Reception admissions

Admission to reception classes

The admission round for entry to reception classes for the school year 2024/25 opens in September 2023 and closes in January 2024. You can apply online at https://admissionsonline.norfolk.gov.uk/enrol/

When does a child start school?

If your child was born between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020, they are due to start school in reception class in the school year starting September 2024. Children must be offered a full-time place from September 2025.
Parents are entitled to defer their child’s admission or request that their child attend on a part-time basis. By law, children must start statutory education full-time no later than the beginning of the term following their fifth birthday. Read our parents’ guide to admissions to schools in Norfolk for more information.

Further information can be found at https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/education-and-learning/schools/school-admissions/admission-to-reception-classes

Important

You need to make an application for a reception class place, even if your child currently attends a nursery class at the same school
Attendance at a nursery attached to a school, does not normally give you any priority for a place at that school

If you apply online, decisions will be made available during a specified day in April 2024 on the school admissions website.

Alternatively, you can download and return an admissions application form (pdf) or contact NCC to request a copy.

If you complete a paper application, NCC will send you a letter in April 2024 by second class post. It will tell you at which school your child has been offered a place.

Oversubscription rules for admission to Reception classes in community and voluntary controlled schools for children due to start school in September 2024.

If there are more applications for places than there are places available, the Local Authority

will give priority to children living nearest to the school, according to the following rules in

this order of priority:

Children who are due to start school and:

have an EHCP or statement of special educational needs naming that school
children in public care, have been adopted from public care or adopted from abroad who are due to transfer
live in the catchment area and who have a sibling attending the school at the time of their admission
live in the catchment area who have a brother or sister attending the feeder junior school
have a disability and live in the catchment area (Appropriate professional evidence will be required to confirm the disability)
live in the catchment area
have been allocated a permanent place at a Specialist Resource Base attached to the school. (Places allocated by Norfolk County Council’s Placement panel)
live outside the catchment area who have a brother or sister with a statement of special educational needs attending the school at the time of their admission
live outside the area served by the school who have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of their admission
live outside the catchment area who have a brother or sister attending the feeder junior school
have a disability and live outside the catchment area (Appropriate professional evidence will be required to confirm the disability)
children of staff
1. where a member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made and/or
2. the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for there is a demonstrable skill shortage
live outside the catchment area

If all children within any of the above rules cannot be offered,the highest priority will be given to children living nearest to the school within that rule. To determine who lives nearest, distance will be measured on a straight line “crow fly” basis, using Ordnance Survey data. The address will be measured from the post office address point on the property.

In the unlikely event that distance does not separate the final two or more pupils seeking the last remaining place, a random allocation will be used to determine who is offered the final place.

NOTE: Criteria 7 only applies to schools that have a Specialist Resource Base on site.

Feeder school priority will only apply in the first year of entry to the school.