Admissions

Whinmoor St Paul’s Primary School is a Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School and is run in accordance with the school’s trust deed. The governing body is the admissions authority.

We are an inclusive school that aims to provide education of the highest quality within a Christian context. British and Christian values will guide our decision making and permeate every area of school life. St Paul’s is an integral part or the Whinmoor community and we hope to welcome you and your family in the future.

For full information about applying for a place at our school, please download the Admissions Policy or contact the school office.

How to apply for a September 2024 place

If you are applying for a reception place for September 2024, all applications are made in advance. Offers are made by the Local Authority on national offer day.

You must apply to the local authority who empties your bins. If this is Leeds, go to www.leeds.gov.uk/apply. The local authority website is a composite prospectus for all Leeds schools and includes information about:

  • all of the steps you need to go through to make an application
  • the key dates
  • a search tool to see if your home address gives any higher priority for admission to any school(s)
  • an explanation about how places are offered if there are more applications than spaces (oversubscribed)
  • the online application portal – apply online and you’ll be sent your offer by email
  • a summary of each school’s individual admission policy criteria
  • data about who got a place in the last 3 years – this will help you work out if there is a reasonable chance of your child qualifying for a place.
  • Information about applying under a specific admission criteria (such as your child being previously looked after). It is really important to ensure you submit all supporting evidence by the deadline to show you meet any such criteria.

If you are applying for admission under our faith criteria, you will need to send directly to our school (not the local authority) a competed Supplementary Information Form (SIF) which you will find at the bottom of the Admission Policy. We need to receive this by 15th January 2024 which is the same deadline as the application form.

You also need to make an application to the local authority asking for a place at our school. You do this online at the above link.  If you don’t send the application to the local authority, you won’t have made a valid application for a place at our school.

You can also watch the Leeds City Council school admissions video

The council’s social media pages will also tell you about any Q&A sessions where you can ask questions.

How to apply for an in-year place

Whinmoor St Paul’s is part of the Leeds coordinated in-year application scheme. This means you can apply for a place online using the Leeds in-year application form at Before you move schools (leeds.gov.uk).  You can apply for places at our school and most other Leeds schools at the same time on this form.  If you have moved house, please upload evidence of the house move with the online application. You can find out what you need to provide on the above website.

We have to offer places by applying our admission policy criteria to your child’s application and we will contact you with our decision about offering you a place.  We will tell you our decision no later than 15 schools days from when you apply.

If we cannot offer you a place, we will

  • write to you to explain the reasons,
  • explain how you can appeal and
  • add your child to our waiting list in case a place becomes free.

Our waiting lists are kept until end of each school year.   You will need to make a new application if you want to be on the waiting list for the following school year.

Appeals

Where you have not been offered a place at the school you preferenced, you have the Right to
Appeal against the refusal to offer a place. Leeds City Council has an appeals timetable containing
deadlines and timescales which can be found at www.leeds.gov.uk/admissions

Appeals against a decision for a transfer of school place, outside the normal admission round, can be submitted any time during the academic year. Appeals will be heard within 30 school days of the appeal request being received (where the application for a place has been refused and the right of appeal has been issued).

Please press play to view the School Tour.