Schools’ admissions policies are set at a local level, generally by the governors of a school, so that they can take into account the specific needs of their communities. when school admission policies are changed these have to go through a consultation. 

In most schools school admissions are done through something called co-ordinated admissions. This is where you submit to the local authority, where you live, a number of preferences before your child joins Reception or Year 7. Do check with a school you are interested in if they are part of co-ordinated admissions through your local authority or if you have to apply to them directly. 

Admissions for joining Reception in September 2023, for children born between 1 September 2018 and 31 August 2019 opened on 1 September 2022 and will close on 15 January 2023. Visit the website of the local authority where you live where you will find useful guides and be able to gain access to their online portal or forms. In some local authorities you can make up to six preferences, in others it is fewer.

The order of your preferences is important. List your favourite school first, then your next favourite school second and so on.
Do try and use all the preferences available if you can. Don’t put the same school down for all your preferences. Thes preferences are for ‘state’ schools only, if you are also thinking of sending your child to a private or independent school you do not need to list these schools as your preferences.

On Primary National Offer Day 17 April 2023 you will receive information from your local authority letting you know which school your child has been allocated. You’ll then generally have two weeks to accept this place.

If you have not got the preference you wanted it is recommended that you accept the place you have bene given and then ask to remain on the waiting list for the school that was a higher preference. If the local authority can in the future offer you a place at the school that is a higher preference you then accept that place and inform the local authority that the place you accepted earlier you no longer need. It sounds more complicated than it is.

now open and the governing body is the admissions authority and for academies the Academy Trust or Multi-Academy Trust is the admissions authority. These schools set, consult upon and determine admission arrangements for themselves.  Some of these schools administer in year applications, while some ask the local authority to administer them.  Please check on the school’s website before applying.  For year of entry applications these must be made to your local authority even if the school you are applying for is in another local authority.

In Voluntary Controlled schools it is the local authority that is the admissions authority.

There are a large number of applications for school places each year.  Having applied for a place most parents find that their child is accepted at their preferred school. If, however, your child has not been accepted you may wish to make an admission appeal.