Admissions

Before applying for a primary school place, we recommend that you read the First Steps booklet. This will explain the application process from start to finish. The booklet also contains a list of all the primary schools in Cambridgeshire, along with their catchment areas and allocation criteria.

Admissions into Alconbury Church of England Primary School

Our school’s catchment area consists of the villages of Alconbury and Alconbury Weston, Little and Great Stukeley and and Upton near Alconbury. We welcome visits by prospective parents and are happy to show them around. Currently we have children from out of catchment who have made an active choice to choose our school.

‘Reception-aged’ children are admitted to school in the September of the school year in which they become five years old. The school year runs from September 1st to August 31st of the following year. Parents of children in other year groups can apply at any time. If the year group is full the parents will be offered the right to appeal.

The Local Authority (LA) take responsibility for all admissions of Reception-aged children. In early October the LA Primary Admissions Booklets, which includes the common application form, is sent to all pre-schools settings and libraries. Parents requesting a place for September 2026 must obtain a booklet and submit their preference forms or apply online to the LA before the deadline in mid January 2026.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/children-and-families/schools-learning/apply-for-a-school-place

Schools are notified of their allocation lists in April 2026 when the LA sends letters of offer to parents. It would help us to start to plan ahead if parents choosing Alconbury School also complete our own admission enquiry form.

Places are allocated according to our Published Admission Number (PAN) and the LA’s admissions criteria. Since September 2009, our PAN has been 30. If our school is over-subscribed, criteria for selection will follow the LA admission priority:   

1. Children in Care (CIC) and Children who were previously in care (CIC) but ceased to be so by reason of
adoption, a residence order (now known as a child arrangement order) or special guardianship order ;
2. Children who appear to have been in state care outside of England and ceases to be in state care as a
result of being adopted.
3. Children living in the catchment area with a sibling at the school (or partner infant/junior school) at
the time of admission;
4. Children living in the catchment area (Alconbury, Alconbury Weston, Great Stukeley, Little Stukeley and Upton near Alconbury);
5. Children living outside the catchment area who have a sibling at the school (or partner infant/junior
school) at the time of admission;
6. Children of members of staff, providing that they have been employed for a minimum of two years
and/or are recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skills shortage.
7. Children who live outside the catchment area, but nearest the school as measured by a straight line.

Reception children about to enter our school are given the opportunity to spend time in school before admission. Parents are also invited to meet their child’s teacher and other staff at a ‘meet our school’ afternoon.

Before your child starts school, we ask you to fill in a medical form. Please keep us updated of any changes. We also need to see your child’s ‘long’ birth certificate to verify legal details as well as confirm Parental Responsibility.

Our new Reception children have a phased start during September. This phased organisation gives us valuable time to spend with parents to help settle the children quickly and effectively into school.

At the start of September, we plan parental visits to school to support the transition process.

During the first full week, each child will attend half days for part of the week. This allows a small group of children  to spend the morning/afternoon with the teaching assistants and class teacher.  Children and parents also meet their Year 6 Befriender during the morning. 

At the beginning of the second week all children attend full time. We will negotiate with parents if their child may benefit more by staying part-time for longer.

Please note that future arrangements may change, depending on the day of the week in which the school term begins..

Accessibility for Inclusion (see also Equal Opportunities & Special Needs Sections):  As our school aims to be an inclusive school, if your child has a disability, he or she will be treated no less favourably than other admission applicant. We make reasonable adjustments to ensure that pupils with disabilities are not placed at a substantial disadvantage and that they are not treated differently without lawful justification. Our accessibility plan sets out plans we have made and propose to make in the future with regard to improving physical access to the school, access to the curriculum and access to written information.

The effectiveness of our inclusive policy is evaluated by how successful we are in enabling ‘disabled’ pupils to participate fully in all aspects of school life: in the classroom, in the school curriculum, breaks, lunchtime and beyond the school day.

In order for effective partnerships to take place between home and school, we encourage parents to:

• Inform us at the earliest opportunity if their child has a disability and the exact nature of it;
• Provide the information we need to plan effectively for the child to be a full member of the school community;
• Acknowledge that when deciding whether an adjustment is reasonable, one of the factors the Headteacher must consider is the effect of the proposed change on all members of the school community;
• Recognise the importance of school and home working in partnership.