At South Malling, we follow the East Sussex policy for admissions, East Sussex Admissions Information, these are their latest priorities:

New admission priorities for community and voluntary controlled schools in East Sussex from 2017-18:

1. Looked after children and children who were looked after, but ceased to be so  because they were adopted (or subject to residence orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following being looked after.

2. Children who will have a brother or sister at the school (or linked infant or junior school) at  the time of admission and who live at the same address, within the pre-defined community area.*

Children are ‘siblings’ if they are full, half, adoptive foster or step brother or sister living in the same household. This priority includes siblings attending school sixth forms.

3. Children wishing to transfer between a linked infant and junior school (as per schools listed in the admission booklet).

4. Other children living within a pre-defined community area.

Each home address within the county falls within a community area although living within the community area does not guarantee a place.  The admission booklet ‘applying for a school place 2016-2017’ shows details of the community areas for each school.

5. Children who will have a brother or sister at the school (or linked infant or junior school) at the time of admission who live at the same address, outside the pre-defined community area.*

The definition of sibling is as shown in priority 2 above.

6. Other children living outside the pre-defined community area.

Tiebreaker

• In the event of oversubscription within any priority, place allocation will be decided by prioritising applications on the basis of home to school distance measured in a straight line (as the crow flies).  For split site schools, we will measure to the site where the child will attend for the majority of lessons.
• In the event that applicants cannot be prioritised using the tie-breaker above because the distance measurements are the same, the Authority will use random allocation to decide which children will be offered the remaining places. This will be done electronically using the Authority’s admissions software.

* Children who have a brother or sister who joined the school prior to 1 September 2017 (1 September 2012 for Frant CE Primary School) and who is still on roll will be admitted under the previous arrangement which gave priority to brothers and sisters regardless of whether they live in the pre-defined community area or not.  Where a child has been unable to secure a place at a school in his/her community area and has been directed to attend a school outside the community area as an alternative, any applications for younger siblings to attend the school will be treated as if the family were resident in the community area, as long as the sibling will still be attending the school when the younger child starts.

Twins and children from multiple births (all community and voluntary controlled schools).

Where the admission of both twins or all siblings from a multiple birth would cause the school to rise above its Planned Admission Number, both twins or all of the siblings will be admitted. Where the admission of the additional child or children from multiple births to an infant class would result in the PAN rising above 30 (or multiples of 30), the additional child/children would be exceptions to the Infant Class Size legislation throughout the infant phase or until the number in the year group reduced to the PAN.

Full details can be found here: East Sussex Admissions information

You can email East Sussex admissions at: admissions@eastsussex.gov.uk or phone them on: 0300 3309472.