Free Schools, siblings and the 50% Rule?

[ableymabley]

A tiny little CofE free school I'm interested in has several oversubscription criteria - 1. LAC, 2. Siblings, 3. Pupil Premium, 4. exceptional medical, then finally splits whatever is left between faith places and open places according to the 50% rule.

Surely the 50% rule should be applied to all of the places? I've no problem with criteria 1,3 and 4, which are faith-neutral, but the Sibling criteria will definitely include some families that originally got faith places. Does that criteria count as being "without reference to faith"? Should the sibling priority not be applied once the 50/50 split has taken place? That's what other schools I've looked at seem to do.

Also, if there's an odd number of places to be split 50/50, how will it be managed? It's a very small school, so every place counts!

Which is not legally allowed. The maximum of faith places available can be a maximim of 50% for free schools. Many CofE schools have completely open admissions with no 'faith' places at all, some have a lower percentage than 50%. The C of E vision is to serve the local community both of those with faith and those that live in the area around the school.

How Tiny is the PAN?

Trying not to identify the school, but suffice to say it's 1 form entry.