Admissions
Welcome to the East Farleigh Primary School family
On behalf of the Staff, Governors, children and parents, it gives us great pleasure to welcome you and your family to our wonderful school community. We are delighted you are looking at East Farleigh Primary School as the place where your child will be given the opportunities to flourish in their journey of learning and discovery, making friendships and memories t
hat will last a lifetime.
We enjoy an enviable position of being “over-subscribed” which sadly means we have more applicants than we have places for each year.
All of our classes in the lower part of the school are always full with an occasional place becoming available higher up the school where a child has moved away or transitioned to another school.
Our school has 210 places; that is 7 classes of 30 children aged between 4 and 11 years. Our application process for our Reception is handled by Kent County Council (KCC) and our admissions policy (see link below) is administered by KCC and follows these criteria:
a) Children in Local Authority Care or Previously in Local Authority Care as defined by Section 22 of the Children Act 1989, including children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted
b) Current Family Association
c) Health and Special Access Reasons.
d) Nearness of children's homes to school.
Kent County council is responsible for all admissions arrangements - click here to be taken directly to their website.
Thinking of joining the East Farleigh Family?
Is your child starting school in September 2025? If so, book on to our open morning - we'd love to meet you!
Place confirmed?
If your child has had their place confirmed, please complete the Pupil Information Pack.
Transitioning
We like to make sure children have a smooth start to school. Please see our transitioning guide which is coming soon.
Appeals
If you are unhappy with the school place you've been offered, you can appeal for any of the schools you named in your application.
We recommend you still accept the place your child has been offered. This will not affect your appeal and will guarantee your child has a school place if your appeal is unsuccessful. If your appeal is successful you must remember to tell the school you were originally offered that you no longer want the place.
If you weren't offered your chosen school, this is usually because the school is full and there were other children who more closely met the school’s oversubscription criteria.
If your child is due to start Primary school in September 2024, you can appeal if you are refused a place at one of your preferred schools on National Offer Day (Tuesday, 16 April 2024). You needed to submit your appeal before Tuesday 14 May 2024 for it to be considered by Tuesday 16th July 2024. Any appeals received after this time will be heard within 40 school days from the deadline, or where reasonably possible in line with updated guidance from the Department for Education.
For late applications, appeals should be heard within 40 school days from the deadline for lodging appeals where possible, or within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged where reasonably possible in line with updated guidance from the Department for Education.
Appeal Hearing
The hearing lets you explain to an independent appeal panel why you think your child should be given a place at the school and lets the school explain why it could not offer your child a place.
The panel clerk will contact those who have appealed directly to inform them how the appeal will be heard.
You will be informed of the date of your appeal at least 14 calendar days before it is heard and a complete copy of the appeals paperwork will be sent to you at least 7 calendar days before the hearing.
Decision
The Clerk will normally provide you with the panel’s decision within 7 calendar days of your appeal. If the panel is hearing a large number of appeals, this will be 7 calendar days after the last appeal is considered.
If your appeal is unsuccessful, you can't lodge another appeal to the same school for the same school year, unless you can show your circumstances have changed since the first appeal.
There is a legal maximum class size for reception, year 1 and year 2. This is 30 children per teacher. Your appeal may be unsuccessful if all the classes have already reached their legal limit, unless:
- the admission arrangements were unlawful
- the admission arrangements weren't correctly and impartially applied
- the decision to refuse admission wasn't reasonable.
Further information
Call 03000 41 42 22 or email appeals@kent.gov.uk for support.
Moving from a different school to East Farleigh?
In-year admissions
If your child is at primary or junior school and you want to move them to a different school, you need to apply. This is called an in-year admission.
There is no guarantee that your preferred school/s will be able to offer your child a place. You should not remove your child from their current school before you have an offer of a place at another school.
You need to apply for an in-year admission if you want to move your child from:
- a primary school to a different primary school
- a primary school to an infant or junior school
- an infant school to a different infant school
- an infant school to a primary school
- (schools will start processing in-year applications for year 3 places from 1 July 2015)
- a junior school to a different junior school
- a junior school to a primary school
- a secondary school to a different secondary school.
You do not need to apply for an in-year admission if your child is:
- in year 2 at infant school and due move to year 3 at junior school - you need to apply for a primary school place.
- in year 6 at primary or junior school and due to move to year 7 at secondary school - you need to apply for a secondary school place.
Guidance taken from the Kent County Council Website
A Virtual Tour of Our School
Video coming soon
Children with Additional or Special Educational Needs
If you have a child with additional needs or is in the process of applying for an Education Health Care Plan, please contact our SENCo, Rachel Hodges, rhodges@east-farleigh.kent.sch.uk. We will be able to arrange a time to meet with you individually to discuss the needs of your child and how we can best meet them.
