What is a sibling?
In some family units (one or two parents or carers, plus children), the children may not be biological brothers and sisters.
Older children from the same family unit (living under the same family address) can be considered as a sibling link under this criterion.
A sibling is your child’s brother or sister (including half-brothers and sisters, stepchildren and fostered children, living permanently at the same address).
Cousins do not count as siblings
If you have more than one child, please do not include on the application a ‘sibling’ that will have left the school by July 2025, or that is in the nursery.
Checks will be made with the relevant schools that siblings do live at the same address
Twins or triplets
If you are applying for multiple children to be accepted in the same year but only one child gets a place, you have the following options:
- Accept one place and appeal for the other places (see Appeals)
- Decline the place you have been offered
- Some schools will accept twins or triplets even if it means admitting more than the Planned Admission Number.
For details, you need to refer to the school's Admissions Policy which is available on each school's web page:
- List of Oldham primary schools - Directory
What if the child’s parents live at separate addresses?
If the child's parents are separated or divorced, there are various things you need to consider depending on your situation.
If the residency of your child is split between both parents, we consider the home address to be the address where the child lives for the majority of the school week (Monday to Friday).
If the child spends equal amounts of time at both addresses, you will be asked to nominate which address you wish to use for the purpose of allocating a school place.
If you fail to do so, we have the right to nominate the address that we consider appropriate, which will normally be that at which child benefit is received. If you do not receive child benefit we will use the address being used for GP registration purposes.
You could provide a court order/child arrangement order which specifies the living arrangements
What happens if parents cannot agree on which school preferences to select?
In accordance with the school admission code (2021), we may only offer one school place per child.
By submitting an application for a school place, you are stating that you have parental responsibility for the child named on the form, or if you share parental responsibility, that you are in agreement regarding the preferences stated on the application.
- Parental rights and responsabilities - GOV.UK
In the case of disputes between parents, there is an expectation that parents will resolve these themselves and make a single application which both parents are in agreement with.
We cannot accept more than one application per child. If we receive conflicting instructions for a child, we will not be able to process the application or allocate a place for your child.
We will require evidence of either parental agreement, in the form of written confirmation from each parent, or a court order/child arrangement order.
If an agreement has not been reached before the normal admissions round, all preferences will be suspended and we will seek to offer a place at the nearest school, with places available, to the child’s principal permanent residence.
If it is discovered that a place has been offered based on a fraudulent or intentionally misleading application (for example a false claim to residence) that offer will be withdrawn.