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Changing schools during the school year

Waiting lists for in year transfers

You can ask to be added to the waiting list for any school that you have applied for and been refused a place at. The only exception is if your application has been refused on the grounds of challenging behaviour as per the Fair Access Protocol.

All mainstream schools in North Somerset are academies. These are run by the school’s academy trust and not the council, including the responsibility for school admissions. 

Currently all schools in North Somerset purchase admissions services from us. However, the tasks delegated to us from the schools will vary. Some schools may hold their own waiting list, and some are held by us.

Waiting lists

Primary schools

The following primary schools hold their own waiting list:

  • Chestnut Park 
  • Corpus Christi Catholic
  • Dundry C of E
  • Mary Elton
  • Parklands Educate Together
  • St Francis Catholic
  • St Georges Church
  • St John the Evangelist Church
  • St Joseph’s Catholic
  • Tickenham C of E
  • Trinity Anglican-Methodist
  • Yeo Moor

Secondary schools

The following secondary schools hold their own waiting list:

  • Backwell
  • Churchill Academy
  • Gordano
  • Nailsea
  • Priory Community School – an Academy
  • St Katherine’s
  • Worle Community School – an Academy

If you would like to be added to a waiting list you must notify whoever holds the list. This may be us or the school. You are not added automatically.

Changes to your status

The following schools clear the waiting lists at the end of every other term (summer, Christmas and Easter):

  • Sandford Primary School
  • Winscombe Primary School

If you want to stay on the waiting list, you must let whoever holds it know at the appropriate time.

Schools not listed above clear the waiting lists at the end of every academic year.

If you want to stay on the waiting list for the start of the next academic year (summer) you must re-apply from 1 June.

If you would like to take your child off a waiting list, please let whoever holds it know.

Your position on the list

Your position on a waiting list will depend on which criteria your child meets and who else is on the waiting list. These details are laid out in the school's oversubscription criteria.

Priority will not be given on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, nor for how long someone has been waiting. Only the school’s oversubscription criteria, as set in its admission policy, will be used.

Please see the relevant parents’ guide for a summary of the oversubscription criteria, or the school’s admissions policy for the full details.

Waiting list positions can go up and down as other applicants are added and removed from the waiting list. For example, if you are first on a waiting list, it does not guarantee that you will be first permanently. 

Other people may apply and ask to be added to the waiting list as well. If they are in a higher criterion than you, they will be placed first on the waiting list. This will mean everyone else will be moved down one position.

Children who are the subject of a direction by a Council to admit or those who are allocated a school in accordance with the Fair Access Protocol, must take precedence over those on the waiting list. This is set out in law.