Nursery Admissions

The process for getting a nursery place in a Barking and Dagenham community
school

If your child was born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021, they can apply for a nursery class
place starting in September 2024.

The school will need proof of where you and your child live. We define your home as the address where
the parent or carer is responsible for paying council tax and where Child Benefit is registered (for the child
applying).

Each school will use the admission criteria (conditions) to decide which applications to accept and which
to turn down not to the length of time that your child’s name has been on a waiting list. The
admission criteria for our school is listed below. You cannot appeal against decisions made about
nursery places.

Admission criteria for nursery places in a Barking and Dagenham community school

If there are more applications than places for any nursery classes, we will use the following criteria, in
the priority order 1 to 3, to decide which children we will offer places to.

Admission criteria

Priority 1 Children who are in the care of a local authority.
Priority 2 Children who have a sibling (brother or sister) at the school
Priority 3 Children who live closest to the school, measured in metres in a straight line (as the crow flies).

Important notes

1 The child’s home must be the permanent address where they live with their legal guardian. This
should be the address for your council tax and where any Child Benefit is addressed.

2 ‘Sibling’ means:

A full brother or sister;
A half-brother or half-sister;
A stepbrother or stepsister; and
An adopted or long-term fostered brother or sister;

living at the same address and going to the named school. Please make sure you name all siblings
on your application form. If they are not listed on your form, we cannot take them into account.

3 All distances are measured using SIA’s Geographical Information System, SMART from the centre
of the child’s home to the school’s main gate. If you live outside the area, we will use the same
system to work out distances.

4 We will use distance from home to school for pupils who have an equal claim for a place (eg: all
children have a sibling link). Those children living nearest to the school will be given priority when
deciding on places. When measurements are the same (for example, from a block of flats), we will
then use a lottery system (random allocation) to offer places to children.

5 You should remember that going to a particular nursery class does not guarantee, or give priority for
reception class of any of the borough’s infant or primary schools. Also, going to a particular primary
or junior school does not guarantee, or give priority for, a place at a particular secondary school.

6 We cannot consider other circumstances not listed in the admission criteria. It is important that we
are consistent in our judgement and use only the admission criteria that have been agreed.

7 If we discover that we have given your child a place at a school based on false or
misleading information, we will withdraw the place and may take legal action.

Waiting lists for nursery classes
If a school receives more applications than it has places available (i.e. is oversubscribed),