Applying for a Place

When you apply for a school place, you are asked to list three schools in order of preference.

Every school has a number of places available for applicants – this is the called the published admission number (PAN) for the school. The PAN for Parkside Community College is 120.

• If fewer than this number of children apply for a place at the school, all of the children will be given a place.
• If more than this number of children apply then the ‘oversubscription criteria’ is used to decide which children must be offered a place.

Every school has oversubscription criteria, explaining the order in which their places will be allocated if the school is oversubscribed. Every child applying is placed within the highest priority group (criterion) that applies to them. Depending on the type of school, priority will be given to different groups, for example, those with siblings already at the school or those living in the linked area. In many cases when the published admission number (PAN) is reached within one of the criteria groups, a tiebreaker based on either distance or random allocation is used to decide between the children within that criterion. All distance measurements are done on a straight line basis unless the school states otherwise.

It is important that you understand the oversubscription criteria for the schools you wish to apply for, and the likeliness of your child being allocated a place.

School places must be allocated on a system called 'Equal preferencing'. This means that where you place each school on your preference form (1st, 2nd or 3rd) is not relevant, and your child will be considered for each preference against that school's oversubscription criteria. 

Before any allocations into Year 7 are made, places are reserved for any children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) whose plan names Parkside Community College: this is a legal requirement.

Please be honest about the address where your child lives. You cannot use the address of a business, relative, friend, or childminder. You also cannot use a temporary address, or the address of a house you are intending to move to, or where you have acquired or leased a property purely to use the address on the application form without any intention of taking up permanent residence.

If your child lives at more than one address, the address on the application should be the residential address at which the child lives and sleeps (with a parent) for more than 50% of their time during term time.

It is important to be aware that, when they receive applications, the LA admissions team runs checks on addresses. You may be asked to provide evidence of the address used on an application, in the interests of fairness to everyone who wants a place.

You can name a Cambridgeshire school as one of your preferences, but you have to apply via your home authority. We would also strongly recommend that you name at least one school in your own educational area.

You must put the address where the child is actually living as at the closing date of 31st October. If you move after that date but before the 1st March, please let the Local Authority’s Admissions Team know. However, they will use the 31st October address for the initial round of allocations in March, and the new address for the 2nd round in May.

The Local Authority can only accept and process one application per child. You need to decide together which schools to apply for. Neither the LA nor Parkside can intervene in parental disputes. If you cannot come to an agreement by the deadline, the application may be treated as late.

If your child already has, or is undergoing assessment for, an EHCP you don’t need to apply via the standard route. The 0-25 team at the Local Authority is responsible for consulting with schools to see if they can meet your child’s needs. When a school is decided on, it will be named in your child’s EHCP. However, if you want to discuss any educational need, whether your child has an EHCP or not, please contact our SEN team.

It is your responsibility as a parent/carer to get your child to and from school, so please think carefully about the distance from home to school and what travel options are available.

Firstly, please don’t panic. After the initial allocation in March, parents have two weeks to let the Local Authority know what they want to do. At this point, some families’ circumstances have changed and they reject the place they have been offered, which frees up some places. 

People will also have moved in and out of the area. So there is a 2nd round of allocations in early May, which takes all of those changes into account, and some children who were not offered a place in March can be offered a place in May. Changes can continue to happen all the way through term 6 and even during the summer holiday. In the meantime, you can contact the Local Authority Admissions Team and ask to be placed on our waiting list.

The Local Authority maintain Parkside’s waiting list. You will need to contact them if you do not secure an offer of a place and wish your child’s name to be added.

Students are ranked on our waiting list using our oversubscription criteria and not on a ‘first-come first-served’ basis. This means that your child can move up or down.

Please don’t ask about the waiting list at the start of March, as it will not exist. The LA does not start to form the list until after all parents have responded to their offers.