Admissions criteria

Introduction

This page is about admissions criteria for 15 hours a week of free childcare (‘universal entitlement’) at Merton community school nursery classes. Church of England schools, Catholic schools, academies, and schools in other boroughs have different admissions criteria.

It is important you understand the admissions criteria for the schools you will name on your application. The criteria will dictate how likely to it that you will be offered a place.

How applications are considered

Merton's admission process is an ‘equal preference’ scheme. This means that if your child is unsuccessful at your first preference school, they will not be overlooked by your second preference school.

If there are more applicants for a nursery class than places available, all applications will be ranked. Admissions criteria are the rules by which applications are ranked.

Once all applications have been ranked we can see if a child's name is high enough on a ranking list to be offered a nursery class place. If a child can be offered a place at more than one school we will offer a place at whichever of these schools is the higher preference.

In order to give the maximum number of children the opportunity to have their full three terms in a community school nursery, places will first be allocated to children eligible to start at nursery in September 2025. After these offers have been made, any remaining places will be offered to children eligible to start in January 2026.

Children who cannot be offered a nursery place will be added to the waiting list for all preference schools that could not offer a place. Places for children eligible to start in January 2026 will not be offered until February 2026, with offers only being made where vacancies remain. If your child is still on a waiting list for your chosen school in January 2026 and not starting reception in September, you will be automatically considered for September 2025 entry to Nursery with no need to reapply or renew your position on a waiting list.

With the exception of Dundonald, Wimbledon Chase and Wimbledon Park school nursery classes, applications for entry in 2025/26 will be ranked against the following factors:

1. Looked after children or previously looked after children (see notes on looked after children below)

2. Where there are professionally supported medical reasons or exceptional social reasons why a child should attend a particular school (see notes on medical and social reasons below)

3. Children of permanent teaching staff (see notes on permanent teaching staff below)

4. Where a sibling is already in the main school at the time of admission (see notes on siblings below)

5. Straight line distance between the child's home address and the main school (see notes on distance below)

For Wimbledon Chase and Dundonald Primary Schools only:

1. Looked after children or previously looked after children (see notes on looked after children below)

2. Where there are professionally supported medical reasons or exceptional social reasons why a child should attend a particular school (see notes on medical and social reasons below)

3. Children of permanent teaching staff (see notes on permanent teaching staff below)

4. Where a sibling is already in the main school at the time of admission, and lives within the admissions priority area. (see notes on siblings below) 5. Children living inside the admissions priority area in order of nearness of home to the school by straight line distance. (see details of admissions priority area and distance below)

6. Where a sibling is already in the main school at the time of admission, and lives outside the admissions priority area (see notes on siblings below) 7. Children living outside of the admissions priority area in order of nearness of home to the school by straight line distance (see notes on distance below)

For Wimbledon Park Primary School only:

1. Looked after children or previously looked after children (see notes on looked after children below)

2. Where there are professionally supported medical reasons or exceptional social reasons why a child should attend a particular school (see notes on medical and social reasons below)

3. Children of permanent teaching staff (see notes on permanent teaching staff below)

4. Where a sibling is already in the main school at the time of admission (see notes on siblings below) 5. Children living inside the admissions priority area in order of nearness of home to the school by straight line distance. (see details of admissions priority area and distance below) 6. Children living outside of the admissions priority area in order of nearness of home to the school by straight line distance (see notes on distance below)

Looked-after children

A looked after child is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions (see the definition in Section 22(1) of the Children Act 1989).

A previously looked after child is a child who, immediately following being looked after, was subject to an adoption or subject to a child arrangements, or special guardianship order including those who appear to Merton as the admission authority to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.

Medical or social reasons

Applicants wishing to be considered under this criterion must supply professional evidence supporting their case at the time of application.

Applications for medical consideration can only be considered:

• if there are medical reasons that make it essential for your child to attend a particular school, you must provide supporting information from a doctor or health care professional together with any other relevant information by the closing date.
• this must make a compelling case as to why your child's needs can only be met at the preferred school, evidence of a medical condition in itself will not automatically result in a place at your preferred school being offered.
• the evidence should explain exactly what your child's needs are and what specialist support or facilities your child requires.
• the evidence should explain why other schools could not provide the appropriate support for your child.
• confirmation of diagnosis is not confirmation of a need for a specific school.

Applications for social consideration can only be considered:

• if there are social reasons that make it essential for your child to attend a particular school, you must provide independent evidence from a professional who is supporting your family.
• the supporting evidence needs to set out the particular reasons why the school in question is the most suitable and the difficulties that would be caused if your child had to attend another school.
• the evidence should explain exactly what the family's needs are and what specialist support or facilities are required.
• the evidence should explain why other schools could not provide the appropriate support.

Providing evidence does not guarantee priority under this criterion; the School Admissions Team will consider if the evidence provided demonstrates that the child must attend a particular school and cannot reasonably attend an alternative school.

Please note that your child's current (or most recently attended) school or nursery may be contacted for further information and may be sent a copy of your request. The information you provide may also be shared with an independent appeals panel should this be necessary. Applicants will not be individually advised if their application has been prioritised under this criterion.

Merton cannot seek information on your behalf and we cannot contact any health care professionals direct for further information – please ensure that you supply all available evidence to us.

Please note we cannot accept letters from yourself or from other members of your family, nor from your health visitor.

School staff are not allowed to provide letters supporting placement at their own school so please do not ask your school to write a letter supporting your application.

Based on previous decisions, it is unlikely that application will be prioritised for the following:

• Asthma, eczema, allergies, diabetes, dyslexia, travel sickness
• Dispensing of medication that may require some training as this can be undertaken by any school.
• Speech and language delay.
• Use of a hearing aid.
• Because an Education Health and Care Plan has not been completed.
• Need for the child to stay in friendship groups.
• Attendance at the nursery and not obtained a reception place.
• Childcare arrangements where the carer lives close to a particular school.
• Work/travel arrangements.
• Family members other than siblings.
• For Dundonald and Wimbledon Chase where a sibling living outside the Admission Priority Area and who was allocated after September 2016 is already attending the school.

If you feel that one of these examples should be considered you can apply but you would be expected to demonstrate how this has a significant impact on your child, why a particular school can meet your child's need more than any other and why you should be placed above other children when making allocations.

If you believe that your child has a medical need for a place in a particular school, please contact Merton Admissions for a medical form or provide your supporting evidence.

Permanent teaching staff

Children of permanent teaching staff will be prioritised in the admission arrangements in either or both of the following circumstances:

1. where 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.

Siblings

Sibling refers to brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step brother or sister, or the child of the parent/carer's partner, and in every case, who is living as part of the same family unit at the same address, Monday to Friday. This does not include children currently registered at the school, but who will have moved on to secondary school when the child is due to begin in the nursery class.

For Wimbledon Chase and Dundonald Primary Schools, protected siblings are those where an older sibling was offered a place prior to 1 September 2016. Siblings allocated before September 2016 have now moved on to Secondary school, but any

siblings of siblings allocated as protected siblings are still protected and they will be considered under priority 4 for Reception.

Distance measurement

All distances will be measured by the computerised Geographical Information System maintained by Merton Admissions team. It should be noted that the computerised system measures from a start point plotted within the property at which the applicant lives to the main school reception entrance and calculates this measurement.

The child's home address excludes any business, relative's or childminder's address and must be the applicant's normal place of residence.

In cases of shared custody, the address that the child spends the majority of the school week in should be used. Evidence may be requested.

If there is a genuine equal share custody arrangement between the two parents, the address that will be used will normally be the address of the parent who is claiming Child Benefit for the child. If there is no Child Benefit all available evidence will be considered such as where the child is registered for the GP or which address the child has lived at for the longer time.

The address to be used for the initial allocation of places will be the child's address at the closing date for application. Any offer is conditional upon the child living at the appropriate address on the relevant date.

Parents have a responsibility to notify the Local Authority of any change of address.

Please note:

• Applicants in short term rented accommodation may be asked to provide evidence of their current and former housing arrangements.
• Where an applicant has ownership of a property, that should be used for the purposes of school admission and the applicant must provide evidence and reasons for the use of any other address.
• Where an applicant rents a property and has ownership of an alternative property, the rented property will only be used for admission purposes if the child has been resident away from the owned property for a period of 3 years or more at the closing date for applications.
• Any applicant who moves from a rented or temporary address in advance of their child taking up their school place may have their place withdrawn if it is found the family have returned to an address already in their ownership.
• The authority will investigate whether the place should be withdrawn if the pupil is not resident at the application address at the time of the September entry point.
• The authority will always investigate a case where the application address has previously been used to gain a school place fraudulently.
• Where it is found an address has been used for the purposes of admission where the child is not ordinarily resident, the application and any place offered will be withdrawn.
• An offer found to have been gained fraudulently will be withdrawn. This may also be the case where the child has started the school.
• In some cases, places may not be withdrawn once a child has been attending the school for a term or more. In these circumstances future sibling applications will not be given sibling priority for places and will be considered under the next appropriate criterion.
• Where more than one applicant has the same straight line distance measurement and distance is the determining factor, rank order will be determined by random allocation.

Applicants wishing to query a distance from home to school should contact the School Admissions Team at admissions@merton.gov.uk.

In cases where a distance calculation is disputed applicants should write to the School Admissions Manager, London Borough of Merton,10th Floor, Civic Centre, Morden SM4 5DX.

All disputes will be investigated. Where it is agreed that the basis of the calculation was incorrect the measurement will be recalculated. The calculation will be re-run for both the applicant in question and any other applicant shown to be affected by the issue.

Waiting lists

Children who cannot be offered a place will be added to a waiting list for all preference schools, providing they have not been offered a place in the nursery class at their highest choice school.

Details of waiting list arrangements will be included with your outcome notification if you do not receive an offer for your first choice school.

Waiting lists are kept in the same order as the admissions criteria of the school.

Waiting lists can change; for example, if a child moves into the area after the places have been given out, their name will be added to the waiting list. If they live closer to the chosen school than you do, or their circumstances mean they are ranked more highly under the admissions criteria, their name may go above your child on the waiting list. Once your child's name reaches the top of the waiting list, if a place becomes free, you will be offered a place.

Places for children eligible to start in January 2026 may not be offered until February 2025, with offers only being made where vacancies remain. If your child is still on a waiting list for your chosen school in January 2026, and your child's birthday is on or after 1 January 2022, you will be automatically considered for September 2025 entry with no need to reapply or renew your position on a waiting list

Contact

School Admissions Team Civic Centre Morden SM4 5DX Email: admissions@merton.gov.uk