Admissions

Our 2027-28 Admissions Policy

Our 2026-27 Admissions Policy

Our In-Year Admissions Application Form

Our2026 2027 Admissions Arrangements

FAQs for Primary School Applications 

Generic Defence Statement

Appeals Timetable

Paragraph 2.2 of the Admissions Appeals Code states that Admission Authorities must publish their appeals timetable on their website by the 28 February 2026. The example in italics below can be used and placed onto your website. You are not required to put the actual date of your appeals that we have agreed but I must emphasise that to comply with the Code, you have up until 28 February to action the below.

If your child is due to start primary school in September 2026, you can appeal if you are refused a place at one of your preferred schools on National Offer Day (Thursday 16 April 2026).

You must submit your appeal before Monday 18 May 2026 for it to be considered by Monday 20 July 2026. 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.

Format of hearings:

All ‘in-year’ appeals have been conducted virtually via Microsoft Teams, and this will remain the format for main round appeals.

As parents will be invited to attend the hearing, we will once again require a representative from the Admission Authority (your school) to also attend each individual appeal setting out the case of the school, the reasons why that child did not get a place at your school, and to answer any questions either the Panel or the parent raises. 

Dates for Applying for Primary School Places - Medway Council Link 

ADMISSIONS CRITERIA – MAIN SCHOOL

OVERSUBSCRIPTION CRITERIA 

Places will first be offered to children with a statement of special educational needs, which names the school. 

If there are more applications for a school than places available, all other applications for community and voluntary controlled schools will be prioritised using the oversubscription criteria below and places will be allocated in the following priority order: 

1. Children in public care  
Sometimes referred to as looked after children (as defined in the Medway Council co-ordinated admission scheme), these are children for whom the council provides a home by agreement with their parents or who are subject to a care order under part IV of the Children Act 1989.  
 
2. Current family association/sibling (a brother or sister attending the named school at the time of application)  
 We give priority to children who have a sibling at the named school. Sibling means a child who live as brother/sister in the same house and includes natural siblings, adopted siblings, foster siblings and step siblings. Extended family, for example cousins, living in the same house do not qualify as siblings. Please note that if the older sibling is in Year 6 at the time of application, the link cannot be considered, as they will not be in the school when the younger child would start in the following September. Please note that there is no sibling link to The Marlborough. This is due to The Marlborough having its own admissions criteria which is managed by the Local Authority. In addition, because of the separate admissions criteria for The Marlborough, a sibling of a Marlborough pupil may not claim sibling link for admission to Hoo St Werburgh Primary School.  
 
 3. Child’s health reasons  
Medical evidence must be provided to the Student Services Admissions Team. This evidence must demonstrate a specific link between the child’s medical condition and needs and how the named school can meet these needs.  
 
 4. Children of staff that work at the school  
Children of staff that work at the school, where the member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission is made and/or the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstratable skill shortage.  
 
5. Nearness of children’s home and ease of access to the school 
 Distances are measured using the shortest available safe walking route between the home and the school.  
 
Tiebreaker – in the event of a tie within any criterion 1-5, places will be allocated to those living closest to the school measured by the short available walking route. 
 

www.medway.gov.uk/onlineadmissions 

IN-YEAR CASUAL ADMISSIONS 

Hoo St Werburgh coordinates its own In-Year Casual Admissions. Parents/carers need to complete the Casual In-Year Admission Form (available from the school website or from the School Office) and places will be offered in accordance with the schools admission policy which has been created in accordance with the Government Guidance School Admission Code. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2 

Parents can apply for a casual admission at any time during the school year. 
 

If no places are available at the time of application, a waiting list will be maintained. Names are kept in priority order according to the oversubscription criteria and not according to how long a child’s name has been on the list.
Any place that becomes available will be offered to the child at the top of the list. 
All vacancies will be allocated as they arise. 
 

In-Year Casual Admissions will be responded to within 10 school days (excluding school holidays) and within writing within 15 school days.  
 

Casual Admissions when transferring schools without moving home 

If a parent/carer wishes to transfer their child from another school without moving home, the Headteacher will contact the child’s current school to ascertain the situation so that our school is able to offer the correct support should the child be offered a place. 

Appeals 

You can appeal for any school named on your application that has not been able to offer your child a place.

To do this you will need to complete an appeal request form. 

https://www.medway.gov.uk/downloads/file/3955/primary_admissions_-_appeal_request_form_2026 

When you appeal you:

• can only appeal for schools named on your application
• can appeal for more than one school at the same time
• must complete a request form for each school you're appealing for
• can appeal for a school even if you have accepted another offer.
• Schools will not know you have appealed for another school unless you tell them. The appeals for each school are completely independent of each other.

For more information on appealing an offer please visit Medway Council website - https://www.medway.gov.uk/info/200137/schools_and_learning/1059/applying_for_a_primary_school_place/6

FAIR ACCESS PANEL (FAP) 

Hoo St Werburgh Primary School works in conjunction with Medway Local Authority and other local primary schools to ensure unplaced and vulnerable children, and those who are having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, are allocated a school place as quickly as possible. This protocol is called the Fair Access Panel (FAP) 

The protocol was developed in partnership with all schools in Medway and all schools must adhere to it. Participation includes making available a representative who is authorised to participate in discussions, make decisions on placing children via the Protocol, and admitting pupils when asked to do so in accordance with the Protocol, even when the school is full.  

No school, including those with places available, should be asked to take a disproportionate number of children who have been permanently excluded from other schools, who display challenging behaviour, or who are placed via the Protocol.  

Fair Access Protocols also sets out how the needs of children who have been permanently excluded, and children for whom mainstream education is not yet possible, will be met.  

Fair Access Protocols may only be used to place the following groups of vulnerable and/or hard to place children, where they are having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, and it can be demonstrated that reasonable measures have been taken to secure a place through the usual in-year admission procedures:  

children either subject to a Child in Need Plan or a Child Protection Plan or having had a Child in Need Plan or a Child Protection Plan within 12 months at the point of being referred to the Protocol;  
children living in a refuge or in other Relevant Accommodation at the point of being referred to the Protocol;  
children from the criminal justice system;  
children in alternative provision who need to be reintegrated into mainstream education or who have been permanently excluded but are deemed suitable for mainstream education;  
children with special educational needs (but without an Education, Health and Care plan), disabilities or medical conditions;  
children who are carers;  
children who are homeless; 
children in formal kinship care arrangements; 
children of, or who are, Gypsies, Roma, Travellers, refugees, and asylum seekers;  
children who have been refused a school place on the grounds of their challenging behaviour and referred to the Protocol  
children for whom a place has not been sought due to exceptional circumstances;  
children who have been out of education for four or more weeks where it can be demonstrated that there are no places available at any school within a reasonable distance of their home. This does not include circumstances where a suitable place has been offered to a child and this has not been accepted;  
previously looked after children for whom the local authority has been unable to promptly secure a school place. 

Where it has been agreed that a child will be considered under the Fair Access Protocol, a school place must be allocated for that child within 20 school days. Once they have been allocated a school place via the Fair Access Protocol, arrangements should be made for the child to start at the school as soon as possible. 

Policy written in accordance with the Government School Admissions Code -  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-admissions-code--2