Admissions
Admission to school in the Reception Class:
Beacon Primary School is a community school and admissions are controlled by the Local Education Authority. We have no affiliation to any particular religious affiliation or denomination and the admission criteria are below. Please note: a place in the Nursery class does not guarantee a place in the school. Enquiries are very welcome from prospective parents and should be made, at the latest, by the child’s third birthday. Parents who are interested in gaining a place for their child at Beacon Primary School are invited to contact the school secretary, who will be pleased to arrange for them to meet the Head Teacher and to view the school should they wish. Visitors are able to judge for themselves the high standards of attainment, behaviour, teaching and learning which we achieve at Beacon Primary School, and the hard work which goes on here. Visitors can see for themselves that Beacon Primary School is a happy school where pupils and staff thrive and are valued.
All applications are now done online. Please click on the following link for information about how to apply this year: Primary school places – Bolton Council
Places will be allocated to children with a statement or an Education Healthcare Plan, where our school is named. Where demand exceeds the number of places available places will be allocated on the basis of a fair and objective method.
Where our school is oversubscribed, the criteria listed below will be applied in priority order.
Priority 1 :
Children in Public Care (Looked After Children) who are the subject of a full care order. Children in Public Care are either on care orders made by a court or accommodated by the LA at the parent’s request. Children in care may live in foster homes, residential homes with relatives or continue to live at home. Also, children who have been ‘Looked After’, but ceased to be so because they were adopted, or subject to residence order or special guardianship order.
Priority 2:
Priority will be given to children who will have older siblings in years Reception to Year 6 of the preferred school at the date of admission.
Priority 3:
Children who are attending Beacon Nursery at the time at which the application for admission to Beacon Primary School is made.
Priority 4:
Children who suffer from some medical condition or disability, which makes it, better for them to attend that school rather than another. Places will only be offered under this criterion if the child has a certified medical condition with strong professional supporting evidence confirming that existing exceptional problems with the child’s health would be seriously exacerbated if a place were not made at the preferred school.
Priority 5:
Children for whom the journey to school is the shortest. The distance will be measured in a straight line using Bolton Council’s computerised mapping system. The ordnance survey integrated network will measure distance from the point on the highway nearest to the centre of the home property to the designated main entrance to the school. If the distance between the children’s homes and the school is the same, which includes the same geographical property reference (such as a block of flats), then random allocation will be used as a tiebreaker. The random allocation process will be undertaken by Bolton Council’s School Admissions Team at the Council Offices in the presence of a school representative.
If you are offered a place:
You should notify the school as soon as possible if you are going to accept it. After this, you will receive a letter inviting you to a meeting for parents where you will be given further information and have an opportunity to meet the staff. You will also be given details about preliminary visits to the school for your child during June / July. If you have NOT been offered a place, you may appeal to the Local Education Authority within 15 days of the final offer.
Please use the link below to access Bolton Council Admission to primary school booklet for all information regarding admissions and procedures. If you need to telephone the Pupil and Student Services Unit their number is: (01204) 332137.
Transferring to Beacon Primary School from another school
If you move into the area or your child is transferring to Beacon Primary School from another school the procedure is the same as the Reception class. You must contact Pupil and Student Services of Bolton Council – 01204 332137 to inform them of your details and circumstances and they will confirm whether a place is available with us. They will request that you complete an admission form and you will be subsequently notified of the offer of a place if the year group does not exceed 30. The same admission criteria as above apply. You have the right of appeal if you are not offered a place.
Please note: If you are offered a place at Beacon Primary School we will require proof of the child’s age and residence within 10 days – e.g. birth certificate/utilities bill at the time of acceptance.
Please use the link below to access Bolton Council School Admissions Service.
In-year admissions:
In-year admission is the process for applying for admission into an existing year group within a school.
Applications made after the start of the autumn term in the current academic year will be treated as an in-year application. The in – year admission process will be administered by Bolton Council. Parent(s)/carer(s) are required to complete the application form, which is available from and returnable to Bolton Council. For some children, it may not be possible to secure admission under the in – year admission process. Where this is the case, Bolton Council will apply the Fair Access Protocol to secure the most appropriate educational provision for these children.
For children who have a statement of special educational needs or education, health and care plan, the in – year admission process will not apply. Their request for admission will be dealt with by the home Local Authority’s Special Educational Needs Team.
Deferring Admission to School
The admission authority provides for the admission of all children in the September following their fourth birthday. However, where a child has been offered a place at a school the child’s parents/carers can defer the date their child is admitted to the school until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which it was made. Alternatively, where parents wish, children may attend part time until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age.
Parents wishing to take either of the above options should inform their allocated school as soon as a place is offered so that the appropriate arrangements can be made.
Parents may seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group, for example if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health. In addition, parents of children born between 1 April and 31 August (summer born children) may choose not to send that child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1 i.e. starting reception a year later than those in their age group. These requests should be made to the school admissions team in writing giving reasons for the request. This should be done at the time the child would usually be expected to apply for a reception place.
The request will be considered in conjunction with the school and the parent, and the admission authority for the school will decide on whether the child should be offered delayed admission or not. The decision will consider the circumstances of each case and will be made in the best interests of the child concerned, and in accordance with the requirements of the School Admissions Code (2021). The decision, and the reasons for it, will be communicated to the parent in writing. Where a child is offered a place at a school but not in the year group preferred there will be no right of appeal.
Also see our School Policies page for our latest Admissions Policy