Admissions

Avenue Junior School is proud to be a School of Sanctuary. This reflects our desire to ensure we are welcoming and inclusive to everyone.

We recognise that choosing the right school for your child is crucial for their happiness and development.  We warmly welcome parents who are thinking of applying for a place at Avenue Junior School and would encourage parents thinking of choosing Avenues for their child to visit the school, meet the staff team and our wonderful children to make sure it is the right place for your child. Please ring the school office for an appointment.

Please note that during this period visits to the school cannot be accommodated but please do ring the school to speak to the Head or Deputy Head of School to discuss a placement.

All applications for places are dealt with by Norfolk County Council Admissions department. You can contact them and find out more by following this link www.norfolk.gov.uk/education-and-learning/schools/school-admissions

Admissions Criteria

We are a 4 form entry school with 120 places in each year group. Although we are a very popular school we do occasionally have spaces available for children moving into the area and for our intake into Y3.  

The intake number is set by the Local Authority and approved by the Governing Body. Whilst the vast majority of our children come from the local area, Avenue Junior School has always served a wider community as well and we welcome any parent who identifies our school as the one which meets their children’s needs best. Our ability to take children from outside our immediate area is dependant on the numbers coming from our immediate catchment areas and the local authority admissions criteria which are outlined below.

If there are more applications for places than there are places available, the Local Authority will give priority to children living nearest to the school, according to the following rules in this order of priority:

1. children with an EHCP or statement of special educational needs naming that school

2. children in public care, have been adopted from public care or adopted from abroad who are due to transfer

3. children who are due to transfer, living in the catchment area who have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of their admission

4. children who are due to transfer, living in the catchment area who have no brother or sister connection with the school

5. children who are due to transfer and have been allocated a permanent place at a Specialist Resource Base attached to the school. (Places allocated by Norfolk County Council’s Placement panel). (N/A for this school)

6. children who are due to transfer, living outside the catchment area who have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of their admission

7. children who are due to transfer, living outside the catchment area and attend afeeder school at the opening date of the admission round.

8. children of staff

 a) where a member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made and/or

 b) the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for there is a demonstrable skill shortage

9. children who are due to transfer, living outside the catchment area served by the school who have no brother or sister or feeder school connection with the school.

10. children attending primary schools with a brother or sister at the junior school

11. children attending primary schools with no brother or sister at the junior school.

If all children within any of the above rules cannot be offered a place, the highest priority will be given to children living nearest to the school within that rule. To determine who lives nearest, distance will be measured on a straight line “crow fly” basis, using Ordnance Survey data. The address will be measured from the post office address point on the property.

In the unlikely event that distance does not separate the final two or more pupils seeking the last remaining place, a random allocation will be used to determine who is offered the final place.

Important Note

‘School’ is defined as the main school and not a learning support centre or nursery class attached to the school. This means that no priority would be given to a child from outside the catchment area who had either a brother or sister at the attached nursery class or in temporary or part-time attendance at the attached learning support centre. The address given on the application form will be used to decide the catchment school.

Children in their last year (Year 2) at an Infant will be considered due to transfer. Children attending a primary school are considered as not due to transfer and therefore their applications have the lowest priority for a place even if they live in the catchment area of the school.

Feeder school priority will only apply in the first year of entry to the school.

NOTE: Criteria 5 only applies to schools which have a Specialist Resource Base on site.