Admissions
Within this webpage you will be able to find information about how admissions to the school are processed.
Criteria for Admission to St. Thomas C.E. Primary School
If the school receives more applications than places available, once places have been allocated to those children who have a statement of special educational need or education health and care plan naming this school, the remaining places will be offered in the following order of priority:
1. Children in public care and previously looked after children.
This includes any "looked after child", “previously looked after children” and any child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, residence or special guardianship order. ‘Looked after’ means that the child was (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.
This criteria also includes looked after children and all previously looked after children 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. Children whose medical or social circumstances mean that their needs can only be met at this school.
3. Children who will have an older brother or sister attending the St. Thomas C.E. Primary School at the
time of their admission.
4. Baptised children whose parent(s)/guardian(s) are in regular attendance at any of the Anglican
Churches within the Parish of St. Thomas & All Saints in Leigh.
5. Baptised or dedicated children whose parent(s)/guardian(s) are in regular attendance at a
church within the parish which is a member of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, or
a local Churches Together organisation.
6. Children whose families are in regular attendance of another Church Of England church in the Leigh
Deanery, and who live within the parish boundaries of Bedford St. Thomas.
7. All other children.
Tiebreaker
If more children fall into any one category than the number of places left, the Governors will offer places to the children who live nearest to the school. Distance will be measured in a straight line from the child’s home address to a central point at the school using a Geographical Information System (GIS) which is based on ordnance survey.
In cases where there are two or more children with the same distance measurement (for example if more than one child lives in a block of flats), where to admit another child would breach the infant class size regulations, a system will be used to randomly pick who will be offered a place. Please contact the school if you would like more information about this.
If we offer the last place available to one of twins (or triplets and so on) we will admit the other twin or triplet too.
Child’s home address
You must give the correct permanent home address. When considering your child’s application, we will use the permanent home address we have for you at the closing date for applications. This is where the child and parent, or the person who has care of the child or parental responsibility, normally live.
If you are separated and your child spends time at each parent’s address, the address we use for admission to school is that of the main carer. We use the address of the parent who gets the Child Benefit for this.
Please see notes below where there is more detailed information on the criteria. If application is made under criteria 4, 5 or 6 proof will be required as to whether this particular criterion is met.
Notes continued
- Applications for previously looked after children must be supported with appropriate evidence i.e. a copy of the adoption order, residence order or special guardianship order.
- Where admission is sought under special medical or social circumstances criteria, professional supporting evidence, e.g. from a doctor, psychologist or social worker, is essential. Such evidence must set out the particular reasons why the school is the most suitable for the child and the difficulties that would be caused if the child had to attend another school.
- Brother’ or ‘sister’ includes full, step, half, adopted and foster brothers or sisters living at the same address as part of the same family unit and full brother or sister living apart.
- Regular attendance is taken to mean a minimum of monthly attendance at church at public worship for at least the year prior to 1st September in the year before admission to the school (i.e. from September 2021 onwards). Evidence of infant baptism or dedication of the child and of regular attendance of parent(s)/guardian(s) must be provided by a member of the clergy or Church Warden on the forms provided.
- Deferred entry and Part-time attendance - Children are entitled to a full time place in school in the September following their fourth birthday. Once they have been offered a place at the school, the child’s parents can defer the date their child is admitted to the school until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which the application was made. Where parents wish, children may attend part-time until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age.
- Nursery Classes - The admission criteria for schools are different than those for nurseries. Attendance at the nursery or a co-located children’s centre does not guarantee admission to the school. Parents must submit an application for a place in Reception class by the closing date.
- Waiting list policy - Places may become available at a school after the offer date at the end of April 2024. To decide which children have these places, we will:
• keep the list in priority order, decided by the oversubscription criteria for the school only;
• offer places that become available to the next child on the waiting list; and
• keep the waiting list until 31st December at the end of the autumn term 2024.
Important information about the waiting list: We cannot take into account the length of time a child’s name has been on the waiting list, only the admission criteria for the school. This means that your child’s position on the list may change if another parent asks to be put on the list and their child has higher priority in the admission criteria.
8. A list of the Churches referred to in criteria 4, 5 and a map showing the parish boundaries of Bedford St Thomas (criteria 6) are available on request from the office in school
9.Late applications - Late applications (those received after the closing date) will only be considered after those received by the closing date. The only exception to this is applications for looked after children that are received by 15 February will be included with on time applications.
10. In the event that during the period specified for attendance at worship the church has been closed for public worship and has not provided alternative premises for that worship, the requirements of these admissions arrangements in relation to attendance will only apply to the period when the church or alternative premises have been available for worship
Timetable for children due to start September 2025(Exact dates are confirmed by the Local Authority)
1. Admission booklets and forms sent out. On-line application service opens in September 2024
2. The completed form should be returned as explained in the booklet for parents “Admissions to Primary Schools 2023 -2024”. The closing date for applications will be in January 2025
3. Places will be offered to parents of children gaining admission on National Offer Day in April 2025.
4. Parents must indicate that they accept the place offered by May 2025.
5. Those parents not offered a place for their child will be sent the details of the Appeals Procedure, which is totally
independent of the School Governing body. The closing date for appeals is in May 2025
Please click the link below to be re-directed to Wigan Council's 'School Admissions'.
Wigan Council School Admissions
Supplementary Forms
To download the Supplementary Forms click the link below. Both are included in one document.
Right of Appeal
Where the governors are unable to offer a place because the school is over subscribed, parents have the right to appeal to an independent admission appeal panel, set up under the School Standards and Framework Act, 1998, as amended by the Education Act, 2002.
Parents should notify the clerk to the governors at the school within 14 days of receiving the letter refusing a place.
Parents will have the opportunity to submit their case to the panel in writing and also to attend in order to present their case. You will normally receive 14 days’ notice of the place and time of the hearing.
Parents should notify the clerk to the governors at the school within 14 days of receiving the letter refusing a place.
Parents will have the opportunity to submit their case to the panel in writing and also to attend in order to present their case. You will normally receive 14 days’ notice of the place and time of the hearing.
Under the Code of Practice on Admissions to Schools, (2012), parents have the right to refer a school’s admission policy to the School’s Adjudicator if it fails to conform to the provisions of the Code.
Letters of appeal should be addressed to:
Clerk To The Governors, St. Thomas C.E. Primary School, Astley Street, Leigh, WN7 2AS.
Admission of children outside their normal age group
Parents may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group, for example, to a higher year group if the child is gifted and talented or to a lower year group if the child has experienced problems such as ill health.
The parents of a summer born child (born between 1 April and 30 August) may choose not to send their child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1.
A decision is made on the basis of the circumstances of each case.
The process is as follows:
Stage 1 – request
Parents make a formal request to the Local Authority School Organisation Team in writing with any supporting evidence they wish to be considered.
• A request for early entry into Year 7 should be made before 31 October in the previous academic year in order to give sufficient time for the case to be considered prior to the offer of school places on 1 March.
• A request for delayed entry to reception class should be made at the same time as applying for a place for normal entry (i.e. by the closing date in January) in order to give sufficient time for the case to be considered prior to the offer of school places in April.
• A request for in year admission outside of the normal age group should be made on the normal in year transfer form.
We do not accept requests for early entry to reception class for children who will not be of statutory school age.
Stage 2 – decision
Requests for voluntary-aided, foundation and academy schools will be referred to the school to be considered.
Requests for community and voluntary controlled schools will be considered by the local authority. We will look at the following factors but these are not exhaustive:
• Parent’s views
• The needs of the child and the possible impact on them of being educated out of year group
• The child’s medical history and views of medical professionals if appropriate
• In the case of children born prematurely the fact that they may have naturally fallen into the lower age group if they had been born on their expected date of birth
• Whether delayed academic, social, emotional or physical development is adversely affecting their readiness for school;
• Any other information which the parent requests the local authority to consider.
Stage 3 – outcome
Parents are notified of the decision in writing by the School Organisation Team.
Request agreed:
If the request is agreed the application will be considered for the year group requested and ranked alongside any other applications. There is no guarantee that a place will be offered at the preferred school. Parents have a statutory right to appeal against the refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied. This right does not apply if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group.
Where a child has been educated out of their normal age group, the parent may again request admission out of the normal age group when they transfer to secondary school. It will be for the admission authority of that school to decide whether to admit the child out of their normal age group.
Request refused:
There is no statutory right of appeal against the refusal of a request for admission outside the normal age group. However, if the parents are dissatisfied they have the right to complain through the Council’s complaints procedure for decisions made by the local authority or under the school’s complaints procedure where the decision has been made by the school.
