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Admissions

Reception Start September 2025

The application deadline for Reception children for September 2025 has now passed. Kent County Council will be allocating places according to the admissions criteria for our school. If you need to contact them, please visit: Primary school places - Kent County Council . 

You will receive your school offer on 16th April 2025 by email from KCC. Please email the school by 30th April 2025 to accept or refuse the space offered.

Appeals

If your child is due to start Primary school in September 2025, you can appeal if you are refused a place at one of your preferred schools on National Offer Day (Wednesday, 16 April 2025). You needed to submit your appeal before Tuesday, 20th May 2025 for it to be considered by Friday, 18th July 2025. Any appeals received after this time will be heard within 40 school days from the deadline, or where reasonably possible in line with updated guidance from the Department for Education.

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 where reasonably possible in line with updated guidance from the Department for Education.

In Year Admissions

To apply for a space at Wincheap School in any year group within the year, i.e. an application that is not part of the main Reception intake, please complete an In Year Admission form and email this to info@wincheap.kent.sch.uk or hand it to the school office. We will then be in touch to let you know if we have spaces available in the year group you have applied for or if your child has been added to the waiting list.

Our PAN (Published Admission Number) per year group is 60 children per year group in the mainstream school. We will not offer a place to any additional children once our PAN has been reached. We will then add your child to the waiting list for that year group instead. 

In the event of oversubscription

Before the application of oversubscription criteria, children with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan which names the school will be admitted. As a result of this the published admissions number will be reduced accordingly.

In the event of oversubscription, the following criteria apply to applicants, in the following order of priority:

  1. Children in Local Authority Care or Previously in Local Authority Care (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). A looked after child is a child who is ( 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 in England and Wales (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989). This criterion also includes looked after children and all previously looked after children who appear to have been in state care outside of England and Wales and who have ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
  2. Children with siblings already in the school (a brother or sister attending the school when the child starts). In this context, brother or sister means children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers and sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters and foster brothers and sisters. (The sibling link is maintained as long as the family live at the same address as when the first child applied, or has moved closer to the school than when the first child was offered a place, or has moved to an address that is less than two miles from the school using the distance measured by the method outlined in the distance criterion.)
  3. 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 Equality Act 2010. 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 mean 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 demonstrate a special connection between these needs and the particular school.
  4. Nearness of children's homes to school - we use the distance between the child’s permanent home address (defined in KCC’s annual admissions prospectus) and the school, measured in a straight line using the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) address point. Distances are measured from a point defined as within the child’s home to a point defined as within the school as specified by NLPG. The same address point on the school site is used for everybody. When we apply the distance criterion for the school, these straight-line measurements are used to determine how close each applicant’s address is to the school. Where applications are made from properties or abodes that are not registered to the NLPG, including new build properties, KCC may be required to use planning sites or other relevant co-ordinates. In exceptional circumstances where alternative co-ordinates are not available, measurements will be determined by a Senior Admissions Officer and confirmed by Head of Service.   

In the unlikely event that two or more children in all other ways have equal eligibility for the last available place at the school, the names will be issued a number and drawn randomly to decide which child should be given the place.

Appeals

Please note that any parent who has applied to a school and has not been offered a place has the right to appeal this decision. However, please note that when a school receives more applications from parents than it has places available, not every child can be successful in securing a school place. As our school is oversubscribed with no spaces in most year groups, it is important to be realistic about the reasons for appealing and the chances of being successful.

Please visit the Kent County Council website to find out how to raise an appeal for a school place.