Moorhouse Academy

When there are more applications than places for 2024-25 (Reception), places are offered in this order of priority. Meeting a higher criterion beats meeting a lower one.

1. 1Looked After Children, Previously Looked After Children and Internationally Adopted Looked After Children (LAC, PLAC and IAPLAC) — A "Looked After Child" (LAC) 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 "Previously Looked After Child" (PLAC) is a child who was looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order immediately following having been looked after. An "Internationally Adopted Previously Looked After Child (IAPLAC) is a child who appears (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.
2. 2Social and Medical need — Exceptional medical needs must be supported at the time of application by a letter from a GP, hospital consultant or other medical professional indicating how a pupil's medical condition relates only to the school of preference. Exceptional welfare considerations (such as children at risk) must be supported at the time of the application by a letter from a supporting agency (e.g. Social Worker, Family Support Worker, Education Welfare Officer) indicating how the circumstances relate only to the school of preference. It should be noted that providing such evidence does not automatically mean that a place will be allocated under this priority. This criterion will consider issues relevant to the child and/or the family in line with the Equalities Act 2010. If exceptional medical or exceptional welfare grounds are claimed after the allocation procedure has been completed, it will not be possible to allocate a place under this priority.
3. 3Children of staff — Children of all staff of the school will be considered where the parent has a permanent contract of employment. Their normal base of work must be at Crossley Street, Milnrow, Rochdale, OL16 4DR and their employment contract must have been in place for two or more years at the time of the closing date for application for admission.
4. 4Siblings — For the purposes of these arrangements, a sibling is defined as natural brothers or sisters, half-brothers and half-sisters, step-brothers and step-sisters and adopted or fostered brothers and sisters. The sibling must be residing at the same address and must not be a cousin or other relative. Priority may only be claimed under this criterion where the sibling is attending the school at the time the application is submitted and is expected to still be attending the school at the time when this child is due to be admitted. As such, for applications made in the normal admissions round, a sibling who is currently in Year 6 or Year 11 would not be considered as a genuine sibling link.
5. 5Children attending Moorhouse Nursery — In order to claim this priority, the child must have attended Moorhouse Academy Nursery for over a term prior to January. Children not meeting this criteria who attend Moorhouse Academy Nursery will be considered under criteria 7.
6. 6Children eligible for the service premium — Pupils attract SPP if they meet one of the following criteria: one of their parents is serving in the regular armed forces (including pupils with a parent who is on full commitment as part of the full time reserve service); they have been registered as a 'service child' on a school census since 2016, on the DfE's ever 6 service child measure; one of their parents died whilst serving in the armed forces and the pupil receives a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pensions Scheme. Children have to be flagged as service children ahead of the autumn school census deadline. Service parents need to make the school aware of their status by talking to the head teacher or school admin staff. Evidence of eligibility for the Service Pupil Premium (such as a copy of a military identification (ID) card) must be submitted at the time of your application.
7. 7Distance from school — Priority will be given to children who live nearest to the school as measured by the Local Authority's GIS system. Distances are measured in a straight line "as the crow flies" from the Easting and Northing coordinates of the child's home address as taken from the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG), to the identified school gate used for admissions at the school.

If two applications tie: Where there are two or more applications that cannot be separated by using the above stated criteria, priority will be determined by random allocation. This process will be independently verified. If a tie-break is required in earlier categories to decide who has priority for admission, distance from the school will be used and will be measured as described in criterion 7 above.

Admission number is 30 for Reception. The school will admit any pupils with an Education, Health and Care plan naming the school before applying the oversubscription criteria.

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.