How to apply for a school place in England

You apply to the local authority where you live, using a single common application form, even for schools in a neighbouring authority or for academies and free schools. Applying directly to a school does not count, and it is the mistake that most often leads to a late application.

Deadlines are 31 October for secondary transfer and 15 January for primary and infant admission, for entry the following September. They are national and firm.

A late application is considered only after every on-time application has been allocated, which in a popular area effectively means the local schools are already full. Councils have discretion to treat a late application as on time in limited circumstances — a house move with evidence, or a documented exceptional reason — but it is discretionary and not to be relied on.

Offer day is 1 March for secondary and 16 April for primary. If the date falls on a weekend, offers move to the next working day.

This is the point most misunderstood. England operates an equal preference system: every school you name considers your application as if it were your only one, without knowing what order you put it in. Preference order is used only at the end, to allocate you the highest-ranked school that has offered a place.

So naming only one school does not signal commitment or improve your chances there. It simply removes your other options. If you are unsuccessful at your single named school, the council allocates you a place at the nearest school with a vacancy — which can be a considerable distance away.

The rational strategy is to name every preference available, in genuine order of preference, and to include at least one school you are realistically likely to get. Councils publish previous years' furthest-distance-offered figures, which is the best available indicator of your chances.

You are not obliged to accept an offer, but declining without an alternative leaves you with no place at all.

When a school has more applications than places, it allocates using published oversubscription criteria applied strictly in order. The criteria differ by school, and reading the actual admission arrangements for your target schools is far more useful than general advice.

Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school are admitted first, outside the criteria entirely. Looked-after and previously looked-after children come next, as a statutory requirement.

After that, common criteria include siblings already at the school, distance from home measured in a specified way, catchment area, faith criteria for religious schools, and in some cases feeder schools or medical and social need.

Distance measurement matters more than people expect. Some schools measure straight-line distance and some measure the shortest walking route, and the difference can decide an application. The admission arrangements state which.

Grammar schools select by ability through the eleven-plus and have their own registration deadlines, usually in the summer before the October application deadline. Missing that registration cannot be remedied by the main application.

Accept the place you have been offered. Accepting does not affect an appeal or a waiting list position, and refusing leaves you with nothing if the appeal fails. This is the most important tactical point on offer day.

Ask to be placed on the waiting list for schools you preferred. Waiting lists are maintained in oversubscription criteria order, not in the order people joined, so your position can move either way. They must be maintained until at least 31 December of the first year.

You have a statutory right to appeal to an independent appeal panel, normally within 20 school days of the offer letter. Appeals are heard by a panel independent of both the school and the council.

Appeals succeed most often on one of two grounds: that the admission arrangements were not correctly or lawfully applied to your child, or that the prejudice to your child of not attending outweighs the prejudice to the school of admitting an extra pupil. The first is a technical argument and the stronger one where it applies — check whether the criteria were applied correctly to your address, sibling status and distance.

Infant class size appeals are much harder. Where a class of five, six and seven-year-olds is already at the statutory limit of 30, an appeal can generally only succeed on narrow grounds such as an admission error or an unreasonable decision.

Free advice is available from the Coram Child Law Advice Service and from your local council's admissions team.