St Paul's Church of England Academy

When there are more applications than places for 2027-28 (Reception), places are offered in this order of priority. Meeting a higher criterion beats meeting a lower one.

1. 1Looked after children, children who were previously looked after or Internationally Adopted Previously Looked After Children (note 1)
2. 2Siblings [note 4] of children on the roll of St Paul’s CE Academy at the time of admission.
3. 3Children of parents [note 2] who have been members of staff at St. Paul’s CE Academy continuously [note 5] for the two years prior to the application for admission; or staff recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
4. 4Children who attend the St. Paul’s CE Nursery. They must attend a minimum of 15 hours per week for the whole academic year prior to starting school (September-July).
5. 5(For applicants in the normal admission round) Children or families with an exceptional medical and / or social need (see note 6). Supporting evidence from a professional is required such as a doctor and / or consultant for medical needs or a social worker, health visitor, housing officer, the police or probation officer for social needs. The evidence must confirm the child or family’s medical or social need and why that makes it essential that the child attends the academy rather than any other. If evidence is not submitted by the application deadline, the medical and / or social need cannot be considered.
6. 6Children living within the community area that has been designated to the school / academy.
7. 7Any other children Definitions: Note 1: 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. This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see Section 12 adoption orders) and children who were adopted under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (see Section 46 adoption orders). Child arrangements orders are defined in Section 8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by Section 12 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Child arrangements orders replace residence orders and any residence order in force prior to 22 April 2014 is deemed to be a child arrangements order. Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 which defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians). St. Paul’s CE Academy Admissions Arrangements – September 2027 Page 2 of 7 Note 2: Reference to parents includes legal guardians and applies to either or both parents, or a sole parent. Where only one parent/guardian satisfies a criterion, the application will be treated equally with one where the requirement is met by two parents. Note 3: The home address is where a child normally lives. Where a child lives with parents with shared parental responsibility, each for part of a week, the address where the child lives is determined using a joint declaration from the parents stating

If two applications tie: In the event of any of the above categories being over-subscribed, the Local Governing Body will take those children whose home address is nearest to the academy measured by the Local Authority's computerised measuring system. In the case of flats, they will be treated as equidistance from the school. In the event that applicants cannot be prioritised using distance as detailed above, because the distance measurements are the same, the Trust will use random allocation to decide which children will be offered the remaining places.

EHCP places allocated within PAN before other applications, or above PAN if places already offered. Admissions authority is Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust (DCAT). Arrangements last consulted December 2021, to be reviewed by December 2028.

Published by the admission authority. Meeting a criterion never guarantees a place — it sets the order places are offered in. Full detail, other entry points and previous years are on the Admissions tab.