ARK Conway prospectus (PDF format)

How to apply

The academy will admit 30 reception year students each September

Admissions are managed through the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham's school admissions team. Information on Ark Conway Primary Academy is included in their starting school brochure, which you can pick up from the council offices. Copies will also be available from most nurseries and early years centres.

For more information about the admissions process, including key dates, please see the Hammersmith and Fulham website here. Please note that admissions for entry into Reception class 2023 close on 15th January 2023.

Admissions criteria

Ark Conway Primary Academy is a non-selective school for local children. If the academy is oversubscribed, priority will be given to students with education and health care plans (EHCPs), where the academy is named on the EHCP. The remaining places will then be offered in the following order of priority:

• Looked After Children and all previously Looked After Children
• children of staff of the school where there is a demonstrable skill shortage
• children who have a sibling who already attends the school and who will continue to do so on the date of admission (for this purpose “sibling” means a whole, half or step-brother or -sister resident at the same address)
• children of staff of the school (where there is no skill shortage)
• the remaining places will be allocated to children who live closest to the school, using a straight line distance from the main entrance of the academy to the main entrance to the child’s home.

For full details, please see the admissions policy available here:

Ark Conway Admissions Policy 2022-23

Ark Conway Admissions Policy 2023-24 

Ark Conway Admissions Policy 2024-25

The local authority will keep a waiting list which is used to fill casual vacancies occurring if students leave during the year, or withdraw from a place that has been offered.

In- year Admissions

Applications to any year group outside the main admissions round (In Year admissions) should be made directly to the Admissions Team at London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham on 020 8753 1085 or email school.admissions@lbhf.gov.uk

If you wish to apply for a place, please complete the application form https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/sites/default/files/section_attachments/in-year_...

Parents/carers will be informed of the outcome of their application within 15 school days. If a place is refused the child will be added to the waiting list, the position on the waiting list will be determined according to the oversubscription criteria in the School's Admission Policy.

If refused a place, the parent/carer has the right to appeal the decision.

If you wish to appeal, please click this link for the appeal form https://www.cognitoforms.com/ArkSchools1/AdmissionsAppealForm

Appeals for children refused admission to year groups other than Reception, will be heard within 30 school days of receipt of the appeal. Parents/carers will be notified of their appeal hearing date by an independant appeal panel clerk.

Appeals

Ark Network Appeals Timetable

Appeals for children refused admission at a preferred school for entry into Reception in September 2023, will be heard according to the regulations in the School Admission Appeals Code (October 2022).

Appeal panel hearings will take place within 40 school days of the deadline date for submitting an appeal.

The independant appeal panel clerk will notify parents/carers of the date of their appeal; appeal hearings will take place during May/June/July 2023.

For all year groups, please click this link for the appeal form https://www.cognitoforms.com/ArkSchools1/AdmissionsAppealForm

Infant class size appeals

The law states infant classes of 5, 6 and 7 year olds may not normally contain more than 30 pupils with a single teacher. As such, there are limited grounds in which an appeal for an infant class will be successful. There are only three grounds on which an infant class size appeals can be upheld.

1. If the panel finds that the admission of additional children would not breach the infant class size limit.

2. The panel finds that the admission arrangements for the school did not comply with admissions law or were not correctly and impartially applied, and the child would have been offered a place if the arrangements had complied or had been correctly and impartially applied. Here the panel must be satisfied not only did the arrangements not comply with admissions law or were not correctly and impartially applied, but also the child would have been offered a place if arrangements had complied or had been correctly and impartially applied.

3. The panel decides that the decision to refuse admission was not one which a reasonable admission authority would make in the circumstances of the case. Please note that the law defines "unreasonable" very narrowly in these cases and it means a decision which was  "perverse in the light of the admission arrangements", i.e. it was "beyond the range of responses open to a reasonable decision maker" or a decision which is "so outrageous in its defiance of logic or of accepted moral standards that no sensible person who had applied his mind could have arrived at it". The panel must use the legal definition of "unreasonable" and not their own personal definitions.

If the panel decides that the answer to any of the above categories is yes, then your appeal may be allowed. Otherwise your appeal will be refused. Please note that the panel may also take into account the practical consequences for the school and the children in relevant infant classes, if any or all the appeals were to be successful.

For further information on Appeals, please refer to the  Admissions Appeals Information Booklet 2023