The council is carrying out its statutory review of admission arrangements for community schools. The school admissions code requires local authorities to consult on their arrangements at least once every 7 years to ensure they remain clear, fair and compliant with current legislation and local circumstances.
Admission arrangements explain how school places are allocated when there are more applications than places available. As part of these arrangements, each school has a Published Admission Number (PAN) which is the number of pupils it plans to admit into a year group each year.
The council is proposing changes to the admission arrangements for community schools, including reductions to the PAN for Highfield Primary School in Hillingdon, Whiteheath Infant School in Ruislip and Yeading Junior School in Hayes.
If approved, the changes would apply to admissions from September 2028.
These changes may affect you if:
- your child is due to start reception in September 2028
- you plan to apply for an in-year school place from 1 September 2028.
Proposed changes to admissions arrangements
The proposed changes are intended to simplify admission arrangements, improve transparency for parents and ensure the admissions process reflects current patterns of demand for school places across the borough.
Where a school receives more applications than it has places available, oversubscription criteria are used to decide which children are offered a place first.
The proposed changes are to:
- remove the current distance priority radius system and replace it with a single sibling criterion and a single distance criterion
- strengthen the medical and social criterion through clearer eligibility requirements and more detailed evidence requirements
- update the existing child of staff criterion so that it fully reflects the statutory wording
- update the evidence required to verify home addresses, helping to ensure applications are processed fairly
- remove the nodal point priority currently applied for Frithwood Primary School. Admissions would instead be determined using the standard community school admission criteria applied across Hillingdon community schools
- revise the distance measurement points for Harefield Infant and Junior School and Whitehall School following their recent amalgamations to reflect the new school arrangements.
Proposed reductions in PAN
To help align school places with local demand and use resources efficiently across the borough, the council is proposing to reduce the PAN at the following schools.
Highfield Primary School
PAN reduced from 60 places to 30 places.
The proposed change would help to ensure that the school's PAN aligns with local demand and enables effective planning for future provision.
Whiteheath Infant School
PAN reduced from 90 places to 60 places.
The proposed change would help to ensure that the school's PAN aligns with local demand and enables effective planning for future provision.
Yeading Junior School
PAN reduced from 128 places to 120 places.
The proposed change ensures consistency between the PAN of this school and that of its linked infant school.
Documents
- Proposed Hillingdon Community School Admissions Arrangements 2028/29
- Summary of the proposed admissions arrangements changes and the reasons for introducing them.
Take part in our consultation
Have your say by completing our online form by 5pm on Friday 27 November. We welcome feedback from schools, parents and other stakeholders to help ensure the arrangements remain clear, fair and up to date.
Or submit a written response to: School Place Planning Team, Hillingdon Council, Civic Centre, 2W, High Street, Uxbridge, UB8 1UW.
If you require this information in another language, please email our team.
If you have any queries or if you or anyone you know would like a paper copy of this form, please email admissions@hillingdon.gov.uk.