Primary admissions
How to apply
Applications for Year 7 are co-ordinated through the applicant's home local authority and parents must complete the Common Application Form (CAF) issued by their home borough. Parents will be required to complete a supplementary information form to provide information that relates to the religious criteria for admission. The supplementary form must be returned to the academy by the closing date for admissions.
Parents of children attending the St Matthew Academy nursery must apply for admission to the main school in the same way as all other applicants and will be considered with other applicants at the appropriate time. A place cannot be guaranteed. In the event of oversubscription, admission to the reception class will be decided on the basis of the criteria set out below. For complete details of our admissions policy, please download the document on the right
Consideration of applications
The St Matthew Academy will consider all applications for places. Where fewer applications than the agreed admission number are received, the St Matthew Academy will offer places to all those who have applied.
Procedures where the St Matthew Academy is oversubscribed
Where the number of applications for admission is greater than the published admissions number, applications will be considered against the criteria set out below. After the admission of pupils with statements of Special Educational Needs where the St Matthew Academy is named on the statement, places will be allocated in the order in which they are set out below:
Criteria for entry into reception
1. Catholic Children in public care(1) and children looked after(1)by Catholic families
2. Baptised Catholic children(2)
3. Other children in public care
4. Baptised Eastern Orthodox children(3)
5. Children of other Christian denominations whose applications are supported by a Minister of Religion
6. Children of other faiths whose applications are supported by a Religious Leader of a designated place of worship
7. Other applicants.
If it is necessary to distinguish between applicants within any of the above categories, places will be allocated first to those applicants who have a sibling(4) who will be attending the Academy at the proposed date of admission of the applicant. After siblings, the remaining places will be allocated to those whose home addresses are closest to the Academy, as measured by straight line distance from the main entrance of the Academy to the main entrance to the child's normal place of residence. If it is necessary to distinguish between two applicants with a sibling connection, this will be done on the basis of closeness to the Academy as determined by straight line distance as described above. For the purposes of the criteria set out above, the following definitions will apply:
1. Children in public care (Looked After Children) are children who are (a) in the care of a local authority or (b) who are being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions and children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or become subject to a residence order or special guardianship order).
2. Baptised Catholic children are those with a certificate of baptism from a Roman Catholic parish or a parish of an Oriental Rite Church in communion with the See of Rome and those Roman Catholic Catechumens who have a certificate of enrolment in the Catechumenate.
3. Eastern Orthodox children are those with a certificate of baptism from an Eastern Orthodox parish.
4. A sibling is a person who has the same natural father or mother or legal guardian as a student on the roll of the academy at the time of admission and who shares permanent domicile with that parent/legal guardian and that student.