Admissions & Appeals
Reception and Nursery school tours and visiting St Mary's School
Are you joining our Reception or Nursery from September 2025?
Prospective parents are invited to book a place on one of our tours starting in October.
We are holding two tours,
Tuesday 22nd October 10am to 11am
Thursday 14th November 10am to 11am
Spaces are limited. Therefore, we ask that you complete this form https://forms.office.com/e/1W5gY0sy5A and await confirmation that we are able to offer you a tour on that day.
For tours on 22nd October, we will confirm your place after midday on 21st October.
For tours on 14th November, we will confirm your place after midday on 8th November.
Please read our website to find out more about the school.
For in-year admissions, families are invited to visit us once a formal offer of a place has been made by Bucks Council.
Tours are not conducted at any other time of the year.
Joining St Mary's Nursery
St Mary's Nursery offers morning, afternoon or full day* sessions for 3 and 4 year old children during term time. Children can start at the term after they turn 3.
All admissions to Nursery are managed by the school. Please contact our Nursery team about your child's place.
Joining Reception
In September 2024, we will welcome 60 pupils who turn 5 years old between 1 September 2024 and 31st August 2025. They are organised into 2 classes of up to 30 pupils. Each class has its own qualified teacher and other adults to care for children and help them thrive.
All admissions enquiries and applications for Reception are managed by Buckinghamshire Council's schools' admissions team:
Admissions Criteria
Buckinghamshire Council has agreed that the admissions policy below should be used for those children due for admission to primary schools at the age of 5 or 7.
When a primary school is over-subscribed, i.e. more children wish to attend that school than there are vacant places, the criteria listed in the admissions policy are used to allocate places up to the Intended Admission Number.
If you would like your child to attend St Mary’s, please follow the links below for more information.
Joining St Mary's School from another local school or moving into the area.
Some children join St Mary's from other local schools, from schools elsewhere in the UK or from overseas during the school year, all known as 'in-year' admissions.
Current vacancies
| Rec |
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
Year 6 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Last updated: Thursday 26th September 2024
In-year admissions for St Mary's School are managed centrally by Buckinghamshire Council and are based on the current admission criteria for schools. Steps to joining St Mary's School:
- Contact the school admissions team at Buckinghamshire Council, Buckinghamshire in-year admissions, if we have no vacancy, you will be able to join our waiting list. The waiting list is ordered by following the admissions criteria.
- Once you have been notified by Buckinghamshire Council of a place at St Mary's School for your child(ren), please make arrangements to visit us. Please contact us by telephone or through our Contact Page
- Our Deputy Head teacher will meet you and your child(ren) to tour the school and answer any questions that you may have.
Reception 2025/26 intake
We will be holding Open Mornings in November for parents/carers of children starting in Reception in September 2025, please check back for the confirmed dates.
There will be a sign up system for parents to register their interest in attending these Open Mornings, please note there will be a limit of 20 families per session.
If your child has any additional needs, please get in contact with the school to find out how St Mary's can support your child and their needs.
All applicants must be made via the Local Education Authority starting primary school application form. You can start to apply for a child's primary school place between November 2024 and January 2025.
Apply for a primary school place | Buckinghamshire Council
National primary offer day will be on 16th April 2025.
This is for children starting primary school or moving up to junior school in September 2025.
If you've applied online, you will receive an email from Buckinghamshire Council.
If you've made a paper application and provided Buckinghamshire Council with an email address, you will receive an email.
The admission policy can be found on the policies page of our website
Appeal information
1. Your right to appeal
Parents can express a preference for a school for their child, but they do not have the right to a place at a particular school.
If you are a parent and you have applied for a school place for your child and the admission authority has refused your application, you have the right to appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel. (Via ODBE for St Mary’s)
You are responsible for: making your appeal; explaining why you want the particular school place to the Appeal Panel and providing written information in support of your appeal.
There are important deadlines for making your appeal and submitting your evidence.
2. Appeal success rate
In 2023, 0 infant class size appeals of 3 received, were successful at St Mary’s through the ODBE.
Most appeals fail because the school is already full and does not have the resources to admit additional children without harming the education of the existing pupils.
So please think carefully before making your appeal - they are time-consuming and stressful for parents and expensive for schools.
You are unlikely to be successful where you:
- are appealing for a place in Reception, Years 1 or 2 (due to the law that applies) *
- do not live in the school’s catchment area
- have been allocated a place at another school (even if it is not one of your preferred schools) at a reasonable distance from home
- do not have evidenced strong medical, social or educational reasons for your appeal
- want the school place to make it easier for you to get to work/ transport children to school
* Infant class size appeals (Reception, Years 1 or 2)
The law limits the size of an infant class (reception and years 1 and 2) to a maximum of 30 pupils per teacher (there are exceptions to this rule for certain limited categories of children). If the school refuses your child a place because admitting them would breach this limit then your appeal will be an infant class size appeal. This is different from all other school admission appeals.
In an infant class size appeal, a panel will only uphold the appeal where one of the following applies:
- It finds that the admission of an additional child would not breach the infant class size limit
- It finds that the school’s admission arrangements were unlawful, or were not properly applied, and the child would have been offered a place at the school if the arrangements had been lawful or had been properly applied
- It decides that the decision to refuse admission was not one that a reasonable admission authority would have made in the circumstances of the case
To find a decision to be unreasonable the panel would need to be satisfied that the decision to refuse admission was ‘perverse in the light of the admission arrangements’. In other words, the panel believes that no reasonable admission authority considering the matter could have come to the same decision.
As an example, a decision that makes it impossible for you to transport all your children to school on time is unlikely to be considered perverse. However, a decision to refuse a place for a child whose family had to relocate under a witness protection scheme might be. The decision on whether a refusal was unreasonable will be made by the appeal panel and will depend on the facts of the particular case presented at the appeal.
The threshold for finding that an admission authority’s decision to refuse admission was unreasonable is high.
As such, it’s unlikely that the panel would uphold the appeal on that basis. It’s important that parents recognise this before investing what can be a significant amount of time and effort in an infant class size appeal.
Before you make your decision to appeal you should think carefully about your reasons for appeal and be realistic about the likely outcome.
3. How to submit your appeal
If you decide you would like to proceed with an appeal you can request an appeal form to complete from the school office (office@sma.odbst.org) and send the form completed with your appeal evidence to the same email address.
Can further evidence be submitted?
Any further evidence can be submitted at least 5 school days prior to the appeal date.
4. The Appeal Hearing
At least a week before the appeal begins, the Appeals Team will send you copies of the school’s written case explaining why it refused your application for a school place and all the documents you have submitted.
Please contact the Appeals Team immediately if anything is missing.
Currently, appeals are being heard via teams.