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Your Guide to Primary Education in Leicestershire

Section 4: How are school places allocated?

Leicestershire County Council makes sure that, in the county as a whole, there are full-time school places for all children from the age of 5 onwards whose parents request places, and decides, with the Governors of individual schools, the catchment area for the school, the maximum size of a school and the maximum size of each year group.

A note about catchment areas and county boundaries:

There is a network of catchment areas for local schools in Leicestershire, and parents living in a school’s catchment area have high priority for places in that school, as long as they apply on time. Because local government reorganisation split Leicestershire, Leicester City and Rutland in 1997, some historic catchment areas now cross county boundaries. For instance there are some villages in Leicestershire for which the catchment school is in Rutland and in a few places with other neighbouring counties.

For example:

(i) Leicestershire villages allocated to Leicestershire primary schools and Rutland secondary schools:
Hallaton, Tugby, Bringhurst, Drayton, East Norton, Great Easton, Keythorpe Hall, Launde, Loddington, Neville Holt, Skeffington, Stockerston and Medbourne.

(ii) Leicestershire villages allocated to Rutland primary and secondary schools: Knossington, Cold Overton, Owston, Newbold, Horninghold, Withcote and Blaston.

If you have a query about the catchment school for your particular area, please contact the Allocations Section on 0116 3056684.

Responsibilities of parents and the local authority

The Children and Young People’s Service, is responsible for:

informing parents how a place is allocated for their son/daughter
the arrangements for parents to state a preference
stating how the requests will be considered.

Parents are responsible for:

making enquiries and finding out information about schools and aspects such as transport
making enquiries about how their children will be affected if they change address
applying for a school place every time the child is due to start at a fresh school.

All admissions to community and voluntary controlled schools are the responsibility of the Children and Young People’s Service and not the schools themselves.

Voluntary Aided and Foundation Schools

There is a different arrangement for Church of England and Roman Catholic Aided Schools and for Foundation Schools. Enquiries concerning these schools should be made direct to the Headteacher. Admissions to these schools are the responsibility of the Governors, but an application for a place must be made on the form you obtain from the relevant local authority.

Which school is for your son/daughter?

Each school caters as far as possible for the needs of the families in its neighbourhood. When your child starts primary school, you must apply for a school place. Normally the Children and Young People’s Service wishes to offer a place to every child living in a school’s catchment area, but this may not always be possible for infants (4 to 7 year olds) as there is an infant class size limit of 30 children per teacher. The Headteacher of the school will be pleased to discuss your child’s admission or you can get advice from the Allocations Section, County Hall, Tel: 0116 305 6684.

When your child transfers from primary to secondary school, you must apply for a place in a secondary school. Similarly, if you live in a part of the County where there is a separate infant and junior school, you must apply for a place in the junior school when your child is due to move out of the infant school. The Headteacher or the Allocations Section will be able to give you advice on admission.

Each school works closely with the other schools in the area to help pupils to transfer easily on to the next stage.