Parents may seek a place for their child outside their normal age group; for example, if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health.

In addition, the parents of a summer born child may choose not to send that child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to Reception rather than Year 1.  (The term summer born children relates to all children born from 1 April to 31 August. These children reach compulsory school age on 31 August following their fifth birthday (or on their fifth birthday if it falls on 31 August). It is likely that most requests for summer born children to be admitted out of their normal age group will come from parents of children born in the later summer months or those born prematurely.

If your child has an Educational Health and Care Plan (EHCP) that names Phoenix Infant Academy, then our school must give your child a place. In the event of the school being oversubscribed the Board of Trustee's criterion gives priority to the following children:

Looked After or previously looked after children

Prerequisite of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and the Education (Admission of Looked After Children) (England) Regulations 2006.

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 the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989).

In the case of previously looked after children, Slough admission authority may request a copy of the adoption order, residence order or special guardianship order and a letter from the local authority that last looked after the child confirming that he or she was looked after immediately prior to that order being made.

Medical Conditions

Priority will be given when a child or their parent/carer has a serious medical condition. Supporting evidence will be required and this must set out the particular reasons and the level of risk to the child or family’s health as to why this school is the most suitable and only school and the difficulties that would arise if the child had to attend an alternative school.

If you are applying on‐line you must send the supporting document(s) to the School Admissions Team with your child’s name and date of birth clearly stated.

Social or welfare reasons for admission

Where there are exceptional sensitive individual and compelling family circumstances, which are directly relevant to Phoenix Infant Academy these may also be considered at the time of application.

Requests for consideration within this criterion will require appropriate professional reports e.g. from a social worker, police officer or educational psychologist.

The report must demonstrate exact reasons and the impact on the child or family’s circumstances as to why this is the only suitable school compared to other schools available. Only exceptional reasons directly relevant to this school will be considered.

The higher priority of social or welfare reason will be given to the child for the preferred school only if the submitted report unequivocally proves the circumstances and why an alternative school is unsuitable.

If supporting evidence is not provided, it will not be possible to consider the application under the social and welfare criterion.

All information which is submitted will be considered as being confidential.

Siblings

Priority is given to children who have siblings attending Phoenix Infant Academy at the time of application and who will be attending at the time of admission. This includes full brothers and sisters who may not live at the same address. Stepchildren or foster children who live at the same address are also classed as siblings.

You must give full details of all siblings in the application.

Distance

The address you state on your application must be the current one at the time of application. If your address changes after you have submitted your application, you should notify the School Admissions Team immediately.

Distances are measured using the Council’s Geographic Information System.

If the Local Authority is unable to determine eligibility on distance, i.e. two or more addresses are equal distance from the school; a random allocation will be carried out.    In the event of a random allocation, someone independent of the Children’s Services Department and of the school would supervise the process, and parents would be invited to attend.

NB. The shortest safe walking route continues to be a consideration for assisted transport purposes.

Where there are more preferences than there are places available, the Board of Trustees employs its oversubscription criteria to objectively determine which children should be offered a place at Phoenix Infant Academy.

In the event of the admission number being reached within any one of the oversubscription criteria in the order listed, the distance criteria will be used as a ‘tie breaker’.

Children of UK service personnel (uk armed forces)

For families of service personnel with a confirmed posting to their area, or crown servants returning from overseas to live in that area, admission authorities must:

a) Allocate a place in advance of the family arriving in the area provided the application is accompanied by an official letter that declares a relocation date and a Unit postal address or quartering area address.

b) When considering the application against our oversubscription criteria. We accept a Unit postal address or quartering area address for a service child. We will not refuse a service child a place because the family does not currently live in the area, or reserve blocks of places for these children;

c) We whole-heartedly support the Government’s commitment to removing disadvantage for service children.

Applications received after the published closing date will be treated as late applications.

Only in exceptional circumstances, and where appropriate evidence is provided, will those applications received after the closing date (but before offers of places have been made) be considered concurrently with those applications received on time.

The circumstances which might justify a late application include, but are not restricted to, the illness of a single parent/carer which might have reasonably impinged upon their ability to submit an application on time or where a family has just moved into the area.