Welcome to the Foundation Stage at Orton Wistow Primary School. 

To accept your child’s place 

If you made your application using the Parent Portal, please log in to your account to accept the place offered as soon as possible, but by 1st May 2024.

Please also contact the school by phone on 01733 370646, or in person from 8.15am -3.30pm to accept the place. Please advise us of your child's name, DOB and the pre-school that your child attended. Once you have accepted your place please come into the School Office to pick up a pack of information, an Application Form and other forms to complete and return.

Proofs

As part of the school admission process, we require you to provide proof of address. To ensure that offers of school places are made fairly, Peterborough City Council is committed to following strict address verification procedures. Please ensure that you have the correct documentation required when returning your paperwork in order to avoid any unnecessary delay in the child's admission to our school.

The offer of a school place is conditional until proof of address has been confirmed.

We will require the following proof before your child is admitted into school. Further details for what is acceptable as proof is available on the application form.

• Proof of where you (the parent/carer) live
• Proof that the child lives with you (the parent / carer)
• Proof of the child’s date of birth

To decline the place 

You must provide information on what educational provision you are making for your child. If you are declining a place because you are wishing to wait for a higher preference, or a place following an appeal, you may leave your child with no school place for September 2024 and it will be your responsibility to provide suitable education for your child. You will not be able to come back to that offer in the future (unless there are still spare places). You are advised to discuss this issue with the school or the Admissions Team before refusing/declining a school place offer.

Failure to respond to this offer by this date may result in the place being offered to another child. 

Waiting List - How do I get my child's name on a waiting list?

If you have applied for your child to start in Reception and you do not get a place at our school, your child’s name will be automatically placed on our waiting list, if our school is listed above the one you have been offered. Your child’s name will remain on the waiting list until the end of the academic year, or until a place becomes available if this happens sooner. If you wish your child’s name to remain on the waiting list for the next academic year, you will need to reapply in the July or end of the academic year.

Following the first round of offers, there is normally some movement, as children might have moved out of the area or have a place at a Private School, so therefore a place might become available. Please contact the school to see where your child is on the waiting list.

How is the waiting list managed?

When all available places have been allocated, a waiting list will be established for each over-subscribed school. Your child will automatically be added to the waiting list of any school you named on your application that was a higher preference than the school where your child was allocated a place. Positions on a waiting list must follow the same order as the oversubscription criteria and are not allocated on a 'first come, first served' basis. If new or late applications have a higher priority under the oversubscription criteria, they will be ranked higher than those who have been on the waiting list for some time. So, it's possible that over time a child's position on a waiting list can change.

A waiting list can be lengthened when any future applications for new pupils are refused and the names of these children are added to the list. These names are not added to the end of the list but are inserted according to how well they meet the oversubscription criteria. So, a new application from a child with a higher priority for admission than any of the children already on the list would force all those other children down by one place.

A waiting list can be shortened if any places become free at the preferred school. The free place would be offered to the child at the top of the waiting list at the time in which the place becomes available. If the place is accepted, all the other children on the list would go up by one position. If the place is declined, the child in the top position would be removed from the list and the child in the next position would be offered the place.

Parents can ask for their child's name to be removed from a waiting list at any time. Being on a waiting list does not affect the parent's right of appeal

Please note: If a place becomes available at a school, it will be offered to the child at the top of the waiting list. If you are subsequently offered a place at one of your higher ranked preferred schools this will automatically remove the place previously offered at any lower preference school. It is important, therefore, to tell us if you do not wish to remain on the waiting list as you are now happy to accept a lower preference.

Right of Appeal – If you are unhappy with your offer, you have the right to appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel for any school that you are on the waiting list for.
Please be aware that accepting the school place your child has been offered will not affect your right to appeal against a higher preference that has been refused or for your child to be on the waiting list for that school. 

If you have any further problems, please contact the school direct or contact the Local Authority Admissions Team:

Telephone: 01733 864007 

E Mail: admissions@peterborough.gov.uk