Please find Bitterley’s CE Primary School’s Admissions Policy and the Mid-Term (starting in year) application form below.  

Full details of Admissions can be found on the Shropshire Council website https://new.shropshire.gov.uk/school-admissions/ and set out in the "Parents' Guide to Education in Shropshire". Please click here: https://new.shropshire.gov.uk/school-admissions/parents-guide-to-education/

Details of Shropshire Council's Fair Access Protocol can also be found here: https://new.shropshire.gov.uk/media/6575/fair-access-protocol.pdf.

Parents who wish to visit school because they are considering applying for a place are always welcome to do so. Appointments can be made by contacting the school office on 01584 890228.

Starting School in Reception

Parents are encouraged by Shropshire Council to submit applications on-line by logging on to www.shropshire.gov.uk/schooladmissions by 15th January 2025. If you do not have internet access, or have questions regarding the application process, please contact the Admissions Team at Shirehall on 0345 678 9008.

The school has an admission number of 16 for the reception intake.

If there are more applications than available places within the admission limit, then priority will be given based on:

• Statement of Special Educational Needs
• Looked After Children
• Sibling connections and residence within catchment area
• Residence within catchment area
• Sibling connections and residence outside catchment area
• Proximity to school and residence outside catchment area

Children can attend primary education from the September following their 4th birthday. The law requires that children attend school from the start of the term following their 5th birthday. Parents of spring and summer born pupils can, if they wish, opt to have their children admitted to mainstream school in the September prior to their fifth birthday. In recent years all our children have started in the September.

For those children granted a place at Bitterley CE Primary School, we have a comprehensive induction programme to ease the children into school life. A series of induction visits for parents and children take place in the summer term prior to the new school year in September.

Mid Term or In-Year Applications

If you are considering moving your child to Bitterley Church of England Primary School, you are welcome to contact the school office to arrange a date and time to have a tour around, if you wish. However, this is not compulsory, and will not have a bearing either way on whether a place can be offered. A tour of the Academy is not indicative of a place being available.

The application procedure below must be followed in all cases:

• Request an admissions form from the school
• Send, or email, the completed form to the school admin@bitterley.shropshire.sch.uk
• We will then contact you in writing to let you know whether a place is available, or not. We will aim to do this within 10 school days and in any event within 15 school days. If you are offered a place at our school, the offer letter will then instruct you to make direct contact with us to arrange a mutually convenient start date. If it is not possible to offer a place at our school, then we will inform you, in writing, as to the reason for the refusal, as well as informing you of your right of appeal.  The relevant Local Authority will also be informed.
• At Bitterley Church of England Primary School we do maintain a waiting list for in-year admissions.  If your application has been unsuccessful and we have been unable to offer a place, you are welcome to contact the school office if you wish your child to be included on it. Priority on the waiting list is determined according to our over-subscription criteria (see Admissions Policy) and not the date a child is added to the list. If a place were then to become available, we would notify the school Admissions Team and they will notify parents of the vacancy on behalf of school.
• A waiting list is maintained until 31 December for Reception, see 2.15 School Admissions Code; thereafter, waiting lists are maintained until the end of each term.
• Parents will need to reapply if they wish to be included on the list for the following term.