The school has an admission number of 150 for Year 7. It will admit this number of pupils if there are sufficient applications. If fewer than 150 applications are received, all applicants will be offered a place.

The academy trust will admit any pupil with an Education, Health and Care plan which names the school. Please note that this may reduce the number of places available. Priority will then be given to children who meet the criteria set out below, in order.

1. Looked after children and previously looked after children.

2. Children who live in the school’s catchment area (priority area), in the order set out below:

   1. Siblings of pupils attending the school at the time the application is received.

   2. Other children living in the priority area.

Children living on the boundary line will be considered to live in the priority area. The priority area is shown in the map at the end of this policy and described there.

3. Children of any staff living outside of the priority area and who have been employed for two or more years at the Trust at the time the application is received, and/or those recruited to meet a demonstrable skills shortage.

4. Children living outside the priority area who will have a brother or sister at the school at the time of admission.

5. Other children living outside the priority area.

Children who spend part of their week with one parent and part with another, at different addresses, must use the address at which they spend most of their time. This address will be used for determining the school Priority Area and distance from school.

If arrangements are such that a child resides at two addresses for equal amounts of time, then parents must decide which address to use for admissions purposes. Failure to agree on the address to use on the child’s application for a school by the national closing date will result in Warwickshire County Council using a random number generator to determine which application to process.

If a tie-break is needed to decide which child will be offered a place, the child living closest to the school will be offered a place. Distance will be measured from the Postal Address File (PAF) of the child’s home to the centre point (‘centroid’) of the school in a straight line. (Centroids are predetermined points and all measurements are subject to change due to updates of mapping data). If two or more applicants live an equal distance from the school (for example if they share the same multiple dwelling and PAF), random allocation will be used to determine which child will be offered a place. Warwickshire County Council will conduct the random allocation. The process will be carried out by two officers of the Admissions Service in the presence of a Local Authority Solicitor from the Law & Governance Division. The order of the numbers generated will be recorded and countersigned at the time.

Random allocation will not be used if siblings from a multiple birth (twins, triplets or another multiple-birth child) are tied for a place. They will all be offered a place and we will exceed our admission number.

Parents may request their child is admitted outside their normal age group. Parents who wish to do so should include a request with their application, specifying the year group to which they wish their child to be admitted and why they believe it would be in their best interests.

Central England Academy Trust will make a decision on the basis of the circumstances of thecase and in the child’s best interests, taking into account the views of the headteacher and any information provided by the parent. Central England Academy Trust will clearly set out the reasons for this decision when informing a parent about it.

 

• Parents/carers must submit a written request to the Headteacher of the Academy outlining the reasons for the application during the standard application period.

• Parents/carers should enclose evidence to support their request and must include the following documents:

1. School reports
2. Reports from any professionals involved with the child/family
3. Evidence of any mitigating circumstances

• The Headteacher of the Academy will consider the application and review the evidence provided. He/she will also consult with the staff in the Academy to ensure that, if the application is successful, the out of age placement can be accommodated. The usual oversubscription admission criteria will also be applied.

• The application and Headteacher’s recommendation will be considered by the Governing Body, who will make the final decision.

• Parents/carers will be promptly informed of the decision, along with the appeals process, if required.

Warwickshire County Council will maintain a waiting list for Year 7 until 31 December. A parent whose application was unsuccessful will automatically be placed on the waiting list for higher preference schools (for example, if you applied for three schools and were offered your third preference, you will automatically be added to the waiting list for the first and second preferences). Where places become available, they will be allocated to children on the waiting list in strict priority order in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. Parents/carers will be contacted if their child is allocated a place.

A child’s position can move both up and down the waiting list as other students are added to the list, in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. Late applicants are not penalised when added to waiting lists, and the amount of time a child has been on a school’s waiting list is irrelevant in all admissions decisions.

Applicants who are refused a place at the school will be able to appeal to an independent appeal panel. They will be informed by Warwickshire County Council of their statutory right of appeal when they receive the outcome of their applications. They can then appeal for any preference expressed, but not allocated, even if it was a lower preference than the one Offered.

Contact Warwickshire County Council for information on how to appeal. The appeals timetable is on their website at http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schoolappeals.

Entry or Transfer Year Groups

Applications received after the national deadline, or the extended deadline for those moving

to a new house, will be considered as late. Exceptions will only be considered if there is

written evidence of exceptional circumstances.
 

Late applications will be processed after all on-time applications and will be considered as

part of the reallocation round, depending on when the application is received.

 

Late Applications Because of an Impending Move

Applications where new address evidence is received before 31 December 2025 may amend

the original on-time application with the new address and may also change the schools

named in their original on-time application if the original preferences are no longer

Appropriate.
 

Address evidence received after 31 December 2025 cannot be considered for the on- time

application. The new address will be use to communicate the outcome of the application

only. The Admissions Service should be contacted after national offer day to amend address

details and any preferences will be considered as part of the reallocation process.

Definition of Home Address

Details of a child’s permanent address (where the child normally resides/sleeps when they

attend school) must be included on the application, even if they are planning to move after

the deadline. Addresses involved in child-minding arrangements, whether with professional

child-minders, friends or relatives, are excluded.

There is an expectation that the child will be resident at the address used to allocate a place

on a long-term basis, and until at least the start of the autumn term in September 2026.

 

Proof of Address

Either during the application process or after the offer of a school place, parents may be

asked for proof of address.

School places will be allocated using the child’s home address as included on the application

Form.

Acceptable documents to confirm a child’s home address include:

•  2025/2026 Council Tax Bill

•  2025/2026 Council Tax Benefit letter/notice

•  Utility bill (gas, water or electric), dated within the last 6 months

•  Copy of tenancy agreement or mortgage statement for the property, dated within the last 12 months

• Copy of most recent Child Tax Credits or Child Benefit letter

 

Children of UK Service Personnel (UK Armed Forces) and Crown Servants

For families of service personnel with a confirmed posting within the county, or crown

servants returning from overseas to live in the county, with a relocation date, a Unit postal

address, quartering area address, or future home address may be accepted as the address

for the application upon parental request, in accordance with the School Admissions Code.

The application should be accompanied by an official letter that declares the relocation date

and evidence of the intended address.
 

Fraudulent or Intentionally Misleading Applications

Parents/carers should be aware that where a school place is offered based on an address which is subsequently found to be different from the address where the child ordinarily resides, that place may be withdrawn.

Short-term house moves purely to secure a school place may be considered fraudulent or

intentionally misleading and, in such circumstances, the place may be withdrawn.

Priority Area

The red pin represents the site of Higham Lane North Academy. The red boundary represents

the boundary of the priority area, described by the street names below

 

The whole of the parish of Caldecote is included. From the Caldecote parish boundary the

northern boundary of the priority area follows the Warwickshire County boundary to The

Long Shoot. The southern boundary continues south on The Long Shoot, Hinckley Road,

Leicester Road, Back Street, Newtown Road, Corporation Street, Central Avenue, Midland

 

Looked After Children

Children in the care of, or provided with accommodation by a local authority (under Section

22(1) of the Children Act 1989) and children who were looked after, but ceased to be so

because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements orders or special

guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after and those 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..

 

Sibling, i.e. brother or sister, attending the school at the time of admission

Sibling is defined in these arrangements as: a brother or sister, a half brother or sister, a step

brother or sister, an adopted brother or sister, a child living at the same address who is being

Looked After by a local authority, or the child of a parents’ partner, where the child for whom the school place is being sought is living in the same family unit and at the same address as that sibling.

 

Postal Address File (PAF)

The address point location coordinate of the applicant’s home address as set by Ordnance

Survey.