Changes to the admission arrangements for Leeds Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools

Find out about the consultation for proposed changes to the September 2026 to July 2027 admission arrangements for Leeds Community and Voluntary Controlled Schools.

Give your views on the proposed changes to the admission arrangements for Leeds Community and Voluntary Controlled schools.

Why we want your views

When we propose making changes to our admission policy, we carry out a public consultation lasting at least 6 weeks before we decide on the final policy.

Proposed changes

We proposed the following changes to the admission policy for all community and voluntary controlled schools for September 2026.

• Primary 2026 policy
  
• Junior 2026 policy
  
• Secondary 2026 policy
  
• 2026 Coordination scheme
  

We are also running this consultation on behalf of the below schools who are proposing to remove the exceptional need priority for 2026.

• Pudsey Grammar - Pudsey Grammar School Policies
• Rawdon Littlemoor Primary School - Rawdon Littlemoor Primary School policies
• Rufford Park Primary School - Rufford Park Primary School policies
• Southroyd Primary School - Southroyd Primary School admissions policies
• Wetherby School - Wetherby High School admissions policies
• Whitelaith Primary School - Whitelaith Primary School policies

Proposed changes

The changes are:

1. A reduction in the published admission number (PAN) for the following school:

   Greenside Primary School - a reduction from 45 to 30 places
   

   The reduction is proposed as we are expecting less demand for places across the area in future years due to the birth rate falling.

2. Removal of Priority 2 for children with exceptional social or medical needs that can only be met at a specific community and voluntary controlled school.

The Local Authority’s SEND and Inclusion Transformation Programme is underway. Under this programme, we are moving away from the Funding for Inclusion (FFI) model in mainstream schools. All funding to support inclusion of children and young people with special educational needs will now be linked to those children and young people who hold Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs). EHCPs provide statutory rights relating to the process of considering and offering special education provision for children and young people with additional SEND needs.

Alongside other priority groups, children transitioning from Nursery to Reception and from Year 6 to Year 7 and from Year 11, are being prioritised in the transformation plan.

By September 2026, any child who is starting reception, junior or year 7 and would have met the exceptional need priority will have been considered for an EHCP. Any school named within Section I of a child/young person’s EHCP must admit the child/young person meaning the exceptional need priority 2 will become redundant.

Historically the priority has been granted for a very small number of applications as it was introduced to ensure where a child has additional school support and FFI funding, but did not have an EHCP, they could be prioritised for a place.

The data below shows the requests and when the exceptional need priority was granted for reception, junior and year 7 applications for the last 3 years. 

All families refused a place at a school will still have the statutory right to appeal to an independent appeal panel. The panel can consider the family’s and child’s personal circumstances and, in fact, the appeal panel’s legal grounds for granting an appeal are lower than the exceptional need threshold. Appealing will remain an option to anyone who seeks a place based on their specific reasons.

Leeds Coordination Scheme for normal round applications

Our Coordination Scheme sets our rules and processes for how Leeds as a local authority, works with all Leeds schools, including those who set their own admission policy, and all other Local Authorities when processing applications in the normal round. This means applications made in advance for reception, year 3 at junior school or year 7 at secondary school.  

We are not proposing any changes to the scheme.

Other changes to the policy

There is one change we did not seek views on, as it does not require formal consultation and we are making the change under the Admission Code rules. This change is:

• Minor wording changes to the policy after consideration of School Adjudicator decisions, including confirming any applicants refused a place are automatically added to the waiting list.
  

Have your say

Tell us what you think about the changes by completing our online survey.

If you have any questions about this proposal, please email education.admissions@leeds.gov.uk.

What happens next

The consultation closes at midnight on 15 December 2024.

Once the consultation closes, we will review the responses and decide the final policy. The final admission arrangements must then be approved by the Council’s Executive Board in its February 2025 meeting. Our Executive Board  must approve the admission arrangements by 28 February 2025. We must publish the final policy on the council website by 15 March 2025.

Schools who have joined our consultation but are not community and voluntary controlled will set and publish their own policy by the above dates.

Once the policy is approved, if you think the school's admissions policy is unfair or unlawful, you can make an objection to the school adjudicator by 15 May.