Benfield Primary School

This priority applies to pupils with a specific need that can only be met by one school rather than any other.

If there are medical reasons or other diagnosed conditions that make it essential for your child to attend a particular school, you must provide supporting information from a doctor or other professional together with any other supporting information when you make your application.

This must make a compelling case as to why your child’s needs can only be met at the preferred school, as a medical condition or diagnosis in itself will not automatically result in priority being given.

If you want a place at a specific school for other exceptional reasons, you must provide independent evidence from a professional who is supporting your family. This should also demonstrate that it is essential for your child to attend the preferred school and no other.

For this reason, allocations against this priority are rare. It's not essential for the supporting information to name the school in question, but the evidence should explain exactly what your child’s needs are and what specialist support and/or facilities your child requires.

Advice may be sought from the community consultant paediatrician or other relevant professionals where necessary to determine whether or not the evidence you have provided is sufficiently compelling to qualify under this category.

The supporting evidence you provide needs to set out the reasons why the school in question is the most suitable, and the difficulties that would be caused if your child had to attend another school.

It is not essential for the professionals supporting your family to have in-depth knowledge of your preferred school, but the evidence should explain exactly what your child needs and what specialist support and/or facilities your child requires.

It is vital that you supply any supporting evidence for compelling medical or other exceptional reasons for admission by the closing date. It's up to you to provide this evidence.

The school admissions team will not seek information about your child or telephone people on your behalf. The decision will be based solely on the information you send in.

If the evidence you supply is not considered compelling enough to be included in this priority, your application will be considered under priority 3, 4 or 5 as appropriate.

Online applicants can upload supporting documents through the online admissions system. Alternatively email documents to the school admissions team at schooladmissions@brighton-hove.gov.uk giving your child’s full name and date of birth. You can also attach supporting documents to your paper application.

If we do not receive this information by the closing date, 15 January, we will not be able to consider your child under this priority.

If there has been a change of circumstances (such as a new diagnosis) that has occurred since the closing date, information will be considered if it's received by 8 March.

All correspondence will be treated as private and confidential.

Where separate junior and infant schools are linked (see Priority 4), the sibling may be at either school and may be older or younger.

If you have 2 children, of whom one is due to start junior school and the other infant school in September 2025, the junior school child’s allocation will be done first, and a sibling link will count for the infant child.

A sibling link is only taken into account if children live at the same main address and the sibling has been allocated a place at the school by 8 March.

Twins or multiple births do not qualify for the sibling link unless one child has already been offered a place.

Where a sibling attends a nursery class on the same school site, it will not be counted as a link for admissions purposes.

You may be asked to supply proof that your child has a sibling at the same address who attends the school.

Children who are attending or have been offered a place at an infant school in the list below will have priority for places at the linked junior school provided the allocation takes place by 8 March 2025.

• Downs Infant is linked to Downs Junior
• Patcham Infant is linked to Patcham Junior
• Stanford Infant is linked to Stanford Junior
• West Hove Infant (Portland Road) is linked to Hove Junior (Portland Road)
• West Hove Infant (Holland Road) is linked to Hove Junior (Holland Road) 

There's no link between West Hove Infant Holland Road and Hove Junior Portland Road, or between West Hove Infant Portland Road and Hove Junior Holland Road.

Once all the children in priorities 1, 2, 3 and 4 have been offered places at the school, the remaining places (up to the admission number) will be offered to other children.

If there are more children applying than places available in any given priority, the available places will be offered to those children living closest to the school up to the published admission number.

Home-to-school distance will be measured by the shortest route from the child’s home to the nearest of the school’s gates.

This will be measured by specialist computer software based on Ordnance Survey data. It measures using the road network supplied by the Ordnance Survey and some other public rights of way which are paved and lit.

You can check your home-to-school distance measurement and the route used.

If you would like us to consider adding a footpath or would like to query a route you will need to contact the school admissions team before the closing date.

Late requests for footpaths will not be accepted. Routes across public parks or open spaces will not be accepted.

When using roads for measurement purposes the computer measures along the middle of the road. It measures from the address point in your property to the nearest point on the road network and from there to the nearest of the school’s gates to the child’s home.

No other measurement systems will be used for school admissions decisions.

Where the home addresses of 2 or more children are an equal distance from the school (for example, 2 children living in the same block of flats) and only one place remains available at the school in question, the place will be allocated randomly by computer to one of these children.

Where the random allocation tiebreak is used, every preference is assigned a unique random number by the computer between +/- 10 billion.  The computer will then list the pupils using this random number (smallest to largest). 

If you and your child live on a boat or a traveller site and there's no Ordnance Survey or postal address data for your home, we'll measure the distance to the site or marina.

No special priority is given to these children, however for families of service personnel with a confirmed posting, or for crown servants returning from overseas, Brighton & Hove City Council will use a future address and allocate a place in advance of the family arriving in the area.

This is provided that the application is accompanied by an official letter that declares a relocation date and some evidence of the intended address.

No special priority is given to the admission of these children. If it's possible to offer a place at the preferred school to one of the children because it's the last place remaining, both (or all) children will be offered a place.

You should indicate clearly on each child’s application if they have a twin or other same-year sibling also applying.

The school admissions team will allocate school places using the address at which a child lives on the closing date for applications (15 January) although late changes of address will be considered if we receive proof of address by 8 March.

The admissions team can only use one address for admission purposes.

If your child regularly stays with another parent or relative and therefore has more than one address, the school place will be allocated based on the address at which your child is registered with a doctor, so this is the address that you should use on your application.

We may ask for evidence to confirm the address given.

It's an offence to give a false address.

If we offer your child a school place based on information which then turns out to be false or misleading, we reserve the right to withdraw the offer and your application will be re-considered based on the correct facts.

This may apply even if your child has started at the school offered.

To ensure that offers of school places are made fairly, Brighton & Hove City Council is committed to following strict address verification procedures.

The address on your online or paper application will be checked against council tax records.

After the closing date, if the school that you have applied for is oversubscribed, you may be asked to provide further proof of address.

If you have recently moved into Brighton & Hove from overseas or another part of the UK and have not yet registered for council tax in Brighton & Hove, you will need to supply one of the following:

• a copy of a current tenancy agreement signed by all parties and arranged through a letting/estate agency, or solicitor’s letter showing the exchange of contracts, if you have just moved to a new house,
• a copy of a recent utility bill for your home address, showing usage – gas, electricity, water, telephone (not mobile phones),
• a copy of your driving licence,
• a copy of your house insurance policy,
• HMRC Tax notification documentation,
• TV licence (valid for the current year) with your name and address.

We'll also require proof that the child you are applying for lives with you. Therefore, please provide a letter from your child’s GP, dentist, hospital, optician, NHS medical card, child trust fund document, or your most recent family tax credit letter which clearly states your child’s name and address.

If you do not provide the above proofs by the date asked, we will assume your child lives further away than all the other children applying for the same school.

Even if you prove that you live at the address yourself, we still need proof that your child (or children if you are claiming a sibling link) lives there as well.

Providing proof of address does not guarantee your child a place at your preferred school.

Checks are made on information provided by parents/carers.

If a parent/carer is found to have supplied false or misleading information to gain a place at a particular school, Brighton & Hove City Council reserves the right to withdraw the place, even if the child has started at the school. An example of false information would be the use of an address that is not the child’s normal residence.

It's an offence to give false information to obtain a place at a school. We will investigate allegations about false information and will consider prosecution in any such case.