Admissions into school: Children can attend Reception education the September immediately after their fourth birthday. To apply for a place in Reception for your child to start of the beginning of the academic school year parents and carers must apply to Lancashire County Council. This can be done online following the link here.

Parents wanting a place for their child at any other time in the school year should contact the school directly to make an appointment with the Head. This will give parents an opportunity to look around Cobbs Brow and school can answer any queries you may have. We also offer an ‘Open Day’ which is held early in the Autumn term for parents to see the school.

The school has an official intake number of 40 children for each age group. If school is oversubscribed, then the following LCC on on parental preferences, then the County apply the following priorities apply in order:
1. Looked after children and those who have been previously looked after, (see note x below), then
2. Children for whom the Local Authority accepts that there are exceptional medical social or welfare reasons which are directly relevant to the school concerned (see note (i) below, then
3. Children with older brothers and sisters attending the school when the younger child will start, (see note (iii) below), then
4. Remaining places are allocated according to where a child lives. Those living nearest to the preferred school by a straight line (radial) measure will have priority, (see note (IV) and (V) below.

Notes

(i) The medical, social and welfare criterion will consider issues relevant to the child and/or the family.  This category may include children without a statement who have special needs.

(ii) As required by law, all children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs/Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) naming a school will be admitted before the application of the over-subscription criteria.  Children who have a statement for special needs/EHCP have their applications considered separately.

(iii) Brothers and sisters includes full brothers and sisters, step children, half brothers and sisters, fostered and adopted children living with the same family at the same address; and full brothers and sisters living at different addresses.

(iv) The distance criterion which will be used as the tie breaker if there is oversubscription within any of the admission criteria is a straight line (radial) measure.  If the Local Authority is unable to distinguish between applicants using the published criteria, eg siblings, those living the same distance from home to school, or families residing in the same block of flats, places will be offered via a random draw.

The distance measure is a straight line (radial) measure centre of building to centre of building.

(v)  A child’s permanent address is the one where he/she normally lives and sleeps and goes to school from.  Proof of residence may be requested at any time throughout the admissions process, (including after a child has accessed a school place). Addresses of relatives or friends must not be used and neither should addresses of any other properties owned by applicants.

(vi) The Local Authority will keep waiting lists for all Lancashire primary schools until 31 August 2021.  These are kept in priority order using the school’s published admission criteria.  From 1 September 2021, waiting lists will be transferred to and retained by individual admission authorities (the Local authority for community and voluntary controlled schools and own admission authority schools will each retain their own list).  To comply with the School Admissions Code the waiting lists must be retained until at least 31 December 2021.

(vii) Children will not normally be able to start school other than at the beginning of the term unless they have moved into the area or there are exceptional circumstances.

(viii) Applications for school places which are received late will not necessarily be dealt with at the same time as those received by the set deadline.  The reasons for a late application may be requested and where these are not exceptional, the relevant admission criteria will be initially applied to all others received on time.  The late application will be dealt with after this process.

Application forms received after the published closing date, will only be considered at that time if the following conditions apply:

1. if the number of preferences received for the school is below the published admission number or
2. there are extenuating circumstances justifying a late application

These may include:

1. parents moving into the County after the closing date
2. parent/carer illness which required hospitalisation for the major part of the period between the publication of the composite prospectus and the closing date for applications

(ix) Where a child lives with one parent for part of the week and another for the rest of the week, only one address will be accepted for a school admission application.  This will normally be the one where the child wakes up for the majority of school days (Monday to Friday).

(x) The highest priority must be given to looked after children and children who were previously looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a residence order, child arrangement orders or special guardianship order). Further references to previously looked after children in the Code means children who were adopted (or subject to residence orders, child arrangement orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after. This includes children who are legally adopted from overseas.  Relevant, legal documents must be provided to evidence the adoption.

A ‘looked after child’ (1) or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption (2) child arrangements order (residency order) (3) or special guardianship order (4).

(1) 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 (please see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school.

(2) This includes children who were adopted under the Adoption Act 1976 (see section 12 adoption orders) and children who were adopted under the Adoption and Childrens Act 2002 (please see section 46 adoption orders).

(3) Under the provisions of s.12 of the Children and Families Act 2014, which amend section 8 of the Children Act 1989, residence orders have now been replaced by child arrangements orders.

(4) See Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 which defines a ‘special guardianship order’ as an order appointing one or more individuals to be a child’s special guardian (or special guardians).

This includes children who are legally adopted from overseas.  Relevant, legal documents must be provided to evidence the adoption.

The admission criteria for voluntary aided, foundation, free schools and academies are listed under the entry for each school in the accompanying supplement.

When a primary school with a Geographical Priority Area (GPA) is oversubscribed, the following priorities will be applied in order:

More details on admissions are available on the LCC website here.

Admission into Tiny and Little Acorns
We offer nursery provision 2 and/or 3 year olds. If you are interested in Cobbs Brow Little Acorns Nursery please contact school on 01695 720632 for application forms and further details. If we become oversubscribed school follows the same criteria for admissions as LCC.

Appeals
Parents not given their choice of school have the right of appeal. Details of this procedure are available from Lancashire County Council website.  Please follow the link here.