Admissions
Please find information about attendance consultation for families wishing to send their child to a BCP school using this weblink: Admission arrangements for BCP schools 2026-27 | BCP
Important Information For Parents Concerning School Admissions for Reception Age Children
We welcome applications from parents for their children to join our school. If the school place you are seeking for your child is for Reception please follow the link below.
Entry to Reception
BCP Website - School Admissions
Dorset Website - School Admissions
Primary School Age places – Year R, Year 3 and Middle school – September 2025
Closing date for applications - 15 January 2025
Offer letters posted to parents/carers on National Offer Day by Local Authority - 16 April 2025
Deadline for acceptance of offer by parent/carer - 30 April 2025
Admissions Appeals
Click here for BCP information about how to appeal an admissions' refusal and see the Initio Admissions Appeals Policy below.
- Appeals need to be submitted to Initio Learning Trust. Please use the appeals form and send these to: info@initiolearning.org
- Appeals lodged after these dates will be heard within 40 school days of the appeal deadline or 30 school days of being lodged, whichever is the later date.
- You will receive at least 10 school days’ notice of your appeal hearing date. School days do not include school holidays, inset days, bank holidays or weekends.
- Appeals are heard during the daytime on weekdays and are not normally heard during school holidays. Where there are multiple appeals for places at the same school, the hearings may go over a number of days.
- The school’s case will be made available to parents and Panel members at least 5 school days before the start of the appeal hearing.
- Additional evidence may be submitted up to 5 working days before the hearing.
- Any additional evidence received after this date might not be considered at the appeal hearing. The Appeal Panel must decide whether it should be considered taking into account its significance and the effect of a possible need to adjourn the hearing
- Following the hearing, decision letters will be sent, where possible, within 5 school days of the end of the hearing. During busy periods, such as main entry, full decision letters may take longer than this, so the Clerk will send a brief decision summary email in the interim.
- Appeal hearings for in-year places will be heard within 30 school days of the appeal being lodged.
Important information for Parents concerning in year school admissions
We welcome applications from parents for their children to join our school at any time. If the school place you are seeking for your child is required during the school year, you must apply directly through the BCP Website using the links below.
Together with other schools in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and in accordance with statutory requirements, Merley First School has agreed to join the Local Authority’s co-ordinated admissions scheme for the entry admission and transfer process for 2024-25. Therefore, the in-year application and allocation process will be handled by the Local Authority.
Full details of the application process, and the main application form, can be found on the BCP website on the link below:-
There is a separate protocol for admission of Looked After Child and Previously Looked After Children, for which a Supplementary Information Form is required and can be found on the BCP website on the link below:
Appeals against in-year applications
| For a parent to submit an appeal | At least 20 school days from the parent receiving notice of the refusal of a school place |
| Notice of the appeal hearing | At least 10 school days before the appeal hearing |
| Appellants (usually the parents) to submit evidence | 8 school days before the appeal hearing |
| Admissions Authority (the school) to submit their evidence | 8 school days before the appeal hearing |
| The clerk (person organising the appeal) sends appeal papers to the parents, the panel and the school | 5 school days before the appeal hearing |
| Additional evidence from the appellants: sometimes the appellants want to provide additional information after seeing all the papers | 5 school days before the appeal hearing |
| Decision letters sent to the appellants: this is the letter that tells the appellant if their appeal has been upheld or refused | Within 5 school days of the hearing (wherever possible) |
Waiting list information
A waiting list is held by BCP Council for each year group and will remain open until 31st August each year, at which point all names will be removed. Should parents wish their child to be considered for a place at the school in the subsequent school year, they must submit a new in-year application in the August preceding the new school year. We will advise in the first 10 days of the new school year as to whether there is a space available.