Admissions

Admission to Nursery

Nursery for Three and Four-Year-Olds

Currently, children are taken into the nursery in the September following their third birthday and a part-time 15 hour morning place is allocated. If you would like your child to have a full time 30 hour placement, please inform the school, at the earliest opportunity, when enquiring about places. If your child is due to turn three or four and you would like them to join our Nursery, please complete an application form at the school office. Just before your child turns three or four, we will contact you to arrange admission of your child. This will involve a period of ‘stay and play sessions whilst your child becomes familiar with the setting and staff. Attendance at the nursery is not a guarantee of a place in the Reception class of the school.

Published Area Number (PAN) for nursery is 39 full time places.

Please click the link to view Gorsefield Primary School's Nursery Contract. 

Admission to Reception

Reception 

For children starting school in September, the admissions procedure for children in Reception class is carried out by the Local Authority, Pupil and Student Services. If you would like to apply for a place at our school please contact:

Bury Admissions Team

3 Knowsley Place

Duke Street Bury

BL9 0EJ

Tel 0161 253 6474/7675

Offers of places will be notified by the LA in April each year

https://www.bury.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/school-admissions/primary-school

Published Area Number (PAN) for reception is 60 full time places.

For children starting school (Reception-Year 6), after September and at any point throughout the academic year, please see the 'In- Year Admissions' tab below. 

Deferring Entry To Reception

Most children start school in the September after they turn 4. If your summer born child does start school aged 4 you can, if you wish, agree with the school a pattern of part time attendance or a deferred start until later in that school year (but not later than the beginning of the summer term) for your child. You can discuss this with the school.

If you decide your summer born child will start school aged 5, and you want your child to start school in reception (not year 1), you need to make a request to the school’s admission authority. This is called requesting admission out of the normal age group – because children born from 1 September in one year to 31 August the following year are normally educated together in one year group.

The admission authority must consider your request and make a decision in your child’s best interests. Depending on the type of school, the admission authority will be one of:

• the local authority
• the school’s governing body
• the academy trust

For Gorsefield Primary School, the admission authority is the academy trust but you can express your request by writing directly to Mrs Onyekaba. Head Teacher. Mrs Onyekaba would expect the letter to include an outline of your request, including the reasons why the request is being made. Mrs Onyekaba will usually request a meeting to discuss the request further in order to make an fully informed decision. 

If your summer born child has an education, health and care (EHC) plan and you would like to request admission out of their normal age group so they join reception at age 5, you will need to discuss this with your local authority.

In-Year Admissions

For a Gorsefield Primary School In- Year Admission, where children are moving from one primary school to another (Reception-Year 6), please complete the application form below. You can apply via the school, by handing in the admission form to the school office, or via Bury Admissions Team, 3 Knowsley Place, Duke Street Bury. 

primary-school-transfer-application-form

This is our over-subscription criteria:

Priority 1 – Children with an EHC Plan/ Looked After Children

Priority 2 – Children with siblings already attending school.

Priority 3 – Catchment area.

For further information on our admission arrangements through the local authority please follow the following link: http://www.bury.gov.uk/admissions

Visits to Gorsefield Primary School.

Parents/carers considering an application to the school or with children who are transferring to Gorsefield from another school, are warmly invited to tour the school.  Please contact the school for an appointment.  For any information or enquiries regarding visits to school, please contact Mrs Kay, in our school office.

High-School Admissions

If you live in Bury and your child is currently in Year 6, you can apply online for your child's secondary school place. The application will allow you to state your preferred schools and you can also apply for schools that are outside of the Bury area.

Secondary school applications will open on the 1st September. For children starting secondary school the following academic year, the deadline to apply is the 31st October. 

Secondary school admissions - Bury Council

Here are a list of secondary schools in Bury. 

Secondary School Application Form.

For further information on Secondary School Applications in Bury, click here. 

There have been no changes or proposed changes to Gorsefield Primary School's admission arrangements. Gorsefield's Admissions Policy 2024-2025 can be accessed through our school policies page of the website. 

If the LA have not offered your child a place at your preferred school or if you are not happy with the school offered to your child, you can appeal this decision.

You are entitled to submit an appeal of a school place decision and appeals are made to an independent appeals panel.

You can appeal for more than one school and there will be a separate hearing for each school you appeal for.

School admission appeals - Bury Council

Open Days

Please join us for our Early Years Open Day  on Saturday 8th November 2025,  10.30am-12noon for Nursery and Reception children, who are due to start school during 2026.  September 2026 for Reception and January/ April or September for Nursery children.