Admissions

If you would like your child to attend our wonderful school, please contact the school office in the first instance to enquire if there are any spaces available in your required year group.

Full details of all admissions can be found below; this includes both reception class admissions and in-year transfer admissions.

All admissions to Eaton Primary School follow the Norfolk Local Authority Admissions guidelines and use the published admission rules to prioritise applications. Please see the links below.

Eaton Primary School is an own admission authority school and therefore there is requirement under paragraph 2.17 of the School Admissions Code to make clear in our admission arrangements the process for requesting admission out of the normal age range.

“We will consider all requests to place children outside of their normal age group including summer born and premature children in line with the requirements of paragraph 2.17 to 2.17B of the School Admissions Code”.

Norfolk School Admissions

A Parent’s Guide to Admissions to Schools in Norfolk 2024-2025.pdf

Reception Admissions

Admission to reception classes

The admission round for entry to reception classes for the school year 2025/26 opened in September 2024 and closed in January 2025. You can apply online at:https://admissionsonline.norfolk.gov.uk/enrol/

When does a child start school?

If your child was born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021, they are due to start school in reception class in the school year starting September 2025. Children must be offered a full-time place from September 2026.
Parents are entitled to defer their child’s admission or request that their child attend on a part-time basis. By law, children must start statutory education full-time no later than the beginning of the term following their fifth birthday. Read our parents’ guide to admissions to schools in Norfolk for more information.

Further information can be found at https://www.norfolk.gov.uk/education-and-learning/schools/school-admissions/admission-to-reception-classes

Important

You need to make an application for a reception class place, even if your child currently attends a nursery class at the same school
Attendance at a nursery attached to a school, does not normally give you any priority for a place at that school

You will need to apply online, decisions will be made available on the date which is published on the Norfolk school admissions website. This is usually in April.

Oversubscription rules for admission to Reception classes in community and voluntary controlled schools for children due to start school in September 2025.

If there are more applications for places than there are places available, the Local Authority

will give priority to children living nearest to the school, according to the following rules in

this order of priority:

Children who are due to start school and:

have an EHCP or statement of special educational needs naming that school
children in public care, have been adopted from public care or adopted from abroad who are due to transfer
live in the catchment area and who have a sibling attending the school at the time of their admission
live in the catchment area who have a brother or sister attending the feeder junior school
have a disability and live in the catchment area (Appropriate professional evidence will be required to confirm the disability)
live in the catchment area
have been allocated a permanent place at a Specialist Resource Base attached to the school. (Places allocated by Norfolk County Council’s Placement panel)
live outside the catchment area who have a brother or sister with a statement of special educational needs attending the school at the time of their admission
live outside the area served by the school who have a brother or sister attending the school at the time of their admission
live outside the catchment area who have a brother or sister attending the feeder junior school
have a disability and live outside the catchment area (Appropriate professional evidence will be required to confirm the disability)
children of staff
where a member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made and/or
the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for there is a demonstrable skill shortage
live outside the catchment area

If all children within any of the above rules cannot be offered, the highest priority will be given to children living nearest to the school within that rule. To determine who lives nearest, distance will be measured on a straight line “crow fly” basis, using Ordnance Survey data. The address will be measured from the post office address point on the property.

In the unlikely event that distance does not separate the final two or more pupils seeking the last remaining place, a random allocation will be used to determine who is offered the final place.

NOTE: Criteria 7 only applies to schools that have a Specialist Resource Base on site.

Feeder school priority will only apply in the first year of entry to the school.

Welcome Brochure

Welcome Brochure - April 2024.pdf

Moving schools during the school year

Moving to a different school at any time other than the usual admission to Reception class, transfer to junior school or transfer to secondary school, is known as an ‘in-year transfer’.

This could be a move between Norfolk schools, or a move to a Norfolk school from a school in a different area. You will need to make an online application to apply for the new school place, or complete and return an application form.

Under no circumstances should you withdraw your child from their current school before an alternative school place has been allocated.

You can only make one application for a school place in a school year, unless there is a material change of circumstances. For example, a significant house move and you are no longer able to get your child to their previous school. If you want to transfer to a school outside of Norfolk, you need to contact your new local authority to ask about their admissions process.

Apply for an ‘in-year transfer’

https://online.norfolk.gov.uk/inyearschoolsadmissions/

How soon can a transfer happen?

Children will usually start their new school at the start of the next term, depending on when the application is received. See the timetable below.

If a family has moved a significant distance and travel to their current school is unreasonable, the below timetable does not apply. The admissions team will process the application as soon as it is received.

Timetable for in-year transfers

Application received	Start at new school
5 July – 31 October	Spring term (after Christmas)
1 November – 28/29 February	Summer term (after Easter)
1 March – 31 May*	Autumn term (start of new school year)

*Decisions regarding preference(s) will be sent out before the end of the summer term.