Education / 9 January, 2025 / Ellie Thompson

Top Tips On Navigating Primary School Admissions

The deadline for primary school admissions is fast approaching! If your child was born between September 2020 and August 2021, you have until Wednesday, 15th January, to explore your options and submit your application.

If you still need further guidance on choosing the best primary school, The Good Schools Guide can help.

Managing editor Melanie Sanderson says, “A good state primary school will not only launch your child into a happy and fulfilling educational journey but also engage you in the local community too.”

Here are her top tips for navigating the admissions process.

Look online

If you’re still researching your shortlist of schools, it’s likely too late for open days. You can, however, look online to get a feel for the school. All primary schools have websites and many produce downloadable presentations or prospectuses. Some might use social media to share what they do. Look at the most recent Ofsted report. Always take with a pinch of salt but they are still worth checking, as are SATs results. The Department for Education Performance Tables website carries both: https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/ so you can easily compare schools.

Check admissions criteria

Check the admissions arrangements and oversubscription criteria of primary schools in your area. Community schools (those run by the local authority) tend to share the same criteria but there are often separate arrangements in place for each faith school, academy and free school. In many parts of the country, if you do not meet one of the first few criteria bands, you are unlikely to get a place.

Your local authority’s primary school admissions guide (usually available to download) will list the criteria for schools in your area. Information from previous years is also usually published, such as whether schools were oversubscribed, how places were allocated and the furthest distance children admitted previously lived from the school. If applicable, catchment area maps will also be included. This will help you get an idea of how likely you are to get a place.

How to list your choices

Depending on the area you live in, you can list up to six choices of primary school on your application. “We always say it’s vital to include at least one ‘safe bet’: a school that you can tolerate where you are more-or-less sure of getting a place, even if it isn’t your first choice,” says Melanie. If you ignore this aspect of the application and instead you rank only those you most like, you may well get a place at none of them, and the local authority will allocate you a place at an undersubscribed school which will inevitably be an unpopular and possible some distance from where you live.

Order of preference

Put your primary school choices in order of preference – if more than one of your choices is able to offer you a place, you will only be offered the school highest on your list. The schools don’t know where else you have applied, and don’t know if you have put them first or last – only the local authority knows that. Schools make places available according to their admissions and oversubscription criteria, not on the basis of order of preference listed in the Common Application Form.

Good luck! You will be notified as to which school has offered you a school place in mid-April. This will come from the local authority, not the school.

The Good Schools Guide reviews around 1300 independent and state schools. Its impartial, candid school reviews have been helping parents make educational decisions for nearly 40 years.

Mum On The Run: Look For January

How To Talk To Kids About Dyslexia: The Dos And Don’ts All Parents Need To Know