Five Ways Primary School

When there are more applications than places for 2028-29 (Reception), places are offered in this order of priority. Meeting a higher criterion beats meeting a lower one.

1. 1Children in care / previously in care — Children in care and children who ceased to be in care because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order), including those children who appear to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
2. 2Exceptional medical/social circumstances (hardship test) — Children whose current exceptional circumstances satisfy both: Test 1 – the child is distinguished from the great majority of other applicants either on their own medical grounds which requires regular and sustained medical treatment or by other extreme exceptional circumstances; and Test 2 – the child will suffer hardship if they were unable to attend the preferred school rather than any other school.
3. 3Sibling attending — Children who have an elder sibling in attendance at the preferred school (or in the case of an infants school, the affiliated junior school) and who will still be attending the school at the proposed admission date.
4. 4Catchment area — Children whose home address is located within the catchment area of the preferred school.
5. 5Church attendance (certain VC primary schools) / Major contributory middle school (secondary Codsall) — Children whose parents regularly attend a Church of England church, or a church in communion with the Church of England, or of a church which is affiliated to the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland or the Evangelical Alliance (only certain voluntary controlled schools use this criterion); for secondary phase, Children who attend certain middle schools defined as major contributory middle schools.
6. 6Proximity to school — Other children arranged in order of priority according to how near their home addresses are to the main gate of the school, determined by a straight-line measurement as calculated by the local authority's geographical information system.

If two applications tie: If we cannot distinguish between applicants using the criteria listed, e.g. children who live in the same block of flats, then the child or children who will be offered the available spaces will be randomly selected. This process will be independently verified by an officer outside of the School Admissions Service.

PUBLICATION STATUS: these are the council’s PROPOSED arrangements, not determined arrangements. Staffordshire's own page for 2028/2029 states: "These proposals have been developed based on current local authority arrangements. In the event that the proposed Local Government Reorganisation for Staffordshire results in changes to the body responsible for determining school admission arrangements, the final arrangements for 2028/29 may be subject to review and amendment." Under the School Admissions Code, 2028/29 arrangements cannot be determined before 28 February 2027. Treat as a consultation draft until the council determines and republishes. Local-authority coordinated default oversubscription criteria for Staffordshire County Council's community and voluntary-controlled schools (the council is the admission authority). Some community/voluntary-controlled schools in this authority apply catchment-area, feeder-school or priority-area variants — check the individual school for its exact arrangements. The council publishes two near-identical default criteria lists — one for community/VC First, Infant, Primary, Junior and Middle schools and one for community/VC Secondary schools — identical except at rank 5: primary uses a church-attendance criterion (applicable only to six named VC schools) while secondary uses a 'major contributory middle school' criterion (applicable only to Codsall Community High). EHCP-named children are admitted ahead of the oversubscription criteria per statutory requirement.

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.