Applying for Reception places

Reception 2025

Applications open: 1 September 2024

Applications close: 15 January 2025

National offer day: 16 April 2025

• Check if you can apply and which address to use
• Read the oversubscription criteria for the schools you are applying for
• Use all 4 preferences
• Put the schools in the order you want them; preference 1 is the school you want most
• Watch the video below

Important - Changes to waiting list process:

If you wish for your child to be placed on a waiting list, you must request this in writing to the local authority’s School Admissions Team. If you have been offered a lower preference school, the local authority will not automatically add your child onto the waiting list of your higher preference schools. 

If a parent has requested their child is added to a waiting list, that child will be kept on the waiting list, as long as it is a higher preference to the school which they were offered. For example, where a parent has been allocated a place at their second preference school, they may request to be placed on the waiting list of their first preference school but not their third.

Read:

1. Important information about Reception 2025
2. Legal information - School Admissions

Making the right choice

Find and compare schools

Use this search tool to find schools. This search tool allows you to :

• search for schools by postcode
• check school Ofsted ratings
• filter schools by religion

Find and compare schools

Visit the school

Visiting a school helps you decide whether it's right for your child. You'll be able to speak to teacher and ask questions.

Schools may have open days or you contact them to arrange a time to view the school.

Are you likely to be offered a place?

Each school has their own set of rules that they use to decide which children to offer a place to. This is called the oversubscription criteria and can be found in the schools admissions policy. Each oversubscription criteria is made up of different categories (you can see how these work in the example below).

You can see how places were offered in previous years in the below link: 

• How reception and transfer places were allocated

All applications are ranked using these rules. School preference order is only used if we can offer a place in more than one school, at which point we will offer the school which is your highest preference.

Oversubscription criteria example

• Read the oversubscription criteria for each school.
• Check which category your child comes under (see individual school's website)

Example

Ahmed applied to North East Primary as their first preference. Ahmed's child is not offered a place there, even though they live close to the school.

There were more applications than places so the school used their oversubscription criteria to decide who to give places to. 30 places were available:

• one place went to a child who had been adopted (category 1)
• 20 places went to children with a brother or sister at the school (category 2) 
• one place went to a child with an exceptional medical need meaning they could only go to that school (category 3)
• the remaining 8 places went to children who lived closer to the school than Ahmed and his child (category 4)

Instead, Ahmed was offer a place at their second preference of North Academy which also had 30 places available:

• 10 places went to children who had a brother or sister at the school (category 2)
• 20 places when to children who lived near the school, including Ahmed's child (category 4)

Apply here for your reception place