Applications for September 2024 start

Our admissions point is measured to the front door of the permanent school site at 389 Richmond Road, Richmond Upon Thames, TW1 2EF. For any admission related inquiries, please email the school: admissions@deerparkschool.org.uk

Use the eAdmissions website from 1 September 2023 to apply online for your child’s primary (reception) school place.

Children born between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020 are due to start reception class at primary school in September 2024.

Children born between 1 September 2016 and 31 August 2017 who currently attend an infant school are due to start year three at junior school in September 2024.

Applications open on 1 September and will close on Monday 15 January 2024.

You must apply through the local authority where you pay council tax even if you intend to name a school located in another area.

They require a separate application for each child if you are applying for children of a multiple birth.

Tell them in your application if your child has a brother or sister (sibling) who will still be attending your preferred school(s) in September 2024 so we can apply the appropriate priority. Make sure you are familiar with the sibling link between infant and junior schools.

Naming preferred schools

You can name up to six schools in your application including academy or free schools and schools in other council areas.

The regulations allow for you to express a preference for a school, but this is not the same as being able to choose which school your child attends. Achieving for Children and the schools are committed to meeting parental preference where places are available, but you must be realistic when deciding your preferences.

You may not receive an offer at any of your preferred schools if your child is unlikely to qualify for a place. This could happen if you live too far away from the schools or if you name a church school but do not have priority under the faith criterion.

You can find information about how places were allocated at community school for the last three years in the relevant application section below. Data about the September 2023 allocation will be available in October 2023. To find out how places were allocated for Deer Park School, please view the Admission policy.

You are advised to name your nearest school that admits children under the home-to-school distance criterion (rule) as one of your six preferences. By using all your six preferences you will maximise your chances of being offered a preferred school.

It is important that you name the schools in the order that you most prefer them. This is because your child could qualify for a place at more than one school. If this happens, your home council will look at your order of preference and you will be offered the highest preferred school that your child has qualified for.

If you name schools in other council areas we will pass details of your application to the relevant council. They will tell us whether a school place can be offered.

Admission criteria

If there are more applications received than there are places available, a school will use its published oversubscription criteria (rules) to work out which children have priority and can be offered places. The criteria for each borough’s primary, infant and junior schools is summarised in the relevant school information brochure, and is published in full on the individual schools’ websites. It is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with how your preferred schools prioritise applications.

Each school that you name as a preference will consider your child’s application against its admissions criteria only. Schools are not told your order of preference as this is confidential.

For example, an application from a parent who has listed the school as a fourth preference is treated in the same way as an application where the school is listed as a first preference. The preference order is only considered when your child has a potential offer for more than one school, and this is when the highest possible preference offer will be made.

Assessment of the home address for admission purposes

Achieving for Children is committed to following strict address verification procedures to ensure that only entitled pupils are offered places.

All applications are subject to the same robust address checking process. We will withdraw an offer if it was made as a result of fraudulent or intentionally misleading information, even if your child has started school.

It is your responsibility to read the child’s home address policy which is published in full in the admissions brochure. This includes information about applying for a  child who lives between two properties under a joint care arrangement.

Your application must be made from a single address, and only a single application can be made for a child. The address you provide on your application must be where you are physically living with your child at the time the application is submitted. It is expected that you and your child will continue to live at the address used on your application until they start at their allocated school.

Moving home during the application process

If you move house at any time after the deadline date and before your child starts school, you must inform the School Admissions team. Your child’s application will be reassessed to determine whether any offer that has been made can remain in place based on the new information.

If you fail to inform us of a change to your child’s address, this may be treated as an attempt to obtain a school place on the basis of intentionally misleading information. Your application, and any offer we have made, will be withdrawn

If you move into the borough after the closing date please contact School Admissions for further information and advice.

We will only accept house moves as on-time for the initial allocation,  if we are satisfied that you and your child are habitually resident in the property by Wednesday 7 February 2024, and that your previous address can be reasonably disregarded for admissions purposes.

If you move into the borough after the allocation of places you can still complete an application and name up to six preferences. We will offer you a place at one of your preferred schools if this is possible. If all the places at your preferred schools have been allocated, your child’s name will be added to waiting lists in criteria order.

Waiting lists

Your child will automatically be added to the waiting list for a higher preferred school where an offer could not be made.

Waiting list positions are held in the priority order of the school’s oversubscription criteria, and must be re-ranked each time a new application is received. Your child’s position on the list may go down as well as up. Your child will not get any additional priority on the list if they are currently out of school.

Waiting lists for the academic year 2023/24 will end in the last week of June 2024. You must make an in-year transfer application no sooner than June 2024 for your child’s name to be added to the waiting list for the academic year 2024/25.

How to apply

The primary brochure provides information on the application process and your responsibilities as the applicant. Please make sure you read this before making your application to avoid any delays which may prevent your child being offered a preferred school.

Visit the eAdmissions website from 1 September to apply online for your child’s primary (reception) or junior (year three) school place.

You must apply even if your child attends a nursery attached to your preferred primary school, or they attend the infant school linked to your preferred junior school.

It is important that you apply by the closing date of Monday 15 January 2024 otherwise your application will be treated as late and only be considered after all those received on time. After the initial allocation of places, late applications are treated in the same way as all other applications.

If your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), you will not need to complete the application. Please contact your assessment coordinator to discuss your child’s school placement.

Primary and junior school application outcome for September 2024

You will be sent an email during the evening of Tuesday 16 April 2024 to tell you the outcome of your application. If you applied via  eAdmissions you will also be able to view this information by logging on to the website.

If you applied online, use the eAdmissions website to tell us if you wish to accept or refuse the school place your child has been offered. If you applied via the Google form, then you must complete the response form linked in your email.

The deadline to do this is Tuesday 30 April 2024. Submitting your response online guarantees that the school knows your decision.

Applying for a place at any other time of the year (in-year application)

If you’re not applying for a reception or year three place in September 2024, you should refer to Changing schools in-year.

Starting school or moving up to junior school in September 2024 for London Borough of Richmond upon Thames residents

Appealing school place allocation

The appeals process

You have a legal right to appeal against a decision not to offer your child a place at any or all of the schools that you’ve applied to. You can appeal for a place at your preferred school even though your child may have a place somewhere else.

The admissions authority for the school you’re applying to must explain why your child hasn’t been offered a place at that school. They must also explain how you can appeal against this decision.

Your appeal will be heard by a panel which is independent of the school and the admissions authority whose decision you’re appealing against. You’ve the right to attend the hearing to explain your case to the independent appeal panel.

There are strict rules around the appointment of the appeal panel members to ensure their impartiality and independence. The panel’s decision has to be accepted by the admissions authority and the school. Your appeal must be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.

Appeal rules for infant classes (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2)

The law says that there can’t be more than 30 pupils in an infant class. If your child has been refused a place an appeal will only be successful in very limited circumstances.

The appeal panel must consider whether:

  • The child would have been offered a place if the admission arrangements had not been contrary to mandatory provisions in the School Admissions Code and the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (or, the admission arrangements are found to be unlawful);
  • The child would have been offered a place if the admissions arrangements had been followed properly;
  • The decision to refuse admission was not one which a ‘reasonable’ admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case.

So that the panel can judge whether an admissions authority has acted unreasonably, they’ll have to be satisfied that the decision to admit the child was ‘perverse in the light of the admission arrangements’ – the decision taken was so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards that no sensible person could ever have reached it.

Appeal rules for Year 3 to Year 11

When considering an appeal for any other year group, panels follow a two stage process in reaching decisions:

  • A factual stage – this considers whether the school’s published admission arrangements were correctly applied in the individual’s case, and decides whether harm (or prejudice) would arise to the efficient provision of education and/or the efficient use of resources in the school if the child was admitted.
  • A balancing stage – the panel can use its discretion here, balancing between the degree of prejudice to the school (or harm) and the weight of the parent’s case, before coming to a decision.

Your right to appeal

You have a legal right to appeal against a decision not to offer your child a place at any or all of the schools that you’ve applied to. You can appeal for a place at your preferred school even though your child may have a place somewhere else.

The process

The admissions authority for the school you’re applying to must explain why your child hasn’t been offered a place at that school. They must also explain how you can appeal against this decision.

Your appeal will be heard by a panel which is independent of the school and the admissions authority whose decision you’re appealing against. You have the right to attend the hearing to explain your case to the independent appeal panel.

There are strict rules around the appointment of the appeal panel members to ensure their impartiality and independence. The panel’s decision has to be accepted by the admissions authority and the school.

You may find it helpful to read the guidelines on the appeal process on the admission appeals page.

Appealing for a school that is arranged by the Independent Appeals Service

The following schools are arranged by the Richmond Independent Appeals Service. For more information, please visit the appeals service website.

Appeals timetable – infant, junior, primary

For community schools, the deadline to lodge an appeal is in Friday 17 May 2024 (this must be at least 20 school days from the offer date). Appeals for these schools will be heard during June and/or July 2024. Please download an appeal form or email education.appeals@richmond.gov.uk.

Applying for an in-year place

All the information can be viewed on Achieving for Children  website

Changing schools in-year

The normal first point of entry into school is Reception into a primary school, Year 3 into junior school, and Year 7 into a secondary school. These children transfer into their schools as a year group at the beginning of the academic year in September.
An individual application to transfer outside of the normal first point of entry is known as an in-year transfer. This is used for children moving into the area, or transferring from one school to another. In-year transfer applications are administered by the local authority in which the school sits.
If you are considering transferring your child from their existing school, you should discuss this with the headteacher of your child’s current school before submitting your application. This is because it is usually in the child’s best interests to have continuity of teaching and learning in the same school.
It can be more difficult to transfer into a preferred school in-year as schools may be full or availability may be limited in some year groups. There is no guarantee that siblings will be able to attend the same school.
The Richmond Admission team be in contact with you as soon as we can confirm a school place for your child, but this may take a number of weeks. Where possible, you should not withdraw your child from their current school until a new place is secured, to limit the time that they spend out of school.
It may take longer for us to provide an outcome for applications to enter school in September. This is because schools have a legal responsibility to ensure that any child who has left their school during the summer break is on roll at another school before a vacancy can be confirmed. Be prepared that if your child is not currently in school, it may be a number of weeks before a school place is allocated, and you will need to make suitable childcare arrangements for your child if appropriate.

Naming preferred schools

You can name up to four schools on your application including academy or free schools. If you would like to apply for Richmond schools, please do so by completing the Richmond in-year form.

The regulations allow for you to express a preference for a school, but this is not the same as being able to choose which school your child attends. Achieving for Children and the schools are committed to meeting parental preference where places are available, but you must be realistic when deciding your preferences.

You may not receive an offer at any of your preferred schools if your child is unlikely to qualify for a place. This could happen if you live too far away from the schools or if you name a church school but do not have priority under the faith criterion.

It is important that you name the schools in the order that you most prefer them. This is because your child could qualify for a place at more than one school. If this happens, your home council will look at your order of preference and you will be offered the highest preferred school that your child has qualified for.

Admission criteria

If there are more applications received than there are places available, a school will use its published oversubscription criteria (rules) to work out which children have priority and can be offered places. The criteria for each borough’s primary, infant and junior schools is summarised in the relevant school information brochure, and is published in full on the individual schools’ websites. It is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with how your preferred schools prioritise applications.

Each school that you name as a preference will consider your child’s application against its admissions criteria only. Schools are not told your order of preference as this is confidential.

For example, an application from a parent who has listed the school as a fourth preference is treated in the same way as an application where the school is listed as a first preference. The preference order is only considered when your child has a potential offer for more than one school, and this is when the highest possible preference offer will be made.

Assessment of the home address for admission purposes

Achieving for Children is committed to following strict address verification procedures to ensure that only entitled pupils are offered places.

All applications are subject to the same robust address checking process. We will withdraw an offer if it was made as a result of fraudulent or intentionally misleading information, even if your child has started school.

It is your responsibility to read the child’s home address policy which is published in full in the admissions brochure. This includes information about applying for a  child who lives between two properties under a joint care arrangement.

Your application must be made from a single address, and only a single application can be made for a child. The address you provide on your application must be where you are physically living with your child at the time the application is submitted. It is expected that you and your child will continue to live at the address used on your application until they start at their allocated school.

Applying for London Borough of Richmond upon Thames state-funded schools

Making an application

You must apply for a place in the year group indicated by the birth date ranges in the table below. If you would like to request for your child to be educated outside of their chronological age group, this should be discussed with the Headteacher of your allocated school after an offer has been made.

Date of birth ranges for the academic year September 2023 to August 2024

PRIMARY
Year group Date of birth from: Date of birth to:
Nursery (Reception September 2024) 1 September 2019 31 August 2020
Reception 1 September 2018 31 August 2019
Year 1 1 September 2017 31 August 2018
Year 2 1 September 2016 31 August 2017
Year 3 1 September 2015 31 August 2016
Year 4 1 September 2014 31 August 2015
Year 5 1 September 2013 31 August 2014
Year 6 (Year 7 September 2024) 1 September 2012 31 August 2013

Waiting lists

Your child will automatically be added to the waiting list for a higher preferred school where an offer could not be made.

Waiting list positions are held in the priority order of the school’s oversubscription criteria, and must be re-ranked each time a new application is received. Your child’s position on the list may go down as well as up. Your child will not get any additional priority on the list if they are currently out of school.

Waiting lists for the academic year 2023/24 will be disbanded at the end of June 2024. You must make an in-year transfer application no sooner than June 2024 for your child’s name to be added to the waiting list for the academic year 2024/25.

Contact School Admissions

The School Admissions Team
Achieving for Children
Guildhall 2
High Street
Kingston upon Thames
KT1 1EU

Email: richmond.admissions@achievingforchildren.org.uk