The School Admissions (Admission Arrangements and Co-ordination of Admission Arrangements) (England) Regulations 2012

General

1.  A qualifying scheme must—

(a) ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that each parent in the local authority’s area who makes an application on the common application form in respect of the admission of a child to a school receives a single offer of a school place under the scheme;

(b) ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, in any case where a child is eligible to be granted admission to more than one school, that the child is offered admission to whichever of those schools is ranked highest on the common application form;

(c) require a common application form to be completed, enabling a parent in a local authority’s area—

(i) to provide their name and address, and the name, address and date of birth of the child,

(ii) to apply for no fewer than three schools, whether or not any school for which an application is made is within the local authority’s area,

(iii) to give reasons for any application;

(iv) to rank each application in relation to any other application;

(d) identify for each school to which the scheme applies whether it is the local authority or the governing body who are the admission authority;

(e) where the governing body who are the admission authority for such a school have made arrangements for another body to determine the order of priority under paragraph 5(b), identify that body; and

(f) specify that any notification of acceptance of a school place must be received by the local authority within two weeks after the date of the offer.