Admissions & Appeals

Admissions and Appeals at Cockburn School

The school’s admission authority sets the admission policy every year. You can read our school’s admission polices below:

Admissions Policy 2025-26Leeds City Council Secondary School Admissions website.

Cockburn School is an academy converter. It is part of the Cockburn Multi-academy Trust.

The Governing Body will act as the Admission Authority for the school as part of the coordinated scheme with Leeds Education Authority. Following due consultation in accordance with the national School Admissions Code the Governing Body has agreed the following Admissions Policy for the academic year 2025-26.

Parents and carers of children in Year 6 must apply for a place in the school using the Common Preference Form which must be completed and returned as specified on the form. Alternatively, parents and carers may apply directly to Leeds Education Authority online. Only under exceptional circumstances will late applications be accepted – until 1st December. Applications received after this date will only be considered after those applications which have been submitted on time.

Parents and carers living within the boundaries of different education authorities may still choose Cockburn School as a preferred secondary school but must complete the preference form provided by their Local Authority which will then pass on the information to Leeds Education Authority.

Cockburn School has 240 places available for Year 7 in September 2025.

How to apply for a September 2025 year 7 place

If you are applying for a year 7 place for September 2025, all applications are made in advance. The national closing date is 31 October 2024. Offers are made by the Local Authority on national offer day (3 March 2025).  

Our Published Admission Number (PAN) is 240 and this is the number of places the school can admit in Year 7 in 2025. 

Children with an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) will be admitted to the school named in their plan.

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

• all 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 to be sent your offer day letter 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 criterion (such as your child being previously looked after). It is important to ensure you submit all supporting evidence by the deadline to show you meet any such criteria.

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 do not send the application to the local authority, you will not have made a valid application for a place at our school.  

You can also watch the Leeds City Council school admissions video here for more information.

You can also see information about our school, including previous admission data, on our school page on the Leeds City Council’s website https://www.leeds.gov.uk/

Admissions for Talented Students in the Performing Arts

This year, in line with our Specialist Status in the Performing Arts, we will be taking 10% of our new Year 7 after an audition process for Year 6 pupils who are talented and enthusiastic about Drama, Dance and Music. 

Admissions for Talented Students in the Performing Arts

Allocation of Places

If the number of applications does not exceed the number of places available, all applicants will be granted a place at the school.

Children with an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) will be admitted to the school named in their plan.

If there are more applications than available places (oversubscription), the following oversubscription criteria will be used to allocate places:

Priority 1

Children in public care or fostered under an arrangement made by the local authority, special guardianship order or children who were previously looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted or become subject to a Child Arrangements Order or Special Guardianship Order (See Note 1)

Priority 2

Children who show a particular aptitude (ie: potential) for one or more of the Performing Arts – music, dance and drama (up to 10% of the intake number by audition). Parents/carers will have to complete a supplementary form and your child(ren) go through an audition process. Children not demonstrating aptitude will be considered under our other oversubscription criteria for a place at Cockburn School (please see our website for full details and supplementary form for completion)

Priority 3

Children with brothers or sisters who are attending the school at the time the application is received and are living at the same address (See Note 3)

Priority 4

Children for whom Cockburn School is the nearest high school. (See Notes 4, 5 and 6)

Priority 5

Any other children

Tie Break

Within each criterion, if there is oversubscription, remaining places available will be allocated according to  distance. Children living closest to the school will, therefore, be allocated a place before those who live further away. (See Notes 4 and 5)

Notification and Acceptance of Places

In accordance with the coordinated Admissions Policy on 1st March Leeds City Council Children’s Services will make the formal offer of a place to parents and carers on behalf of the Governing Body of the school. Parents and carers must contact the school to confirm acceptance of the offered place by the published date. This will in no way affect the rights of parents and carers to appeal for a place at another school.

Application Timetable

The below timetable applies to applications made to Leeds City Council. If you apply to another local authority, they may have different dates

In-year Applications

If you are moving into Leeds or want to change schools in Leeds, you need to make a school transfer – often called an in-year application.

This includes

• applications for a place in year 7 after the start of term in September
• applications for a place in all other year groups (year 8-11)

Moving schools can be a difficult experience for a child. You should always speak to your child's current school before trying to move to see what support they can offer you.

How to apply for an in-year place

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 other Leeds schools.

If you have moved house, you’ll need to submit evidence of the house move at the same time you make your 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. We will contact you with our decision no later than 15 school days from when you apply. If we cannot offer your child a place at our school, we will

• add your child to our waiting list in case a place becomes available during the school year   
• send you a letter to explain the reasons we cannot offer a place (usually that we are full) and tell you how you can appeal.

If the school is full you will be offered a right of appeal. Where an appeal is successful and no house move has taken place you will only be offered a place to start at the beginning of the next term. Waiting lists will be held in each year group for applications outside the normal admission round.

Our waiting lists are kept until the 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

If we cannot offer you a place, you will have the right of appeal. The appeal panel is independent of the school and council and their decision is legally binding. Before you appeal you:

• should accept any place that you have been offered in case your appeal is not successful
• should think about why you are appealing and check if it is likely to be successful
• could read the advice for appealing school places on GOV.UK 
• could get independent advice on making an appeal from a charity

Leeds City Council arranges our appeals, and you can find the appeal form at School appeals (leeds.gov.uk)    

If you are appealing for a Year 7 place for September 2025, you need to submit your appeal form by 1 April 2025 to ensure the appeal will be heard before the summer holidays.   

You can appeal because you want your child to attend a particular school. These are successful if the panel agree that the reasons for your appeal outweigh the school's decision not to admit any more children.

Wanting your child to go to a school because you think it is the best one in the area is not likely to convince the panel that your child should get a place there.

Waiting List for Incoming Year 7

Unsuccessful applicants will have the opportunity to ask for their child’s name to be added to the waiting list which will be compiled in accordance with the tie break arrangements. Any places which become available will be filled from the waiting list. If a child has been placed on the waiting list, parents and carers will be informed in March 2025 and asked to confirm that they wish to leave their child’s name on the list, which will be retained until the end of the academic year 2025-26.

Details and Explanations

Note 1

Children who have been adopted from local authority care, children with a residency order and those with special guardianship immediately following being Looked After will all be included within the higher priority for looked-after children (Priority 1a).

Note 2

For these purposes, brothers and sisters must be living at the same address as your child. Sibling refers to a brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, step brother or sister, foster brother or sister. The definition does not include cousins or other family members sharing a house.

Note 3

We use a national computer system to run our school admissions system. As part of this system there is a programme that measures the ‘straight-line’ distance from the centre of the main school building to your home address. The point we measure to at your home address is determined by the Royal Mail Postcode Address File. This information provides us with coordinates for every dwelling. If we are not able to match your address with the Postcode Address File then we will use the centre of your dwelling.

In the unlikely event there are insufficient places for two (or more) students living in the same building (e.g. flats) or otherwise equidistant from the school, then any final place will be allocated by the drawing of lots.

Note 4

If the school has to move to a temporary site for any reason, such as the building being damaged by fire, we will base our distance measurements on the school’s permanent site.

Note 5

For admission purposes, the home address is where the child usually lives with their parent or carer. You must not give the address of a child-minder or relative. We will investigate any queries about addresses and, depending upon what we find, we may withdraw the offer of a place for your child. When we make an offer, we assume your address will be the same in the following September as we have on record. If you plan to move house, you must still give your current address. If you move house after the deadline of 31 October 2024 for secondary places, you must tell us your new address as this may affect the offer of a place at Cockburn John Charles Academy.

Fair Access Protocol

As part of the coordinated admission arrangements with Leeds Children’s Services the school may accept hard-to-place students onto the school roll from time to time in accordance with the In-Year Fair Access agreement

Appeals 2025

If the Governors have not been able to meet your preference for a place at this academy for Year 7 September 2025, you can appeal against the decision to an independent appeals panel.

You will need to put your appeal in writing and send this by 28th March 2024 to:
The Admissions Team, Floor 10 West, 110 Merrion Centre, Leeds LS2 8DT.

Appeals submitted by this date will be heard within 40 school days.

Appeals submitted after these dates will be heard within 40 school days from the date when the appeal is received by the Clerk where possible this may not be before the end of the academic year.

You will receive at least 10 school days’ notice of your appeal hearing.

The Governance Services Section of Leeds City Council are administering the appeals on our behalf. You must ensure any additional evidence you wish to submit in support of your appeal is received by the Governance Services Section, 4th Floor West Civic Hall Leeds LS1 1UR at least four working days before your appeal.

Appeals against a decision in any other year groups will be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being received by the Clerk.

Following the hearing, decision letters will be sent within five school days of the hearing.

School days are term time only and do not include school holidays. If an appeal is submitted in the holidays the school days deadline will not start until the beginning of the next term e.g. an appeal received in July after schools have closed will not be heard until the new academic term, ‘school days’ will start from when the school re-opens for the academic year 2025.

Appeals procedure

Parents and carers who want to appeal against the governors’ decision not to offer their child a place at the school must appeal directly to the authority. Appeals should be addressed in writing to the authority within 20 days of receiving the decision letter from Leeds Children’s Services. The envelope should be clearly marked ‘Admission Appeal’. The appeal will be heard by an independent appeals panel. Parents and carers will receive notification of the date and time of their appeal hearing, which they can attend to explain their case. If they wish, parents and carers may be accompanied by an adviser or a friend. Following the appeal the Clerk to the Appeals Panel will write to parents and carers with the decision.

Admissions Policy 2024-25

Admissions Policy 2025-26