Acomb Primary 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. 1Looked after / previously looked after children — Children who are either currently or have previously been 'looked after'. This applies to all children who are currently in the care of a local authority; all children who have been adopted from local authority care (subject to an adoption, residence or special guardianship order); and all 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. 2Catchment area with sibling at preferred school — Children who live within the catchment area normally served by the preferred school, with a sibling at the preferred school at the time of admission. Siblings are defined as brothers or sisters living in the same house, as their primary place of residence (including half-, step- and foster-brothers or sisters).
3. 3Catchment area — Children who live within the catchment area normally served by the preferred school.
4. 4Exceptional social or medical needs — Children considered by the admission authority to have exceptional social or medical needs which makes the preferred school the most suitable school for the child. Those applications with supporting information that the Trust determines are 'exceptional' would have to be where only the preferred school could meet the child's need.
5. 5Sibling at preferred school — Children with a sibling at the preferred school at the time of admission. Siblings are defined as brothers or sisters living in the same house, as their primary place of residence (including half, step and foster-brothers or sisters).
6. 6Nearest available safe walking route — Children who live closest to the preferred school using the nearest available safe walking route. Distances are measured by a GIS mapping system from the child's home address to the closest entrance of the school. Distances are measured using a system of walking routes rather than straight line distances to better reflect the length of the journey from home to school. Within a contiguous urban area these routes are those that are properly paved and lit alongside roads and other walkways and do not include the York outer ring road. Outside a contiguous urban area, for example for applications from outside the City of York area, these distances continue to be measured along the road network.

If two applications tie: Where there are fewer places than children in an oversubscription priority, tie-breakers are applied: first, to the child(ren) who also fulfil the next highest priority; second, to the child(ren) living closest to the school as defined in priority 6; and third, if the measurement of the distance from home to school above does not distinguish between two or more applicants with equal priority, random allocation will be used as the final tie-breaker, and independently verified.

This is a multi-school policy covering 10 primary schools in the Pathfinder Multi Academy Trust. Individual PANs for 2025-2026: Acomb Primary School 45, Badger Hill Primary School 30, Clifton with Rawcliffe Primary School 90, Hempland Primary School 60, Huntington Primary Academy 60, New Earswick Primary School 30, Poppleton Road Primary School 60, Rufforth Primary School 15, St Lawrence's CE Primary School 15, Tang Hall Primary School 30. Archbishop Holgate's School and Heworth CE Primary School have separate admission arrangements not covered by this policy.

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.