Our nursery class welcomes all children once they have turned 3 until they start in Reception. We have places for 26 children to attend at any one time.

Attendance at our Nursery class does not automatically mean that children will be awarded a place in our Reception class. School admissions are decided and administered by Cheshire East Council and parents still need to apply for a school place for their child at: https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/schools/admissions/start-school-september.aspx

Parents are welcome to make enquiries and register their interest for a place in the nursery class whenever they wish, and places will be confirmed the term before the children are due to start. Although we do our very best to provide places for all children, early expressions of interest do not necessarily guarantee a place.

If there is a situation where the demand for places is greater than the number of places available the following criteria will be used to decide to whom the places are offered:

  1. A child who has been offered a place in our Reception class for the following September by the local authority. This criterion will only be used from April onwards when school places are confirmed and is so that children can start to make friends and settle at Church Lane.
  2. Siblings - pupils with brothers or sisters, step-brothers or step-sisters, foster brother or sisters, half-brother or half-sisters, adopted brothers or adopted sisters living together as part of one household, already attending Church Lane and who are expected to continue at the school at the time of admission.
  3. Children of staff at the Church Lane - Priority will be given to children of full-time members of staff who have been employed at the school for two or more years (at the time of application) and for new staff recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage.
  4. Pupils living nearest to the school – measured using the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) which measures straight line distances in miles from the address point of the place of residence to the address point of the academy.