Welcome to West Jesmond Primary School
Thank you for considering our school for your child.
We hope that this website will provide you with much of the information you will need to help you find out more about our school. For advice on policies and procedures please look in the Parents Info and Our School pages. To gain a real feel for life in Reception and across West Jesmond Primary School please take a look at the Twitter account and Facebook.
Requests for admission to West Jesmond Primary School’s Reception classes each year are dealt with by the Schools Admissions Department at the Civic Centre. As a community primary school West Jesmond Primary follows admissions guidance set out by Newcastle City Council. The guidance below explains how to make an application and in addition how places are allocated particularly when a school is oversubscribed.
West Jesmond Primary Admissions Policy 2023-24
West Jesmond Primary Admissions Policy 2024-25
West Jesmond Primary Admissions Policy 2025-26
In the normal admissions round parents can apply to the local authority in which they live for places at their preferred schools. Applications need to be submitted, via an online application system, directly to the Schools Admissions Department at the local council via their website. Deadlines for submission vary from year to year (usually January) and prospective parents need to check the closing date. Parents are able to express a preference for at least three schools. The application can include schools outside the local authority where the child lives: a parent can apply for a place for their child at any state-funded school in any area. If a school is undersubscribed, any parent that applies must be offered a place. When oversubscribed, a school’s admission authority must rank applications in order against its published oversubscription criteria (see guidance above for these criteria) and send that list back to the local authority.
All preferences are collated and parents then receive an offer from the local authority at the highest preference school at which a place is available. For primary schools, the offer is made on or about 16 April, in the year in which the child will be admitted.
Parents, and in some circumstances children, have the right to appeal against an admission authority’s decision to refuse admission. The admission authority must set out the reasons for the decision, that there is a right of appeal and the process for hearing such appeals. The admission authority must establish an independent appeals panel to hear the appeal. The panel will decide whether to uphold or dismiss the appeal. Where a panel upholds the appeal the school is required to admit the child.
Meetings for prospective parents take place during late September to November to meet the Head Teacher and look around the school. Children are normally admitted to school in the September of the academic year in which their fifth birthday falls, although they are not legally required to attend until the term of their fifth birthday.