Reception

The Reception class is the first class of the main school. Children join when they are four going on five years old, i.e. the September before their fifth birthday.

All Reception class applications must be made using your home Local Authority’s common application form (CAF) and should be submitted to your Local Authority. You can apply for up to six schools on one application form, which should be listed in order of preference and you are advised to use all six preferences. Your preferences will be considered under an equal preference system; i.e. all preferences are considered separately, regardless of their ranking on your form, therefore, if your application is successful for more than one school, you will offered a place at the school you ranked highest on your CAF.

When considering your preferences, you will need to consider carefully the admissions process and the oversubscription criteria. If a school receives more applications than the number of places it has to offer, the places will be offered in accordance with the London Borough of Hounslow’s oversubscription criterion, which is available on Hounslow’s website,www.hounslow.gov.uk.

You can apply online or on a paper CAF form (which can be obtained from schools or from your Local Authority’s admissions department). If you apply online, you will receive notification of the result of your application via email the day before parents who have applied on paper, who will be notified by post.

It is extremely important to ensure that you return your application form by the deadline. Late applications severely limit your chances of gaining a place for your child at your preferred school.

The address you provide on the application form must be the address at which the child normally resides and you will need to provide proof of address along with your application. It is a criminal offence to give a false address and the Local Authority / school reserves the right to withdraw any offer made on the basis of inadequate, inaccurate or deliberately misleading information.

Each year we hold open mornings for prospective parents, when parents are invited to look round the school, meet the Headteacher and other teaching staff, collect application forms and related documents, as well as ask any questions about the school or the admissions process.

Please telephone the school on 020 8570 6132 or email office@groveroad.hounslow.sch.uk for details of open mornings, CAF application forms or for any other information.

The over-subscription criteria for Reception admission in September 2024 are:

Looked After Children:

And Children who have been adopted (or made subject to a residence order or special guardianship) immediately following having been looked after.

Medical/Social:

Applicants whose child’s medical or social circumstances require attendance at a particular school rather than any other school. In such cases parents are reminded that they must complete the appropriate section on the application form and attach a supporting statement from a suitable professional such as a consultant or a social worker.

Sibling:

Applicants who will have a son or daughter, including all blood, half-, step-, adoptive and foster brothers and sisters of the child (not cousins) who live at the same home as the child, in the infant, linked junior or primary school in September 2022. This would not apply if the sibling were due to leave in the July before the younger child would be admitted.

Where there are more applications that meet this criterion than there are places in the school, priority will then be given to those children who live nearest to the school, with the distance from home to school being measured as set out in the note below. *

4. Distance:

Priority will then be given to children living within the Priority Admission Area.

5. Any other children:

* Distance will be measured by computer software based on Ordnance Survey and postal address data. The software measures using public roads and footpaths adopted and recorded by Hounslow Council’s Highways Team. When using roads for measurement purposes the software measures along the middle of the road. It starts from a point in the footprint of the property provided as the child’s address and continues by the shortest available route to the nearest of the school gates which is used by pupils to enter the school grounds. Blocks of flats are treated as one address. In blocks of flats, priority will normally be given to the lowest flat number. Addresses in private roads will measure from the footprint of the property, along the middle of the private road leading to the public road/footpath as adopted and recorded by Hounslow Highways Team. Not used are routes using common land¹, open spaces, public parks, subways or footpaths not adopted by the Highways team².

Except the Chiswick Common footpath between the junction at Chiswick Common Road and Turnham Green Terrace.
Except the pedestrian footpath at the eastern end of The Ride.

In the event that the distances are equal, the local authority will draw lots to determine which applicant should be offered the place

Note: Maps of the catchment areas will be available from the Council, infant and primary schools and libraries.

Parents should note that admission to Reception classes is determined using the admission criteria for primary Schools. Attendance at a nursery does not guarantee a Reception place at the attached infant or primary school. ADMISSION TO THE PRIMARY SCHOOL FROM THE NURSERY IS THEREFORE NOT AUTOMATIC AND CANNOT BE GUARANTEED.

Where the last child to be admitted would be one of twins or other multiples the LA will ask the parents whether they wish to take one place in the hope that there will be a withdrawal before September and a second or further place become available, or whether they prefer the LA to place both or all their children together at another school.

Applicants’ priority for admission for each of their preferred schools will be assessed equally according to the above criteria, and their highest preference school available to them will be the school offered.

Late applications will only be considered after offers have been made to applicants who applied by the closing date.

Useful Contacts:

The London Borough of Hounslow’s admissions department: 020 8583 2711 / 2721 or admissions@hounslow.gov.uk

www.hounslow.gov.uk and go to the education and learning page