St Christopher's CEVCP 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 — Looked after children2 and previously looked after children3 including those who appear (to the Admissions Authority) to have been in state care outside of England4 and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted5. 1 This includes late applications which are those made after the application deadline but before the first day of the Autumn term. 2 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. 3 Children 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, immediately following having been looked after, 4 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. 5 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).
2. 2Sibling link — Sibling6: where the child has a sibling in the school or a sibling has already been offered a place at the school, and where the sibling will still be attending the school at the time of admission but not in a specialist unit or a specialist resource base for Hearing Impaired provision or in a nursery/pre-school. Priority will be given, where necessary, to applications where there is the smallest age gap in calendar days between the child’s date of birth and the date of birth of any sibling already attending the school, or who has been offered a place at the time of application.
3. 3Children of staff — Children of staff recruited to fill a vacant post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage. DEMAT is required to approve the Headteachers’ designation of such posts and confirm the assessment that a member of staff appointed meets the requirements of the shortage. Priority will be limited to one place for each form of entry in any year.
4. 4Any other children — All other applicants In cases where there are more applicants within a criterion than there are places available, a straight- line distance measurement between the child’s home and the school will be used to rank applications. The measurement will be taken from the child’s home address which has been notified to the school and other relevant agencies as being the child’s normal place of residence7. Priority will be given to those children who live closest to the school. DEMAT will measure the distance by a straight line (‘as the crow flies’). All straight-line distances are calculated electronically using data provided jointly by the Post Office and Ordnance Survey. The data plots the co-ordinates of each property and provides the address-point between which the straight-line distance is measured and reported to three decimal places. Where there is more than one home within a single building (for example apartments) we will measure to a single point within that building irrespective of where those homes are located. Tie breaker: If DEMAT is unable to distinguish between applicants using the published criteria, including those who live in blocks of flats, places will be offered via a random draw which will be supervised by someone independent of the school. Note: If the final place available at a school is offered to a twin, triplet or other multiple birth and the remaining sibling(s) would ordinarily be refused, we will offer places to the remaining sibling(s) at the same school. The law requires that this will apply even in those primary schools where this would mean that more than 30 pupils would be admitted to an infant class with a single qualified teacher. 1. Right of appeal There will be a right of appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel for all applicants refused admission to the primary school (see section 5). 6 The term ‘sibling’ includes natural, half, step, and adopted brothers and sisters; a child of the partner of the parent; and children who are fostered into the family. In all these cases, the child and their sibling will both be living at the same address (that is where the child is ordinarily resident) in a single family unit. This means that children in other family units, living together at the same address, are not considered siblings under this criterion. 7 Meaning the place where your child usually lives and where they sleep overnight. Where a child lives at two or more addresses, each for part of the week, the address at which the child is ordinarily resident will be considered to be the address that the child lives at for most of the week (excluding weekends and school holidays). a. Operation of Waiting Lists Subject to any provisions regarding waiting lists in the LA’s coordinated admission scheme, the school will operate a waiting list. Where in any year group the school receives more applications for places than there are places available, a waiting list will operate until 31 December of each school year of admission. This will be maintained by the school, and it will be open to any parent/carer to ask for his or her child’s name to be placed on the waiting list following an unsuccessful application. A child’s position on the waiting list will be determined solely in accordance with the oversubscription criteria set out above. When places become vacant, they will be allocated to children on the waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria, not the date on which the application is received or added to the waiting list. At the end of the Summer Term, the school will review the waiting list and advise applicants whether they have been successful. If a Parent/carers wish to apply for a place in the next school year, if there are still no places available, they will be given the right of appeal and asked if they wish to remain on the waiting list. 2. In- Year Applications Applications should be submitted to the School directly. They will consider all such applications and if the year group applied for has a place available, it will admit the child. If more applications are received than there are places available, the oversubscription criteria in section 3, shall apply. 3. Arrangements for Appeal Panels When the Admission Authority informs a parent of a decision to refuse their child a place at the school when they have applied for a place, this will include the reason why admission was refused; information about the right to appeal; the deadline for lodging an appeal and the contact details for making an appeal. NB when this decision is made as part of the LA’s coordinated process, the LA will notify the parent of the above. The Appeal Panel will be independent of the school. The arrangements for appeals will be in line with the Appeals Code. The determination of the Appeal Panel will be made in accordance with the Code and will be binding on all parties. The school will provide written guidance for parents/carers about how the appeals process works and will provide parents/carers with a named contact who can answer any queries parents/carers may have about the process. Fair Access: The school will participate in the LA’s Fair Access Protocol which will be used to place vulnerable and/or hard-to-place children, where they are having difficulty securing a school place in- year, and it can be demonstrated that reasonable measures have been taken to secure a place through the usual in-year admission procedures. Pupils admitted under this protocol will be prioritised over those children on the in-year waiting list.

Read 2026-09-12 from Suffolk County Council's published list of school details, admission policies and supplementary information forms for 2027/2028, which hosts every Suffolk school's policy on the council's own site. CORRECTION 2026-09-13: this row was written on 12 September with the right admission number, notes and source but an empty rule list — every rule came out blank. The rules below were re-read from the same published document. The rules were re-read from the same published policy this row already cites.

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.