Admissions Arrangements

Admissions Arrangements

Our Open Morning will be on Friday 17th October, Friday 7th November and Friday 21st November 2025 at 9.40am. Please call the school if you would like to attend.

Bledlow Ridge School is a local authority maintained primary school for children living in Bledlow Ridge, Saunderton and Saunderton Lee, although children from outside the admission area described above are also admitted in accordance with the County’s Admission Policy. The school typically admits 24 children into Reception and KS1 and up to 27 in KS2. If there are more applications than spaces available, parents will need to go to appeal to get a school place. All admissions are handled by the Admissions Team, County Hall, Aylesbury. A school bus, organised by Wycombe Area Education Office is available for pupils who are within the catchment area but living some distance from school. Please contact the Transport Officer on 01296 383742 for details or visit Contact school admissions | Buckinghamshire Council and complete a 'Contact School Admissions Form'.


Buckinghamshire's Admissions Policy
 
Click here for more information on the Buckinghamshire Council website 
 
Primary community and voluntary controlled schools admissions policy.
  1. All applications must be made in accordance with the Buckinghamshire coordinated admissions scheme (the scheme).
  2. All governing bodies are required by section 324 of the Education Act 1996 to admit to the school a child with an Education, Health and Care Plan that names the school. These children will therefore be admitted prior to applying the admission rules.
  3. Once a child is allocated a reception place under the scheme the school will offer a full-time place in September 2025.
  4. Deferred/Part time Entry: Parents can choose whether to defer this offer or to accept the offer on a part time basis as they wish. This deferment /part time attendance period can be up to the point at which the child is legally required to start school (i.e. the start of the term after the child’s fifth birthday) and cannot be beyond the end of the normal academic year of entry for the child (i.e. the latest any child could start is during the summer term of reception/foundation 2) otherwise they must re-apply for admission to Year 1 or have formally obtained agreement to delay their child’s admission for one year. Parents of children younger than five have the right to defer entry until no later than the term after the child’s fifth birthday if deferring within the same academic year. If a place is taken up part-time, then parents cannot take the remainder of the 30 hours that are unused at another provider.
  5. Staggered intake into reception: Historically many schools offered a staggered start to school with children gradually increasing their hours or starting over a period of a couple of weeks. The increased uptake of nursery provision means most children will have been in a setting for at least 15 hours per week for a year prior to starting school and many will have been in a nursery full time. Whilst schools may choose to continue this practice under the Admissions Code each parent still has a right to a full-time place at the start of the autumn term following their child’s 4th birthday. Parents may therefore choose to either access their child’s full-time place from the start of the term or to take part in a staggered intake.
  6. Delayed Entry for Summer Born Children: Delayed entry to school is where a parent applies to hold back their child from joining the correct year group for their age so that they start school a year later than they are due to, into the Reception class. Parents considering delayed entry are still advised to apply for a school place for the September following the child’s 4th birthday. This can then be withdrawn or declined if it is agreed that the child should be held back a year. Information about this process is on the council’s website, and parents seeking a delayed entry for their child should contact the Admissions Team in the first instance who will advise about the process. Each application will be reviewed, and you will receive confirmation of our agreement and the schools that it relates to. Once the decision is made to admit a child out of year group their admission will be managed in the same way as any other child in the intake with no reference being made to the child’s age.
  7. If there are more applications received than the places available at a school, then the places will be allocated within the scheme in accordance with the published admission rules for the school.
  8. Details of the dates for timely applications and how late applications are handled are given in the scheme.
  9. Where a child is admitted to a school’s Foundation 1, (nursery or pre-school provision) there can be no guarantee of a place in the main school as the coordinated admissions scheme is used to decide who should be admitted to the main school.

Admission rules for Buckinghamshire community and voluntary-controlled primary schools

Once children with an EHCP are admitted then the following rules are used:

  1. Looked after children and previously looked after children. (see Note1)
  2. Children who have exceptional medical or social needs, which can only be met at that school, supported by written evidence from an appropriate professional person. (See Note 2)
  3. Children of staff where either:
    1. 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
    2. The member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage. (See Note 3)
  4. Children attending a primary school linked to the school named in the list of ‘linked primary’ schools at the time allocations are made. (See Note 4)
  5. Children living within the catchment area of the school. (See Note 5)
  6. For the main point of entry: Siblings of children who are attending the school or a ‘linked primary’ school in Year R – Year 5 at the time allocations are made, and are expected to be on the school roll or linked school roll at the time of the proposed admission, or who have already been offered a place to start in the current academic year at the school or a ‘linked primary school’. (See Note 6)
  7. For immediate in year admission after the normal point of entry: Siblings of children who are in Year R to Year 6 at the time of admission to the school. (See Note 7)
  8. Once the above rules have been applied then any further places will be offered in distance order; using the distance between the family's Normal Home Address (See Notes 8 and 9) and the school's nearest open entrance gate offering the closest first. We use a straight-line distance. (See Note 10)

Tie Break

Where a school can take some, but not all, of the children who qualify under one of these rules, we will give priority to children by taking account of the next rule (or rules) in the numbered list to decide who has priority for places.

If it still not possible to decide between two applicants who are equidistant then an independently scrutinised random allocation will be made to allocate the final place. An explanation of the method of making random allocations is on the council website. (See also Note 11 below regarding twins and multiple births)

Further information on admissions and an explanation of the terms used in the admissions policy can be found on the Buckinghamshire County Councils website. See links below.

https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/schools-index/school-admissions/school-admissions-guides-policies-and-statistics/school-admissions-policies/