Admissions

King Athelstan is a two form entry community school with admissions managed by Achieving for Children in partnership with the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames Local Authority.

We are delighted that you are interested in a place at King Athelstan. Please read our admission policy here.

To view the determined admission arrangements for the academic year 2025 - 2026 please click here: Admission Arrangements for community schools - 2025/26

For information on the school's last three years' admissions data, which shows the number of admissions by criteria for each year, please click here: Allocation of Kingston community primary school places for the last 3 years

To view the determined admission arrangements for the academic year 2026 - 2027 please click here: Admission Arrangements for community schools - 2026/27

Please watch our virtual school tour for more information.

We hold a number of school tours throughout the Autumn term for prospective families - To find out more and book your place, please click here!

Reception and In-Year Transfer (Year R-6)

For more information on community school admission arrangements, and relevant information about how to apply for a place in a Kingston Infant, Junior, Primary or Secondary School, please see the local authority website here: Kingston Admissions

Children born between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022 are due to start reception class at primary school in September 2026.

Reception Applications opened on Monday 1 September 2025 and close on Thursday 15 January 2026.

Please note: if your child attends our Nursery, this does not automatically guarantee them a place in Reception.

To apply for a place at King Athelstan for Reception please click here

To apply for a transfer to King Athelstan in-year please click here

For information on how to appeal (this includes information on how to appeal at any point in the school year, and not limited to appeals following the main round) please click here: Appealing school place allocation

Admissions arrangements for children with SEND

The admission arrangements for children with SEND but without an Education, Health and Care Plan follow the same process as any mainstream admission. We do not discriminate against or disadvantage disabled children or those with special educational needs and will follow the usual school admissions procedures. Admission arrangements for children with an Education, Health and Care Plan are made through the Local Authority’s SEN Team in consultation with parents/carers and the school’s senior leaders. For more information, click here.

Nursery 3+ years

Nursery admissions are organised directly through the school. See here for further information: Nursery admissions.

Families are able to apply for a space for the term after your child turns 3. Our usual intakes are January and September, however if there are spaces throughout the year, you may be able to apply for an in-year Nursery place for your child. Please contact the school office for more details.

We currently offer 15 hours entitlement, but from January 2026 are offering some 30 hours (full time) funded places. These funded places are based on families meeting the eligibility criteria. Please check for eligibility: https://www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare

Please email your confirmation letter or eligibility code to: admin@kingathelstan.rbksch.org

We have space for 8 children in the 30 hour sessions, and timings are as follows:

Monday – Friday 8.30am – 2.30 pm. The maximum number of funded hours that can be claimed for is 30 hours.

We can offer 35 hours per week for those that want to extend the day. The optional extra hour is 2:30pm to 3:30pm and is charged at £8.00 per day.

Lunch time - Please provide a packed lunch from home for your child attending 30+ hours only.

We may also be able to offer paid additional hours for families only eligible for 15 hours, allowing children to attend until 2.30pm or 3.30pm, depending on availability.

All places for our Nursery are offered using the following Local Authority criteria:

Places will be offered firstly to Looked after Children
Places will be offered next to children who have a brother or sister already at the school
Places will then be offered in cases of exceptional family, social or medical need
Places will then be offered to children of members of staff who have been employed at the school for two or more years.
The remaining places will be offered to children based on distance from the school

In circumstances where more than one child on the waiting list meets the sibling criterion, then the distance criterion will also be applied.

We have two nursery sessions for our 3 and 4 year olds with space for 26 children in the morning (8.30am - 11.30am) and 26 in the afternoon (12.30pm - 3.30pm).

Parents/carers apply for a place in nursery, not for a specific session. Unfortunately it is not possible to offer everyone their preferred session. Once our offers are identified on the criteria above, we then allocate morning or afternoon places.

We aim to balance the morning and afternoon sessions based on boys / girls and age. We also consider any additional needs each child may have e.g. Special Educational Needs or English as an Additional Language. This is the same process we use when children are being assigned to either of the two Reception classes.

To apply, click here.

Nursery 2 year olds

Within our Nursery we also have provision for 8 children eligible for 2 year old funding (4 morning places and 4 afternoon places). For the September intake children must be 2 on or before 31^st August and for the January intake 2 on or before 31^st December (subject to availability and eligibility).

Your child must be eligible for 2 year funding to be considered for a place. Families living in a borough outside of Kingston and Richmond and looking to access childcare in Kingston or Richmond must complete an AfC online application for the funding and obtain an eligibility letter. Funding for these families is provided by AfC and 'golden tickets' or confirmation of eligibility from another borough is not acceptable. To apply for funding please use the link below. If successful, please bring your confirmation letter to the school office or email:admin@kingathelstan.rbksch.org and then apply for a place in the normal way.

Click here for: 2 Year Old Free Early Education Funding Application

Click here to apply for a place: King Athelstan Nursery Online Application Form