Oakmeadow Church of England Primary and Nursery School

When there are more applications than places for 2025-26 (Reception), places are offered in this order of priority. Meeting a higher criterion beats meeting a lower one.

1. 1Priority 1a – Looked After Children / Previously Looked After Children (England) — Priority will be given to CYP in public care, usually referred to as 'Looked After Children', and CYP who were previously 'looked after'. These are CYP 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). CYP within, or from state care, within England.
2. 2Priority 1b – Previously in state care outside England and adopted — CYP who appear (to the admission authority of the Trust) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. (A child is regarded as having been in state care in a place outside of England if they were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation or any other provider of care whose sole purpose is to benefit society)
3. 3Priority 1c – Medical or social exceptionality — Priority will be given to a child where medical or social exceptionalities are accommodated, if parents/carers can provide written evidence from a medical professional that attending the school is essential to the medical well-being of the child.
4. 4Priority 2 – Catchment area children — Priority will be given to CYP living within the designated catchment area. If there are not enough places for all the CYP in the catchment area, then the following criteria for admission will apply: 1) Priority will be given to CYP living within the catchment area who will have an older sibling at the school (including sixth form if applicable) on the day they are due to start there. 2) Shrewsbury Academy only: After that, priority will be given to other CYP who live within the Shrewsbury catchment area for whom the school is the nearest Shrewsbury secondary school. For this 'Nearest School Test', a straight-line computerised mapping system is used, to determine the distance between home and the nearest appropriate official entrance gate to the school site. 3) After that, any other CYP who live within the catchment area.
5. 5Priority 3 – Children of staff — CYP who have a parent/carer who is a member of staff, who has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage by the school.
6. 6Priority 4 – Children living outside the catchment area — After that any places that are left will be offered to CYP who live outside the catchment area according to the following criteria: 1) CYP who have an older sibling at the school (including sixth form if applicable) on the day they are due to start and whose homes are nearest to the school. 2) (Does not apply to Shrewsbury Academy) Secondly, priority will be given to CYP living outside the catchment area without an older sibling at the school, but who have attended a state-funded primary school that lies within the secondary school's catchment area, for more than a whole academic year immediately prior to transfer. 3) After that, priority will be given to other CYP who live outside the catchment area.

If two applications tie: In the event that two individual applications are exactly the same, after all other criteria have been taken into account, a tie breaker will be used. This will be by random allocation, and overseen by an independent party not connected with the admissions process. The Trust will liaise with Shropshire County Council if this is required.

This is a multi-academy trust policy covering multiple schools (Cockshutt CE Primary 15, Criftins CE Primary 12, Grange Primary 60, The Grove School & Sixth Form 208, Idsall School 216, Longlands Primary 30, Lower Heath CE Primary 15, The Marches School 270, Oakmeadow CE Primary 60, Selattyn CE Primary 13, Shrewsbury Academy 237, Sir John Talbot's School 135, Tilstock CE Primary 10, Woodlands School LA-determined 82). The criteria listed are the secondary school oversubscription criteria; primary school criteria are similar but with minor differences. Shrewsbury Academy has a 'Nearest School Test' sub-criterion within Priority 2 and Priority 4 sub-criterion 2 does not apply to it. Distances are measured by straight-line computerised mapping. Siblings defined as brother/sister/stepbrother/stepsister/half-brother/half-sister living at same address as same family unit.

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.