Admissions
2025 Intake
Parents wishing to apply for a place should put the Academy down as a preference on the common application form which can be submitted online via their home local authority website. Parents/carer living in the West Northamptonshire Council area should visit School Admissions | West Northamptonshire Council (westnorthants.gov.uk)
Published Admissions Number (PAN): Reception and Year 7
1.1 Wootton Park School has a PAN of 60 for entry into Reception and a PAN of 60 external places for entry into Year 7 (in addition to our 60 Year 6 primary phase learners). As an all-through school, learners that are admitted to our primary phase and remain until end of Year 6, automatically transition into Year 7 without the need for parents to re-apply.
1.2 If the number of applications exceeds the PAN then the oversubscription criteria (below) will be used to determine which applicants will be provided with a place.
1.3 All children who have an EHCP that name the Academy will be provided with a place.
For Year 7 2025 intake, Wootton Park School will offer places to 120 external learners (in addition to the 60 year 6 primary phase learners).
Oversubscription Criteria: Primary and Secondary Phases
Where more applications are received than the number of places, then the Academy will rank applications in accordance with the following oversubscription criteria, in order:
(1) Children who are looked after or are previously looked after;
(2) Children who have an older sibling in the same phase who attends the Academy at the date of admission;
(3) Children of staff of the Academy who have been employed for two or more years at the time of the application or are recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage. To qualify under this criterion, the staff member must be a ‘direct employee’. This includes any member of staff (teaching or non-teaching) with two years continuous employment with the school or seasonal employment totalling two years. Staff contracted in to provide services to the school do not count as ‘direct employees’. For the purposes of this criterion, ‘children of staff’ is taken to include a son, daughter or step-son/daughter, or child who is adopted or fostered or for whom a special guardianship order is in place, in all cases providing they are living at the same address as the parent who is employed by the school;
(4) Children by distance from the school: Reserved percentage. To fulfil the school’s role as a community school, after places have been filled under the first three criteria, up to 60% of any remaining places will be offered to those children who live nearest to the school. Distances are measured from the address point of the home address to the address point of the school on a straight line basis. Each address has a unique address point established by the most valuable elements from the National Land and Property Gazeteer (NPLG), Ordnance Survey Master Map, Royal Mail Postal Address File and The Valuation Office Agency. The address point for a property does not change.
(5) After places have been allocated under the first four criteria, remaining places will be offered to other children. Where the number of applicants in this category exceeds the number of places, offers will be determined by random allocation.
Definitions
- A 'looked after child' or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, child arrangements, or special guardianship order including those 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. 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).
- ‘Sibling’ is defined in these arrangements as children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers or sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters and foster brothers and sisters.
- The ‘home address’ is the address at which the child spends the majority of their week during term time. 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.
- ‘Distance’ means the distance measured in a straight line between the address point of the home address to the address point of the Academy.
Tie breaker
If the admission number is exceeded in criteria 1 to 4, priority will be given to those children who live closest to the school. Distances are measured from the address point of the home address to the address point of the school on a straight line basis.
In the case where two applications cannot otherwise be separated, e.g. when two distances are equal, random allocation will be used to determine which child shall be given a place. The use of random allocation will be supervised by someone independent of the Trust.
Multiple Birth Groups
In the case of twins or other siblings from a multiple birth, if the last child to be admitted is from a multiple birth group, the other children in the group will also be offered places, even if it means exceeding the Published Admission number.
In the case of siblings (see definition above) in the same year group, where there is only one place remaining which is to be offered to one sibling, the other too will be offered a place.
In-Year Applications
The local authority also manages in-year admissions to the school details of which can be found below:
https://www.westnorthants.gov.uk/move-school-during-school-year-year
From January 2024, the Local Authority manages the school's waiting list and can be contacted by:
- email school.allocations@westnorthants.gov.uk
- write to: School Admissions, West Northamptonshire Council, The Guildhall, St Giles Square, Northampton, NN1 1DE
Appeals
Where a child is not offered a place, the parent(s) will be entitled to an appeal against the decision to refuse admission. The letter of refusal will contain details of how to go about appealing the decision, including the deadline for lodging the appeal and who to contact. Parents must set out their grounds for appeal as part of their application. Where an appeal is successful, the Academy must admit the child.
The process and timetable for the appeals process can be found here: https://www.westnorthants.gov.uk/school-admissions/appeal-school-place
Wootton Park School: Admission Policy 2025-2026
Wootton Park School: Admission Policy 2024-2025
Wootton Park School: Admission Policy 2023-2024
"My son has had a wonderful start to his time in secondary school. We as parents can see that the school is well led and are supporting our child above and beyond expectations. Keep up the great work! Thank you." Year 7 Parent