Primary Admissions 2025

The John Wesley CEM Primary School is a 2-form entry school with a published admission number of 420 places, in which we admit 60 children into each year group.

Children reach compulsory school age at the beginning of the school term after their fifth birthday. The children due to be admitted in any academic year are those born between: 1st September and the following 31st August.

It is our policy to admit all of the children in the Autumn Term of the academic year in which they reach the age of five.

The school follows the Kent Local Authority admission process for applications into Early Years Foundation Stage. 

The process for applying to the local authority – Kent County Council begins in about November/December in the academic year before your child would be due to start school. In 2024, for a 2025 start, applications online open on Tuesday 5 November 2024 and closes at midnight on Wednesday 15 January 2025.

For further information about applying for a place in our EYFS Classes, please read the pdf booklet 'Guide to applying to Primary in Kent' below and follow this link: http://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/schools/school-places/primary-school-places

If your child is due to start primary school in September 2025, please arrange to come and visit us. We would love to meet you!

Please phone the School Office on 01233 614660

to arrange a visit or to talk to us about our school.

 

If you are unable to attend our school in person, we hope our virtual tour gives you a real feel of our amazing school.

Our Admissions policy can accessed on our 'School Policy and Procedures' section of the website. 

School Policies & Procedures

KCC Guide-to-applying-to-Primary-in-Kent

Have you recently moved into the area? 

Are you looking for a school place for your child?

We would love to welcome you to our John Wesley CEM Primary School Family!

Call 01233 614660 if you would like to join us!

 

As you are visiting our website, we hope you are considering our school for your child. We believe that the admissions process should be simple, fair and easy for parents to use in selecting the preferred school for their children.  Our policy aims to achieve this and complies with current admissions legislation.

We love to welcome children in EYFS and at any stage of their primary school education. Whether you are new to the area or looking at our school for another reason we will be delighted to meet you.

The John Wesley Church of England & Methodist Primary School is a Voluntary Aided Church School. The Governing Body is responsible for the Admissions Policy and education provided. They welcome applications from families and households of all faiths and none, who are living in the local area.

The school was jointly founded by the Church of England and Methodist Church and has a distinctive Christian ethos at its heart. The John Wesley CEM Primary School aims to serve its whole community by providing a quality education within the context of Christian belief and practice. We encourage an understanding of the meaning and significance of faith, promoting Christian values through the experience we offer to all our pupils. We ask all parents respect the Christian ethos of our school and its importance to our community.

We would be happy to show you around our school at a mutually agreed time. We welcome visits from prospective parents during the working day. Visiting us at this time allows you to meet both staff and children and see first hand what our school has to offer your child. 

Please contact Mrs Johnson, in the school office on 01233 614660

or email office@john-wesley.org.uk.

 

Allocation of Places

Children are admitted to our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) class in the September of the academic year in which they reach their fifth birthday.

The Governors wish to reflect the Christian character of the school and its links to the local Christian community in its admissions practice. The majority of the pupils are expected to be those living in the neighbourhood of the school.

Parents are advised that the school is part of the County Admissions Scheme and parents should complete a Common Application Form which is available online. (Please speak to the school office if you cannot access the online form). In addition, if parents are members of a church, they should complete a supplementary form which is available for collection from the school. Please note that admissions to the EYFS are handled by KCC but as a voluntary aided school we have our own admissions criteria alongside the KCC guidelines. The admission criteria for 2025 and 2026 have been set by the governors.

We do hold waiting lists for all our classes, for spaces that may become vacant during the school year.  Parents are welcome to contact the school to discuss this.  Should there be a vacant space, we will refer to our waiting list and offer places in accordance with the criteria laid out in our Admission guidelines. 

• Looked After Children and previously Looked After Children – A looked after child is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989) at the time of making an application to a school. A previously looked after child means 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.
• Current Family Association – a brother or sister attending the school when the child starts.  In this context brother or sister means children who live as brother or sister in the same house, including natural brothers and sisters, adopted siblings, stepbrothers or sisters and foster brothers and sisters.  The sibling link is maintained as long as the family live at the same address as when the first child applied, or have moved closer to the school than when the first child was offered a place, or have moved to an address that is less than 3 miles from the school using the distance measured by the method outlined in the distance/nearness of children’s home to school criterion.
• Church Affiliation - if a parent has applied for their child to be admitted to The John Wesley Church of England Methodist Aided Primary School on denominational grounds, applications should be supported by the completion of the school’s supplementary form.  In order for the Church Affiliation to be considered, the child must live within a 2 mile radius of the school and the parent[s]/guardian[s] must attend a Church which is a member of Churches Together in England or the Evangelical Alliance.  Attendance at worship must also be at least fortnightly for a period not less than one year. Families who have recently moved into the area should ask their previous Rector/Minister to also complete a supplementary information form (SIF). Priority within this criterion will be given to those children living closest to the school.
• Children of staff at the school - Where the 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 which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
• Health and Special Access Reasons – Medical, health, social and special access reasons will be applied in accordance with the school’s legal obligations, in particular those under the Equality Act 2010. Priority will be given to those children whose mental or physical impairment means they have a demonstrable and significant need to attend a particular school. Equally this priority will apply to children whose parents’/guardians’ physical or mental health or social needs mean that they have a demonstrable and significant need to attend a particular school. Such claims will need to be supported by written evidence from a suitably qualified medical or other practitioner who can demonstrate a special connection between these needs and the particular.
• Nearness of children's homes to school - we use the distance between the child’s permanent home address and the school, measured in a straight line using the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) address point. Distances are measured from a point defined as within the child’s home to a point defined as within the school as specified by NLPG. The same address point on the school site is used for everybody. When we apply the distance criterion for the school, these straight line measurements are used to determine how close each applicant’s address is to the school.
• Summer Born Children - Parents of a summer born child may choose not to send that child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to Year R rather than Year 1. John Wesley CEMP School will admit summer born children to reception class at the age of 5 if it is in line with their parents’ wishes and will try to ensure that those children are able to remain with that cohort as they progress through school. All children born from 1 April to 31 August are ‘summer born’ for admission purposes.
• Children born prematurely - A number of factors associated with prematurity can delay a child’s development. Children born prematurely tend to develop according to their due date, rather than their actual birth date which means their social, emotional, physical and intellectual development may be behind that of their peers. Some children may also have additional health problems associated with their prematurity. In addition, as a consequence of being born before their due date, a child may fall into a different age group than if they had been born at full term. When considering the circumstances of the case, the School will take account of the age group the child would have fallen in to if born on time.

NB:

A pupil’s home address is considered to be a residential property that is the child’s only or main residence and not an address at which your child might sometimes stay or sleep due to your own domestic or special arrangements.  The address must be the pupil’s home address on the day you completed your application form and which is either

• owned by the child’s parents or guardian OR
• leased to or rented by the child’s parent, parents or guardian under a lease or written rental agreement.

If you live separately from your partner but share responsibility for your child, and the child lives at two different addresses during the week, we will regard the home address as the one at which the child sleeps for the majority of the week.

A block of flats has a single address point reference, so applicants living in the same block will be regarded as living the same distance away from the school.  In the unlikely event that two or more children live in the same block and in all other ways have equal eligibility for the last available place at the school, the names will be issued a number and drawn randomly to decide which child should be given the place.

A child does not reach compulsory school age until the prescribed day following their fifth birthday (or on their fifth birthday if it falls on a prescribed day). The prescribed days are 31 December, 31 March and 31 August.

Before the application of oversubscription criteria children with a statement of special educational need which names the school will be admitted. As a result of this the published number will be reduced accordingly.

Appeals

In accordance with the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, parents may appeal against a decision by the Governors to refuse an application for a place. Details of the appeal procedure are included in the Kent Admission to Primary School Booklet (available online). A copy of the appeals procedure will also be available from the school office on request.
Further information may be obtained from the school office. The John Wesley Church of England & Methodist Primary School, Wesley School Road, Cuckoo Lane, Singleton, Ashford, Kent TN23 5LW Telephone: 01233 614660
 

Admission Arrangements
Kent Admissions is a simple, fast online registration process. The application period opens in November and closes in January of each year. Visit the website for further details to support your application. If you miss the deadline please contact the primary admission department at KCC in the first instance - once they have allocated places you will be able to contact us directly to be added onto our waiting list. Individual schools are not able to influence count decisions, should you require further information or assistance please telephone 03000 41 21 21 for the Online Admissions Team or email kentonlineadmissions@kent.gov.uk


On offer day you will be emailed via the information you have provided after 4pm, telling you which school you have been offered. You will then receive a confirmation letter posted first class on the same day of notification.