Admission arrangements

Kearsley Academy is an 11 – 16 Northern Education Trust academy. As an academy within the Bolton Authority we admit students under the general criteria for admission
as published by Bolton Council. The admission number (PAN) for Kearsley Academy in September 2026 is 180.

The academy is a comprehensive school and will accept children of all abilities. This means no child is offered a place or refused a place on the basis of his or her general ability.

The academy recognises that all children, including those resident outside the Borough, have an equal right to apply for a place. The academy will admit a pupil into any year group  throughout the academic year if parents request a transfer which is agreed to by the Local Education Authority after consultation with the academy. NB If the transfer is from another secondary school within the Local Authority then consultation will take place with that school before transfer is finally agreed.

Click here for more information visit Bolton Council’s Secondary School Places

Admissions 2026 – 2027

The Academy will consider all applications for places without reference to the order in which the school is expressed as a preference. Where the Academy receives fewer applications/preferences than the admission number, it will offer places to all those applicants.

Where the number of applications for admission is greater than the published admission number, applications will be considered against the criteria set out below. After the admission of students with Special Educational Needs where the academy is named on the Education, Health Care Plan, the criteria will be applied in the order in which they are set out below:

a) Students who are in the care of the LA or a child who was previously looked after (including those children who appear to have been in state care outside of England and cease to be in state care as a result of being adopted). Previously looked after children are children who were looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted, or subject to a child arrangement or special guardianship order.

b) Students who have an Education, Health Care Plan.

c) Admission of students whose siblings currently attend the academy and who will continue to do so on the date of admission. Siblings (brothers or sisters) are considered to be those children who live at the same address and either:

• Have one or both natural parents in common
• Are related by a parent’s marriage
• Are adopted or are fostered
• Their parents are married/co-habiting and children permanently live together in the same household, including step-siblings
• Are children of the same household who permanently live at the same address.

d) Admission of students whose normal address is in the academy admission zone at the time of their application to the academy. The Academy admission zone is defined as 3 miles using direct distance from the main designated entrance of the Academy to the front door of the house. Please refer to the website for a map

e) Students who have social or medical reasons for being admitted to the academy which would, should the child not be admitted, cause him or her to be seriously disadvantaged or put their personal safety at risk. For each case the academy will need proof from an independent person such as a medical specialist who has been involved with the child over a period of time, a social worker, an attendance officer or another professional. The academy will not offer places within this category, based on a child’s ability or intelligence.

f) Children who attend a Partner Primary School linked to the academy. The partner primary schools for 2024/25 admissions are the Ferns Academy. Within this criterion places will be allocated in the following order of priority:

a) Those children who attend a Partner Primary School and live within the admission zone of Kearsley Academy
b) Those children who attend a Partner Primary School but live outside the admission zone of Kearsley Academy
c) Those children who do not attend a Partner Primary School but live within the admission zone of Kearsley Academy

g) Children of staff in either or both of the following circumstances:

i) Where the member of staff has been employed by the trust for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the academy is made; and/or
ii) The member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.

(h) Children whose normal address is outside the admissions zone, based on distance from the academy, using the distance calculation and approach set out in the tie breaker

Tie-breaker:

If the academy becomes oversubscribed within a single criterion, it will prioritise on the basis of the proximity of the *normal address to the academy closest first. The distance, which determines how close a student lives to the academy, is the measurement from the main entrance of the student’s normal address to the main entrance of the academy. The distance will be measured in a straight-line using ‘Direct Distance’, a computerised mapping system which measures from the centre of the home address point to the designated centre of the main entrance to the academy.

In the case of 2 or more applications that cannot be separated by the oversubscription criteria outlined above, the academy will use the distance between the academy and a child’s home as a tie breaker to decide between applicants. Priority will be given to children who live closest to the academy. Distance will be measured as outlined above in point f. Where the distance between 2 children’s homes and the academy is the same, random allocation will be used to decide between them. This process will be independently verified.

*(Normal address: Where parents live at separate addresses and have joint custody, the address used will be the one where the child spends the main part of the school week i.e. Sunday night to Thursday night inclusive. Child care arrangements involving relatives’ addresses do not qualify as normal family addresses for this purpose unless there is a court Residence Order in place. The qualification date is the closing date for applications under the coordinated admissions scheme. Where families change normal address after the closing date but before the allocation process has finished, this can be considered under the LA’s co-ordinated scheme.)

Monitoring Arrangements

This policy will be reviewed and approved by the Trust every year.

Whenever changes to admissions arrangements are proposed (except where the change is an increase to the agreed admission number), the governing board will publicly consult on these changes for a minimum of 6 weeks between 1 st  October and 31 st  January before the following February publication date.

Key Dates 2025-2026

Bolton Admissions Appeals

Usually your child will be offered a place at a preferred school, but if you are not offered a place in one of your preferred schools or you are unhappy with the school place allocated for whatever reason, you have the right to appeal to an independent panel. Bolton Council’s Democratic Services unit will set up appeals on behalf of all the schools in Bolton. Further details on the Appeals process will be included in your offer letter.

For more information please contact Mr Jack Sutcliffe – Vice Principal.