In year admission - experts please help

[dungandbother]

I've applied on a council in year form to an academy school which definitely has spaces. Lots. I've looked round. I've applied. KS1. Keeping this vague.

The Academy head has verbally refused me entry to the school as I don't live close by.

Any advice please on next steps? According to the academy, they choose who they wish to admit regardless of the council.

The council are the ones who informed me there were spaces on numerous occasions.

I have asked the head the inform my in writing of her decision but not received it yet.

Grateful to any admission experts who can help.

*to inform me

If the school has places in the year group that your child is in, then the school has to admit by law, so I do not understand the attitude of the head teacher.
The process for in-year admissions does alter from LA to LA as to whether it is the school or the LA which administers the system. As it is an academy I would write an email to the school saying you understand that there are places in the year group and that you wish your child to go to the school, would Monday, the 8th May be a suitable date for your child to start. Call the head teachers bluff and make sure you ask for a read receipt of the email. Then see what response you get.
If you get the same negative response with no explanation then I would go to the Chair of the Trust Board of the Academy and make an official complete in writing.

Admission thank you!
My admissions knowledge is mostly top notch and I called her out on the phone but she kept on and on fighting back to push me away. To the point she was rude and obnoxious (ponders wanting a place!)

I was concerned that she held any merit with her we are an academy and we admit who we choose verbatim.

I've emailed her requesting policy and reasons for refusing admittance already so if that is met with silence I shall immediately write to the Chair as you advise.

An academy can set its own admissions criteria, but it still has to follow the admissions code, and it still has to follow the law in admitting up to it's PAN in each year group if there are vacancies; they can't just decide they don't want a full class for some reason, or pick and chose applications on criteria other than their published criteria.

It's not a PAN/Infant Class Size mismatch then? I.e they have a PAN of 25 and have filled that, but you think technically another 5 spaces to capacity of 30?

Not even at 20 in the class.

Their website has very recently published a catchment map with their admission criteria with (from memory)
Sibling in catchment / living in catchment / other siblings / other

And still are not full. Very new school.
According to power(trip) head, they are only obliged to comply with council for year R intake and not for any other year group.

I'm currently living in a different council but it's my decision to make the journey.

I've lots of personal and perfectly reasonable reasons to want the school but obviously keeping info to a minimum here.

They can run their own waiting lists independently of the council. Are you absolutely sure the PAN for the year you want is actually 20 or above? It's possible (though unusual for a new academy I would have thought) for the school to have a PAN of 15 or 20 or something else.

Copied from their website

If you wish your child to start at X as a result of moving into the area and/or transferring from another school, please place your child on the list for future entrants by completing an In-Year Admission Form. Details of how to apply are available from our office staff. For new reception children a X‘Reception Common Application Form’ will need to be completed (this is an online process), expressing X as your first preference. The office staff will be pleased to answer any questions you may have. X Council’s website on School Admission can be found x
Before making an application for an in-year admission you may wish to take a preliminary look at the academy; you and your children are very welcome to visit us. You can have a look around the academy and we can answer any questions you may have. Please contact us to make an appointment. We have specific dates and times for Open Days each November for our new reception intake – we publish dates in the local press and online in September/October time for the following year’s intake into Reception.
Pupils are admitted to school in accordance with the Academy Admissions Policy. All forms should be completed and returned to the school by the deadline indicated on the form.
If you have any difficulty completing the forms please do not hesitate to contact the school office, where help will be given.
Allocation of Places, School Admission Policy and Planned Admission Limit
Places will be allocated according to the published criteria in priority order:
• Children in Local Authority Care.
• Current family association (an elder brother or sister in the school at the time of entry, where the family continues to live at the same address as when the sibling was admitted or has moved to a new property within two miles of the school).
• Health reasons (for which a medical certificate may be needed)
• Nearness of children’s homes

X has a Planned Admission Limit of 60 children per year group.
Parents do not legally have to send their children to school until the term after they are five. We find in practice, due to effective transition procedures, children younger than five cope well in their first year with our wonderful staff who have particular skills with our youngest children.
Older children are admitted to the school if we have a vacancy in their year group.

I'm feeling particularly peeved and put off by her attitude. Perhaps that is solely her intention!

It's not in the school's interests to have empty spaces, so I think there must be some misunderstanding somewhere.

If it's such a small school the head will basically be doing everything, why would you want a school where you dislike the head?

Academy power head. Not the actual school head.
For what it's worth, I really liked the school.

So they still haven't offered a place.
They don't return phone calls.

Council said they will get involved but I've chased them twice now as well.

Looks like I have to go to the trust.
Any suggestions on wording? Should I quote admission code or something at them?

Thanks again.

Regrettably the head teacher does not have a clue about admissions and is making their own rules up. They do have to follow the admission criteria at year groups above reception and they must comply with the LA over issues like you are having. They cannot also demand you put down the school as first preference.
As the school has a PAN of 60, they must admit to 60 in the year group if there are spaces. When it gets to 60 then they will have 2 classes of 30 and that will then mean that any admission appeal is an infant class size appeal but if there are places that it irrelevant. There are some nuances around numbers that could be a reason for the head teacher to not admit. So for instances if they only had 30 in the year group in one class they could argue and would normally win at appeal that to start a new class with one pupil was not effective or efficient if it is an in-year application. But I do not think that applies here, it is more about understanding what it is that is driving the head teacher to have taken this stance.
I would be seriously wondering whether it is the right school for your child.