Newcastle City Council - How do you process my application?

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Each school you list on your form is considered as a separate application.  This is a legal requirement and is called equal preference.

• Our computer system is set up to apply the rules for community schools. Faith schools apply their own admission rules to decide who will get a place. See faith schools.
• We will be told if a school outside of Newcastle can offer your child a place.
• We co-ordinate the information for each school you have listed on your form to ensure that each child is only offered one place.
• If just one school you have applied for can offer you a place, then that is where we will offer your child a place.
• If your child is eligible for more than one school place we will offer you a place at the school you listed highest.
• We repeat these steps until every child has been offered a place.

What do I need to know?

• Is a first come, first served system used to allocate places?
• How are places allocated?
• What are infant class size limits?
• What happens if you cannot offer any school listed on my application?
• What happens in a tie-break situation if there are two equal rights but only one available place?

Is a first come, first served system used to allocate places?

No. All applications received by the closing date of midnight on 15 January 2012 will be considered together in the first round of allocations.

How are places allocated?

If there are enough places then they will be offered to all applicants. If the school is over-subscribed all places are allocated by an electronic database according to the admission rules.

Places will be offered up to the admission number.  The admission number for each school is shown in the schools information. 

Once these places have been filled using the admission criteria, further admissions are refused because the class would be too big and may not comply with the legal limit.

What are infant class size limits?

The law states that no infant class should contain more than 30 children with a single teacher. 

Children may therefore be refused places because their admission would mean more than 30 children in a class. Infant class size limits apply to Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes.  Schools must comply with the infant class size limit.

The class size limit does not mean that all schools have to admit up to 30 children into each class. At some schools the size of classrooms and internal layout may mean that classes have to be smaller than 30.

What happens if we cannot offer any school listed on my application?

If we cannot offer your child a place at any school that you list, you will be offered a place at the nearest school with a vacancy.

What happens in a tie-break situation if there are two equal rights but only one available place?

In the event that two children have an equal right to one available place (such as twins) the place will be offered to the older child. The ramaining child will be offered an alternative school.