Applying for Reception Sept 2025
Deadline for primary school applications: 15 January 2025
This step-by-step process is for parents of children born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021, applying to start primary school in September 2025.
There is a different application process if:
- your child has already started primary school
- your child is transferring from infant to junior school
What you need to complete your application form
Reception Key Dates:
| 15th January 2025 | Application form to be returned to Local Authority |
| 16th April 2025 | Local Authority informs Parents/Carers of allocated School |
| 30th April 2025 | Acceptance deadline |
| 16th May 2025 | Deadline for appeals to be made in writing to Academy |
| May/June 2025 | Appeals Heard |
Waiting lists
If a school gets more applications than it has places, it will keep a waiting list for reception until at least 31 December 2025. The order pupils get added to the list will be based on the school's admission criteria.
Children who receive an offer at a lower preference school through the normal round of admissions (admission to reception) will be automatically placed on the waiting list for higher preference schools.
It is your responsibility to inform the local authority if you do not want your child to be on the waiting for a higher preference school. In the event that a place becomes available at one of your higher preference schools, the place offered at your lower preference school will automatically be withdrawn.
Schools outside of Croydon
If, in the normal round of admissions to the reception class, you have named (a) school(s) outside Croydon, you must check the relevant local authority’s arrangements to be placed onto their waiting list.
Changing your preference
If you get offered a place at the school that was your first preference, you can only change your preference and be added to the waiting list for lower preference schools in exceptional circumstances.
Any change in circumstances will need to be supported with relevant evidence. All requests to be added to a waiting list should be made in writing to the School Admissions team.
Email: school.admissions@croydon.gov.uk
Appeals
Parents / Carers wishing to appeal against the Academy’s decision on admissions, for any year group, should contact the Academy and request an Appeal Form stating the reason for the appeal, based on the published Admissions Criteria.
Completed forms should be sent to the Clerk to the Appeal Panel at:
Harris Primary Academy Haling Park,
50-58 Haling Road, Croydon, Surrey, CR2 6HS
All appeals will be heard within 40 school days of the deadline for lodging appeals.
The appeals will be heard, in private, by an Independent appeal Panel. The Clerk to the Appeal Panel will make an appointment within a reasonable time, Appeals may be made in English or the Parents’/ Carers’ first language.
- Only one appeal per application is allowed.
Appeals are conducted in person, and you may bring a friend.
The Appeal Hearing:
The Academy will arrange for an Independent Appeals Panel to consider the Academy's reasons for refusal and your reasons for wanting to attend the Academy.
The Panel will consist of 3 people (2 will have education experience and one will be an independent person with no education experience).
The Panel will consider the case put forward by you and the Academy. They must consider the admission arrangements for the Academy and the reasons why you want to attend that particular school. The Panel must exercise its discretion by balancing the weight of your argument (for wanting to attend) against the Academy’s reasons for refusal i.e. the prejudice that one more student would cause to the education of the students already offered and the Health and Safety of all the students already attending the Academy, also taking into account the Academy's published admission arrangements.
The decision of the Independent Appeals Panel is binding on the admissions authority and the Parents.
