Admissions at Bilingual Primary School
Schools Admission Applications
Please contact Brighton and Hove School’s Admissions Team for applications in all year groups including the annual September Reception admissions.
- Contact details for Brighton & Hove School’s Admissions Team:
- Email: SchoolAdmissions@brighton-hove.gov.uk
- Telephone: (01273) 293653
- Please click here for the Council website
TOURS FOR PROSPECTIVE PARENTS (RECEPTION COHORT 2025/2026):
Thursday 26th September 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Thursday 3rd October 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Thursday 10th October 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Thursday 17th October 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Thursday 24th October 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Thursday 7th November 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Thursday 14th November 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Thursday 21st November 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Thursday 28th November 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Thursday 5th December 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Thursday 12th December 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)
NEW DATES ADDED:
Wednesday 13th November 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Wednesday 27th November 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Wednesday 4th December 2024 - 9:30am (FULL)Thursday 9th January 2025 - 9:30am (FULL)
ALL OF OUR TOURS ARE NOW FULLY BOOKED.
Please email info@bilingualprimaryschool.org.uk if you have any questions - thank you.
Please also see our new school prospectus for more information about our school!
The deadline for appliations for Reception 2025 is on 15 January 2025.
We currently have spaces in some year groups between years 1 and 6. For pupils starting with us in Key stage 2 we offer some Spanish language support to ensure smooth transitions to our unique bilingual programme.
Tours at other times may be arranged, particularly if your child may be joining us this year.
Please contact the school at info@bilingualprimaryschool.org.uk if this is the case.
Admissions Arrangements for September 2025
The Governors at the Bilingual Primary School are the admissions authority for the school and Brighton & Hove City Council’s School Admissions Team coordinate the process on their behalf. Parents must apply for Reception age children through the Council for admission to the school.
The school has an admission number of 90 at Reception age for September 2025. The deadline for applications will be 15 January 2025.
Parents and Carers will be notified of their allocated place on National Offer Day via email and by post.
Children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs or Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) will be entitled to a place at the Bilingual Primary School, if it is the school named in the EHCP or statement. If the child for whom you are responsible has an EHCP / statement, please tick the box on the application form to indicate that this is the case.
Please see the document below for our admissions policy.
For Deferrals - Summer born Children
Please apply through the Council's Admissions team even if you would like to defer your child(ren). Thank you.
Oversubscription Criteria
When the school is oversubscribed, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the criteria set out below, in order:
Priority 1: Children in the care of a Local Authority (looked after children) and previously looked after children including those children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.(see
Supplementary Information below).
Priority 2: Children with a medical need requiring admission to this school only (see Supplementary Information below).
Priority 3: Children of a member of staff who 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, or the member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
Priority 4: Children with a sibling at the school. A sibling link is only taken into account if the sibling has already been allocated a place at the school (see Supplementary Information below).
Other children - Random allocation will apply thereafter as a tie-breaker for children living in the postcodes: BN1, all BN2 codes, BN3 and BN41. Places will only be allocated by ballot to children living outside these postcodes if there are still places remaining when all the children living within
them have been awarded a place.
Note: Being a Spanish speaker will not be a criterion for admission.
Waiting Lists
TThe School’s Admissions team will operate a waiting list for each year group. When, in any year, the Bilingual School receives more applications for places than there are places available, a waiting list will operate. If you have not been offered a place at your first preference school, your child’s name will be placed on the waiting list for that school. Your child’s name will be removed from the waiting list on 31 December. If you wish your child’s name to remain on the list after this date, you will need to contact the admissions team at the end of the autumn term 2025 and each subsequent term.
A child's position on the waiting list will be determined solely in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. When places become vacant, they will be allocated to children on the waiting list in accordance with the oversubscription criteria. In the event of more than one child falling within the same oversubscription criteria available places will be subject to random allocation by Brighton & Hove School’s Admissions team.
Note that length of time on a waiting list is not a criterion.
Appeals
To appeal against a decision on an application, parents/carers must contact the school for an appeals form, which must then be returned to the school. The appeal will be managed by an independent appeals panel.
Contact details for appeals forms:
- Email: info@bilingualprimaryschool.org.uk
- Bilingual Primary School, The Droveway, Hove, BN3 7QA
- Telephone: (01273) 916212
Where a child is not successful in achieving an offer of a place, the child’s parents will be told the reason why admission was refused and that they are entitled to appeal to an independent admission appeal panel within a specified amount of time under the provisions of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. The school will provide information to parents about the appeals process and provide the parents with a named contact who can answer any enquiries they may have about the appeals process. Parents lodging an appeal must set out the grounds of the appeal in writing.
- The admission appeal panel will be independent of the school.
- The determination of the admission appeal panel will be made in accordance with the Schools Admission Appeals Code 2012 and will be binding on all parties.
Supplementary Information
Priority 1: Children in the care of a Local Authority (looked after children) and previously looked after children.
Looked after children and all previously looked after children, including those children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. Previously looked after children are such children who were adopted (or subject to child arrangements orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after and those children who appear (to the
admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted. A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society.
Priority 2: Children with Medical Need requiring admission to this school only
Children for whom the Bilingual Primary School is the only school that is appropriate for the child to attend because of the child’s medical needs will be allocated places under this priority. Applications within the category must be supported with evidence from an appropriate professional.
It is vital that you supply any supporting evidence for compelling medical reasons for admission by the closing date. It is up to you to provide this evidence.
A decision on whether to admit a child under this priority will be made by the Admissions Panel who will take care to apply a consistent approach to all such applications received.
Priority 4: Children with a sibling at the school
A sibling will include a full brother or sister (with the same two parents), a half brother or sister (with one parent in common), a step brother or sister (with different parents but with one parent of each child who are married to the other), an adopted brother or sister, a foster brother or sister, the children of a parent’s partner where the parent and their partner are co-habiting, or any other child of the family, but in all cases the sibling must be being brought up with the applicant child as a sibling within the same core family unit, and their main residence must be at the same address as the child for whom the application is made.
For the avoidance of doubt, other children within the family (for example, cousins) who live at the same address because several members of the child’s extended family (for example, aunts and uncles) also live there, will not be regarded as siblings for the purpose of this priority.
A parent will include the natural or adoptive father or mother, the foster father or mother, or the legal guardian or person with parental responsibility for the child and with whom the child lives.
Twins and Children from Multiple Births
Where a child who is a twin or a child from a multiple birth has achieved a place in the usual way, but there are no places remaining to admit their twin or siblings from a multiple birth, the school will admit the twin or siblings from a multiple birth over and above the academy’s published admission number (PAN). In those cases, those additional children admitted over the PAN will be admitted as “excepted pupils” and will not count towards the statutory
maximum class size.
Age at Date of Admission
The school admits “rising five” children, which means that children will normally be admitted to Reception Year at the school in the September following their fourth birthday. A child does not, however, reach compulsory school age until the first prescribed day on or following their fifth birthday. The prescribed days are: 31 December, 31 March and 31 August.
Following the offer and acceptance of a place, parents can defer the date that their child takes up their place, or decide that their child will attend school part-time, until their child reaches compulsory school age or (for children born between 1 April and 31 August) until the beginning of the summer term of that academic year, without their child losing their place.
If you decide to defer admission, you must inform your allocated school when you accept the place.
Where a place is deferred, it cannot be given to another child, but the child must enter school both:
- by the beginning of the school term following their fifth birthday and
- in the school year for which the offer was made
If your child’s fifth birthday falls between:
- 1 September and 31 December, they would normally start school in September .
However, you may defer until the following January.
- 1 January and 31 March, they may start school in September or you can ask to defer admission until the beginning of January or until after Easter.
- 1 April and 31 August and you choose not to send your child to school until the September following their fifth birthday, an application under the 2024/25 admissions policy will be required and will normally be considered for Year 1 rather than a Reception class. Parents should keep in mind that there is a high possibility that there will not be any available places in Year 1 the following year.
Delayed Admissions
Admission of Summer Born Children outside of their Normal Age Range
Parents of children born between 1 April and 31 August (referred to as “summer born children”) may decide that they want to delay their child starting school until the September after the child has reached compulsory school age on 31 August. However, any place already achieved for the child in Reception Year in the usual way cannot be deferred (i.e. held for that child) for the duration of that school year, and parents will need to re-apply for admission the following year. Such applications will be considered with all other applications in the usual way, applying the oversubscription criteria for that year as necessary. As a place cannot be held for their child in Reception Year, parents of summer born children may request that their child is admitted the following year outside of his or her normal age range into Reception Year instead of Year 1, however there is no automatic right to this. The school will make a decision, having
taken into account the circumstances of each case. Where the request is agreed by the school, the application will be considered with all other applications in the usual way, applying the oversubscription criteria as necessary.
In-Year Admissions
In-year Admission and Applications to Other Year Groups
The Bilingual Primary School participates in the Local Authority’s co-ordinated in-year admissions scheme and follows the protocol set within it. Applications for admission to year groups other than Reception Year, and applications for in-year admission, must be made directly to the Council. Once the application has been received, if there are no places available within the relevant year group, the child’s name will be added to the waiting list and once places become available they will be allocated in accordance with the procedure set out above. Note that the length of time a child is on the waiting list is not a priority and will not affect their likelihood of gaining a place should one become available.