Admissions – Leigh Academy Molehill

Admission Arrangements year 2024-25 Admission Arrangements year 2025-26

Admissions Procedures and Policy

Your first point of contact with Leigh Academy Molehill is usually at the School Office, which is open between 8.30am – 3:45pm daily and you can contact us on 01622 751729 or via email at info@molehill.latrust.org.uk

In Year Casual Admission: If you wish your child to start at Leigh Academy Molehill as a result of moving into the area and/or transferring from another school for educational reasons, 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. Kent County Council’s website on casual admission can be found here.
For new Reception children: A KCC ‘Reception Common Application Form’ will need to be completed (this is an online process), expressing Leigh Academy Molehill as your first preference. The office staff will be pleased to answer any questions you may have. Kent County Council’s website on School Admission can be found here.

Before making an application for an in-year admission you will need to contact the Academy directly and arrange a visit and meeting with one of our senior members of staff. If we have places available, you are more than welcome to 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 year for our new reception intake – we publish dates online in September/October time for the following year’s intake into Reception. All forms should be completed and returned to the school by the deadline indicated on the form.

Allocation of Places

Places will be allocated according to the published criteria in priority order

Children in Care and previously Looked After Children
Children of Leigh Academy Molehill Teaching Staff
Sibling living inside the catchment area.
Other children living inside the catchment area
Sibling outside the catchment area

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.

If you have any difficulty completing the KCC forms please do not hesitate to contact the school office, where we will do our best to help.

Agreed Admissions Number

The number of places available is determined by the physical capacity of the school and is called the ‘Agreed Admissions number’. Our published admissions number is 45. The LEA, in consultation with the Principal, may set a higher figure for a particular year group. The law gives parents the right to state a preference for any school, but not automatic choice. If your preference is Leigh Academy Molehill, a place will be offered if there are vacancies.

Operation of Waiting Lists

Subject to any provisions regarding waiting lists in the coordinated admission scheme, the Academy will operate a waiting list. Where in any year the Academy receives more applications for places than there are places available, a waiting list will operate until the end of the first school term. This will be maintained by the Academy and it will be open to any parent to ask for his or her child’s name to be placed on the waiting list, following an unsuccessful application.

Places from the waiting list will be offered in the priority order set out below, not in order of the date applications are made.

Appeals

Parents who wish to appeal against the decision of the governors to refuse their child a place in the academy may apply in writing to the Maidstone Board of Directors at the Academy.

Oversubscription Criteria

What happens if the Academy is oversubscribed?

If the Academy is oversubscribed, after the admission of pupils with Statements of Special Educational Needs or Educational Health Care Plans where the school is named in the Statement, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in priority order:

Looked after children and previously looked after children. – A looked after child is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see definition in section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989). A previously looked after child is a child who was adopted or subject to a residence order, or special guardianship order, immediately following having been looked after.
Current Family Association – a brother or sister in the same school at the time of entry where the family continue to live at the same address as when the sibling was admitted – or – if they have moved – live within 2 miles of the school, or have moved to a property that is nearer to the school than the previous property as defined by the ‘Nearness’ criterion’ (below). Linked infant and junior schools are considered to be the same school for this criterion. In this context brother or sister means children who live as brother and sister in the same house, including natural brothers or sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters, foster brothers or sisters. If siblings from multiple births (twins, triplets, etc) apply for a school and the school would reach its Published Admission Number (PAN) after admitting one or more, but before admitting all of those siblings, the LA will offer a place to each of the siblings, even if doing so takes the school above its PAN. If the admissions are to Year R, and so result in a breach of class size legislation, the additional pupil(s) will be treated as “excepted” for a period of one year, in line with the School Admission Code.
Health and Special Access Reasons – Medical, health, social and special access reasons will be applied in accordance with the school’s legal obligations, in particular those under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Priority will be given to those children whose mental or physical impairment means they have a demonstrable and significant need to attend a particular school. Equally this priority will apply to children whose parents’/guardians’, physical or mental health or social needs means that they have a demonstrable and significant need to attend a particular school. Such claims will need to be supported by written evidence from a suitably qualified medical or other practitioner who can.
Nearness of children’s homes to school – we use the distance between the child’s permanent home address and the school, measured in a straight line using Ordnance Survey address point data. Distances are measured from a defined point within the child’s home to a defined point within the school as specified by Ordnance Survey. The same address point on the school site is used for everybody. These straight line measurements are used to determine how close each applicant’s address is to the school with those living closest being given priority.

Tie Breaker

If it is necessary to use a tie-breaker to distinguish between two or more applications, a distance criterion will be used. We will give priority to the applicants who live nearest to the school as measured by a straight line from the front door of the home of the applicant to the front door of the main reception of the school site that was on the original application for a place.

When should my child start school?

By law, children have to start school by the beginning of the school term after their fifth birthday (this is when they reach compulsory school age). The local authority’s policy is to encourage schools to admit four year olds so that as many children as possible will have at least eight terms in Key Stage 1. The decision on whether or not to admit four year olds is made and reviewed annually by the Principal and in consultation with the Governors.

How to apply

You can apply:

Online here
By post (Admissions & Transport, Room 2.24, Sessions House, Maidstone, Kent, Me14 1XQ).

Full details of how to apply will be available when applications open.

You can apply for up to 3 schools, putting them in order of preference. It’s in your best interests to list 3 schools. Naming only one school does not guarantee your child a place at that school or give your child priority for a place over another child, neither does naming a school more than once.

For advice call KCC Admissions & Transport 03000 41 21 21 or email kentonlineadmissions@kent.gov.uk

Applying for an In Year admission

If your child is already at school and you wish to apply for a school place outside the year of entry (for example, a year 1 or 2 place) please refer to KCC‘s In Year Application page for information. Alternatively, please contact the office manager at info@molehill.latrust.org.uk for an application form.

Registering your interest with primary schools

If your child isn’t old enough to start school yet, you may register an interest at any school you want by contacting the school office. When your child is old enough, the school will get in touch with you so that you can collect a booklet and admissions form for that year.

Registering an interest at a school does not give your child priority for a place just because their name has been down longer than any other child.

Deferred applications

Requests for admission outside of the normal age group should be made to the Principal as early as possible in the admissions round associated with the child’s date of birth. This allows the academy and admissions authority sufficient time to make a decision before the closing date.

Parents are not expected to provide evidence to support their request. However, where provided, it must be specific to the child in question and may include medical or Educational Psychologist reports. There is no legal requirement for this medical or educational evidence to be secured from an appropriate professional, however, failure to provide this may impede the academy’s ability to agree to a request for admission outside of the normal age group.

Parents are required to complete an application for the normal point of entry at the same time, in case their request is declined. This application can be cancelled if the academy agrees to accept a deferred application for entry into Year R the following year. Deferred applications must be made via paper CAF to the Local Authority, with written confirmation from the academy Principal. Deferred applications will be processed in the same way as all applications for the cohort in the following admissions round, and offers will be made in accordance with the academy’s oversubscription criteria.

Apply now via KCC

Timetable for Admissions Appeals

The Academy will adhere to the following timetable in regard to appeal hearings:

Academy to notify parents that their application was unsuccessful;

Parents to be allowed 20 school days from the date of this notification to prepare and lodge their written appeal;

Academy to set appeal hearing date following receipt of appeal – at least 10 school days notice should be given. This date should include reasonable deadlines for appellant to submit additional evidence, for admission authorities to submit their evidence and for the clerk to send appeal papers to all parties;
Academy to ensure decision letters following the appeal hearing are sent to appellant within 5 school days of the date of the hearing.

Notes:

Appeals lodged by the appropriate deadlines are heard within the following timescales:

For applications made in the normal admissions round, appeals must be heard within 40 school days of the deadline for lodging appeals;
For late applications, appeals should be heard within 40 school days from the deadline for lodging appeals where possible, or within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged;
For applications for in-year admissions, appeals must be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.

Appeals submitted after the appropriate deadline must still be heard, in accordance with whatever timescale is set out in the timetable published by the admission authority.

What is the ‘normal admissions round’?

Under the School Admissions (Admission Arrangements and Co-ordination of Admission Arrangements) (England) Regulations 2012 an application is made in the ‘normal admissions round’ if it is not a ‘late application’ or an ‘in-year application’:

What is a ‘late’ application?

An application is a ‘late’ application if it is for the admission of a child to a relevant age group; it is submitted before the first day of the school term of the admission year; and a determination relating to the application is not made by an authority on or before the offer date. The ‘relevant age group’ is the age group at which pupils are or will normally be admitted to the school e.g. reception or year 7 (Section 142 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998).

What is an ‘in-year’ application?

An application is an ‘in-year’ application if it is for the admission of a child to a relevant age group and it is submitted on or after the first day of the first school term of the admission year, or it is for the admission of a child to an age group other than a relevant age group.

If your child is due to start primary school in September 2021 you can appeal between 16^th April -17 May 2021 to guarantee that your appeal will be heard by 16 July 2021. For applications made in the normal admission round, appeals must be heard within 40 school days of the deadline for lodging appeals. For late applications, appeals should be heard within 40 schools days from the deadline for lodging appeals where possible, or within 30 schools days of the appeals being lodged.

Appeals

If you have not been offered a place following an in-year application, the law entitles you to appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel. This panel is completely independent of the school and the Local Authority. In accordance with the 2022 School Admission Appeals Code Appeals, the admission authority and appeal panels have elected for all admissions appeals to be held online.

If you wish to appeal, please use the links below to complete your appeal online.

Reception, Year 1 and 2 – Link
Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 – Link

Please do NOT use ANY other appeal form or send your form to your local authority. It is highly recommended that you download the explanatory booklet about appeals which you should read before you complete the appeal form.

Appeals Explanatory Booklet - Education Appeals

If your appeal is for years Reception, year 1 or year 2, you are strongly advised to read the section on Key Stage 1 appeals on page 18.

You should include any evidence or supporting material with your appeal form and you MUST state the grounds of your appeal at the time you lodge your appeal form. Your appeal form will not be accepted unless you give the grounds of your appeal. You may appeal for more than one school.

Please note that the online form will ask you to download two utility bills dated in the last THREE months. If you do not have access to a scanner, please take two photographs using a mobile phone and upload the photographic files.

If you wish to contact the clerk – email: clerk@educationappeals.com

Information about Primary Transfer appeals will be posted on this website before 28 February 2025.

Timetable for Appeals

Last day for lodging appeal forms

20 School days after the decision letter informing you that you had not been offered a place.

Invitation letter giving details about your hearing will be sent by the Clerk to the Independent Appeal Panel

At least 10 school days before the hearing. This MAY be emailed.

All in year appeal will be heard within 30 school days of the appeal form being lodged.

Closing date for any additional supporting evidence

FIVE working days before your hearing. You are advised that additional paperwork received on the day of the appeal hearing will not be taken into account. Please email to clerk@educationappeals.com

Please note that slightly different rules will apply for any primary transfer appeals into Reception.

Letter from the Clerk informing you of the decision of the independent appeal panel

Due to the high number of appeals, an email is sent a few working days after your hearing with the decision of the panel. This is followed up around 10 working days later with a letter outlining the panels reasons.