How to apply for a secondary school place

For a state school place in England, use one form, through your own council, listing the schools you want in the order you want them. Here's the whole thing, including the bits people trip over.

1. Work out which council you apply to

   It's the council you live in, the one you pay council tax to. Not the council the school is in, and not the school itself. If you've just moved, it's where you'll be living when the council checks.

2. Register on your council's system

   Most of London uses eAdmissions; elsewhere your council has its own portal, reachable from GOV.UK: apply for a secondary school place or for a primary place. Keep the username and password somewhere you'll find them in March: you'll need them again to accept the offer and to check waiting lists.

3. Enter your child's details

   Name, date of birth, your address, your relationship to the child. Save and continue through each page, then check it all once at the end. A wrong date of birth or a flat number missed off is the sort of thing that quietly costs a place, because everything is measured from your address.

4. Add your schools, including ones outside your council

   Click Add school. You can pick from a list, from a map, or search by name.

   To add a school in another borough or county, change the Local Authority dropdown from your own council to the one that runs that school, then pick it from the list. This is the single most common sticking point, and it catches people whose nearest school is over a boundary.

   You can list up to six schools in London, and three to six elsewhere. Use all of them.

5. Put them in your true order of preference

   Schools are never told where you ranked them. Every school decides who it would admit using its own rules, and you're offered the highest-ranked one that would take you. So rank them the way you actually feel, and don't leave a favourite off because it looks like a long shot.

   Do make sure at least one is a school you're likely to be offered. If none of your choices can offer a place, the council allocates the nearest school with space, and you don't get to choose it.

6. Do the extra forms some schools need

   These are separate from the council form and usually have earlier deadlines:

   • Faith schools often need a supplementary form, signed by a minister, sometimes with a required period of attendance.
   • Grammar schools need you to register for the entrance test, normally in the spring or summer a year before you apply.
   • Banding schools need your child to sit a test, usually in the autumn of Year 6.
   • Aptitude places in music, sport or languages need their own audition or assessment.

7. Submit before the deadline

   For September 2027 entry in England, secondary applications close on 31 October 2026 and Reception (primary) applications close on 15 January 2027. Late applications are usually considered after on-time applications; check your council’s policy. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own application timetables; check the relevant council or education authority.

8. Check the confirmation email, and resubmit after any change

   You should get a confirmation email each time you submit. No email means it didn't save.

   You can change your choices up to the closing date, but each change has to be submitted again. An edited but unsubmitted application is not an application.

9. Offer day, and what to do that week

   Offers arrive on 1 March for secondary and 16 April for Reception, through the council you applied to. Whatever you're offered:

   • Accept it by the date on the letter, even if you're hoping for somewhere else. Accepting costs you nothing and refusing protects nothing.
   • Stay on the waiting lists for the schools you ranked higher. You're usually added automatically, and lists move all spring and summer.
   • Appeal if you have a real case, and note the deadline in the letter.

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