If you wish your child to apply for a place at our school, you will need to contact School Admissions at Solihull Local Authority. If we have places, they will contact us and we will assess whether we can meet an individual child's needs. This will entail contacting the child's previous school (if applicable) and talking to parents. Before your child joins the school there will be an opportunity to visit, have a tour and ask any questions you may have.

Please follow the link below to Solihull Council's schools page which explains more about the admissions procedure.

Admission arrangements for Solihull community and voluntary-controlled schools 2023-2024

1. Background 1.1 Solihull Council is the admissions authority for Solihull community and voluntary controlled schools. These admission arrangements, including the oversubscription criteria, explain how places will be offered

Infant and primary schools

Priority 1 Looked after children and all previously looked after children who are now adopted or subject to a child arrangement order or special guardianship order. Including those children who have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.

Priority 2 Children whose exceptional social or medical reasons can only be met by that particular school

Priority 3 Children who normally live in the catchment area of the school and who would have a brother or sister at the school or the linked school at the time they start school Admission arrangements 2023-2024 

Priority 4 Children who normally live in the catchment area of the school

Priority 5 Children who would have a brother or sister at the school or the linked school at the time they start school

Priority 6 Other children, measured in a straight line from the child’s home

Children offered a reception place at a school are entitled to a full-time place in the September after their 4th birthday. Parents can defer the date their child is admitted to the school until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which it was made; and where parents wish, their child may attend part-time until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age.

 Application procedure for the normal intake

5.1 Parents will have the opportunity to express a minimum of three preferences, rank them in order and give a reason for that preference.

5.2 A Primary Education and Secondary Education booklet is available for parents and comprehensive information is published on the Council’s website.

5.3 Applications should be submitted by the published closing date.

5.4 Applications with ‘exceptional social or medical grounds’ must be supported by independent professional evidence. The Advisory Group for Admissions will consider applications and evidence and make recommendations to Cabinet Portfolio Holder, who will grant priority 2 to applications deemed to have exceptional social or medical reasons. Requests for ‘exceptional social or medical grounds’ can only be submitted once per academic year.

5.5 All children whose education, health and care plan names a school must be admitted. This will reduce the number of places at that school. The EHCP Team process these applications.

5.6 The home address is the place where the child is permanently resident with his or her parents. If care is shared between two parents, parents will need to provide a copy of the court order defining the arrangement. In the absence of a court order, we will use the address of the parent who is in receipt of the child benefit. Parents will need to send a copy of your child benefit award for the last two years. Admission arrangements 2023-2024 

5.7 All applications are subject to address checks.

5.8 All offers of school places, for children resident in Solihull who applied by the closing date, will be made by us on the published offer date.

5.9 We will tell parents which school can be offered. If a place cannot be offered a reason for refusal will be given. Parents will have the right of appeal.

5.10 Any preference ranked lower than the school offered will be withdrawn.

5.11 Parents are asked to accept or decline the offer within two weeks.

5.12 The places that are offered are provisional and are dependent upon the circumstances of the application remaining unchanged until the child has started the school. It is important that parents provide us with any information relating to changes in circumstances, as soon as they occur. If a house move or fraudulent information means that the child is no longer entitled to the place it will be withdrawn.

5.13 If a place has been fraudulently obtained a place can be withdrawn after a child has started at the school.

 Late applications and changes to applications for normal intake

Applications, received after the closing date, are late and will be processed after the offer day. 

Changes to on-time applications received before the allocation will be considered if possible. Changes received after the allocation will be processed after offer day. 

Additional preferences added after the closing date will be considered as late.

 Application procedure for in-year admission (admission at any time other than the normal intake)

An in-year admission is at any time other than the normal point of intake.

Parents will have the opportunity to express up to three preferences, rank them in order and give a reason for that preference.

An application form is available for parents and comprehensive information is published on the Council’s website.

Applications with exceptional social or medical grounds must be supported by independent professional evidence. Cabinet Portfolio Holder will consider applications and evidence and grant priority 2 to applications with exceptional social or medical reasons. Requests for ‘exceptional social or medical grounds’ can only be submitted once per academic year.

All applications are subject to address checks.

Parents will receive an outcome to their application within 15 days of submitting a completed application. An application will be deemed complete when all sections are filled, and associated information is received. If a place can be offered the child is Admission arrangements 2023-2024 6 expected to start within 6 school weeks. If a place cannot be offered at a preferred school parents will be given a reason for refusal and offered the right of appeal.

If a place cannot be offered at a preferred school applications will be prioritised for the waiting list using the oversubscription criteria for the normal intake to that school.

Waiting lists for normal intake and in-year admissions

Parents can request that their child’s name be added to the waiting list for any Solihull school that is ranked higher than the school that has been offered.

Waiting lists are made in strict priority order against the published admission criteria for the school. 

If a vacancy arises in a school, the place will be offered to the child with the highest priority. Applicants will be put on the waiting list for the remainder of the half a term. Parents must contact School Admissions during the week before every school holiday if they want their child’s name to stay on the waiting list. Those who do not make contact will be removed from the list.

Fair Access

Each local authority must have a Fair Access Protocol to ensure that unplaced and vulnerable children, and those who are having difficulty in securing a school place in year, are allocated a school place as quickly as possible.

Fair Access Protocols may only be used to place the groups of vulnerable and/or hard to place children nominated in the School Admissions Code, where they are having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, and it can be demonstrated that reasonable measures have been taken to secure a place through the usual in-year admission procedures.

Please see the document below regarding our Nursery Admission process.

Please contact the school office on 0121 779 8040 or email: office@fordbridge.solihull.sch.uk for an application form.