EHC plan names the school will be admitted.

Likewise, if there are spaces available in the year group you are applying for, your child will be offered a place.

For applications for in-year admissions you should use the application form provided by your home local authority (regardless of which local authority the schools are in).

8.0 Appeals

If your child’s application for a place at the school is unsuccessful, you will be informed why admission was refused and given information about the process for hearing appeals. If you wish to appeal, you must set out the grounds for your appeal in writing using the appeals process for the Local Authority in which the school is situated.

You can find details of the school’s appeals timetable on the following webpage: Admissions | Dixons Pennine Academy 

9.0 Monitoring arrangements

This policy will be reviewed and approved by Dixons Academies Trust every year.

Whenever changes to admission arrangements are proposed (except where the change is an increase to the agreed admission number), the Trust will publicly consult.