Rotherhithe Primary School

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 and previously looked after children — 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. A 'previously looked after child' is a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order including those 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.
2. 2Linked Infant to Junior School transfer — Children attending Infants Schools will be able to transfer to the linked Junior School. If the number of applications from children attending the Infants School exceeds the number of places available at the linked Junior School, decisions on the allocation of spaces will be made in accordance with criterion 1 and then criterion 3 below. Linked schools: Alexandra Infant School / Alexandra Junior School; Joydens Wood Infant School / Joydens Wood Junior School; Highfield Infants' School / Highfield Junior School; Pickhurst Infant Academy / Pickhurst Junior Academy.
3. 3Sibling — Children with a sibling still on roll at the same school or linked school as above at the time of entry. Sibling is defined as children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers and sister, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters and foster brothers and sisters.
4. 4Children of staff — Each individual school may admit children of members of staff where: a) the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time of which the application of admission to the school is made and/or b) The member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage. For inclusion in this category, the staff member must be permanently based at the school for more than 50% of their normal working hours each week during term time.
5. 5Acute medical or social needs — In exceptional circumstances each individual school may admit children on the grounds of their acute medical or social needs for that particular school if only the individual school is suitable for them to attend, and no other school within a reasonable distance from the child's address. The application must be supported by a letter from a hospital consultant, the special support service, social worker, or similar professional, setting out the reasons why the school is the only one to meet the child's needs before an admission decision is made. The admission decision will be considered in consultation with teaching and medical professionals. Supporting evidence must be provided before the closing date for applications.
6. 6Proximity — Distance will be measured (in a straight line) from the unique national grid reference (Easting and Northing) of the child's home address (including flats) to the main entrance of the school building. Those living closer to the school receiving higher priority. The furthest distance reached is checked to confirm it is unique. Where the next applicant measures the same, the system will go to further decimal places within a measurement to qualify who is nearer. Where applications are received from flats that have the same 'easting and northing' measurements, places will be allocated by door number, the lower the number the higher the priority. This is with the exception of schools in Kent, where, rather than door number, the names are issued a number and drawn randomly to allocate a place.

If two applications tie: If there are two identical distance measurements for different addresses of separate applicants within any of the oversubscription categories above, a tiebreak will be done by drawing lots. This will be a random allocation process and will be supervised by someone independent of the school/Trust.

This is a trust-wide policy covering multiple schools. Individual PANs are listed per school in the document. The policy excludes Alexandra Infant School specialist provision and Marjorie McClure School, which follow the EHCP pathway via Bromley LA. PANs for individual schools range from 30 to 120 for Reception and 64 to 96 for Year 3.

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.