Consultation on Raleigh and Admirals Academy admission arrangements for the school year beginning September 2027.

What is the Admissions Consultation?

We are consulting to reduce the current published admission number (PAN) for both Raleigh Infant Academy and Admirals Junior Academy from 90 to 60. The PAN was originally set at 90 to reflect planned growth in housing to the north of Thetford, however the level of growth has not been realised, and the intake is typically around between 40 and 60. Further to this there is a national decline in birth rate, which means that there are fewer children requiring school places. Reducing the PAN would aid our longer-term strategic planning for both academies.

We do not intend to amend the existing admission arrangements for Raleigh and Admirals Academy other than the Published Admission Number and will continue to work closely with Norfolk LA and other local admissions authorities to ensure that there are sufficient pupil places in Thetford should the need arise.

The admission arrangements outline:

• how our academies will manage applications for Reception, Year 3 (Eastgate and Admirals) and Year 7 (KLA). This is known as “the schemes of coordination”;
• the admission numbers for schools within Eastern Multi Academy Trust, often referred to as the PAN or Published Admissions Number, which relates to the number of places each academy will offer
• how academies decide which pupils obtain priority for school places. This is known as “the oversubscription criteria”.