| Appendix A |
Glossary and definitions |
| Academy |
A State funded school in England, set up as a non-profit making charitable Trust, which is independent of local authority control and funded directly via the Education Funding Agency. |
| Admission Authority |
The body responsible for setting and applying a school’s admission arrangements. For community or voluntary controlled schools, this body is the local authority unless it has agreed to delegate responsibility to the governing body. For foundation or voluntary aided schools, this body is the governing body of the school. For Academies, this body is the Academy Trust. |
| Admission Arrangements |
The overall procedure, practices and oversubscription criteria used in deciding the allocation of school places including any device or means used to determine whether a school place is to be offered. |
| Admission Limit |
A non statutory limit applying to year groups other than the year(s) of entry which indicates the number of places to be offered, usually determined according to the level of resource available |
| Common Application Form (CAF)
|
The form parents complete, listing their preferred choices of schools, and then submit to local authorities when applying for a school place for their child as part of the local co-ordination scheme, during the normal admissions round. Parents must be allowed to express a preference for a minimum of three schools on the relevant common application form as determined by their local authority. Local authorities may allow parents to express a higher number of preferences if they wish. |
| Composite prospectus
|
The prospectus that a local authority is required to publish by 12 September in the offer year. This prospectus must include detailed admission arrangements of all maintained schools in the area (including admission numbers and catchment areas). |
| Co-ordinated Scheme
|
All local authorities are required to co-ordinate the normal admissions round for primary and secondary schools in their area. Schools can take in-year applications directly from parents, provided they notify their local authority of each application and its outcome. Each Local Authority must produce and publish a Coordinated Admissions Scheme |
| Home Local Authority |
A child’s home local authority is the local authority in whose area the child resides. |
| Infant Class Size Limit
|
Section 1 of the SSFA 1998 limits the size of an infant class (i.e. a class in which the majority of children will reach the age of five, six or seven during the school year) to 30 pupils per school teacher.
The School Admissions (Infant Class Sizes) (England) Regulations 2012 permit children to be admitted as exceptions to the infant class size limit. These are set out in paragraph 2.15. |
| In-year admission application |
A school admission application submitted in connection with a place required at any time during the academic year. In most cases and where the local authority has chosen not to coordinate in-year applications, the application form will be submitted directly to the school concerned. |
| Maintaining Local Authority |
The area in which a school is located is referred to as the maintaining local authority. |
| National Offer Day
|
The day each year on which local authorities are required to send the offer of a school place to all parents of secondary age pupils in their area.
For primary pupils, offers are sent out on or about 16 April and secondary on or about 1 March. The specific date will be published in the home local authority Composite Prospectus. |
| Offer Year |
The school year immediately preceding the school year in which pupils are to be admitted to schools under the admission arrangements in question. This is the school year in which the offers of school places are communicated. |
| Oversubscription Criteria |
This refers to the published criteria that an admission authority applies when a school has more applications than places available in order to decide which children will be allocated a place. |
| Published Admission Number – (PAN)
|
The number of school places that the admission authority must offer in each relevant age group of a school for which it is the admission authority. Admission numbers are part of a school’s admission arrangements. |
| Reception Class |
Defined by Section 142 of the SSFA 1998 as a class in which education is provided which is suitable for children aged five and any children who are under or over five years old whom it is expedient to educate with pupils of that age. |
| Relevant Age Group |
The age group to which children are normally admitted. Each relevant age group must have admission arrangements, including an admission number. Some schools (for example schools with sixth forms which admit children into the sixth form) may have more than one relevant age group. |
| School Year |
The period beginning with the first school term to begin after July and ending with the beginning of the first such term to begin after the following July, as defined by Section 579 of the Education Act 1996. |
| The ‘normal admissions round’ |
The period during which parents are invited to express a minimum of three preferences for a place at any state-funded school, in rank order on the common application form provided by their home local authority. This period usually follows publication of the local authority composite prospectus on 12 September, with the deadlines for parental applications of 15 January for primary places and 31 October for secondary places, and subsequent offers made to parents on National Offer Day |
