School Admissions: How to Get a School Place for Your Child

If you have just arrived in the UK with a child, this is the short answer: you apply to your local council, not to the school. The council runs school admissions for state schools in its area. You give the council a list of the schools you would like, in order of preference, and the council tells you which school your child can have.

State school is free. GOV.UK says it plainly: all children in England between the ages of 5 and 16 are entitled to a free place at a state school. You do not pay fees.

This guide is for England. Education is devolved, which means Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own school systems with their own rules and dates. Everything below is for England unless we say otherwise.

Your immigration status does not stop your child going to school

This is the part that worries new arrivals most, so we will be direct about it.

Schools and councils in England must not check your child's immigration status or nationality as a condition of giving a place. They must not ask to see a passport or immigration documents before they process your application. They cannot refuse your child a place because of your immigration status, and they cannot remove your child from the school roll for that reason.

Children who have refugee status, and children who are still waiting for a decision on an asylum claim, are entitled to school education in the same way as any other child living here.

A school can only say no because it is full, which means it has already given out all the places it is allowed to offer.

How UK schooling is organised

The school year runs from September to July. There are three terms, with holidays in between.

Children are grouped by age, not by ability, into year groups.

Most children start reception in the September after they turn 4. Children must be in full-time education by compulsory school age. That is 31 December, 31 March or 31 August after their fifth birthday, whichever comes first.

Apply through your local council

You apply through the council for the area where you live. You do this even if:

• the school you want is in a different council area, or
• the school is linked to your child's current nursery or primary school.

You will find your council's application form on its website. If you do not know which council covers your address, use the postcode search on GOV.UK.

On the form you list several schools in order of preference. Listing only one school does not improve your chance of getting that school. It only increases the risk that you get none of your choices and the council places your child somewhere else.

The key deadlines (England)

These dates repeat every year. Missing them does not mean your child gets no school, but it does make it much less likely that you get one of the schools you asked for.

Two things to notice:

1. You apply a year before your child starts. A child starting reception in September 2027 applies by 15 January 2027.
2. Primary and secondary have different deadlines. The secondary one comes first.

The day the council sends out offers is often called national offer day.

In-year admissions: arriving in the middle of the school year

Most families who move to the UK do not arrive neatly in September. If the school year has already started, you do not use the deadlines above. You make an in-year application.

Here is what to do:

1. Contact your local council and say you need a school place now, in the current school year.
2. The council will tell you which schools still have places and how to apply for them. This may be an online form, or the council may ask you to apply to the school.
3. When a place is offered, your child will usually start at the beginning of the next term.

Do not wait. Places in popular schools fill quickly, and the council can only offer you schools that have space. Apply as soon as you have an address, and ask the council what to do if you are still moving between temporary addresses.

Every school in England has to publish, by 31 August each year, how it deals with in-year applications. If the council handles them, the school must link to the council's scheme. So if you are not sure who to ask, look at the school's website, or just phone the council.

Catchment areas and oversubscription

Two words you will hear a lot.

Catchment area is the area around a school that the school gives priority to. If you live inside it, you have a better chance of a place. It is not a guarantee, and not every school uses one.

Oversubscribed means more families applied than there are places. When that happens, the school uses its published oversubscription criteria to decide who gets in. These are the rules, in order, and they usually include children who:

• are in care, or were in care before (these children always come first, at every state-funded school)
• live close to the school
• already have a brother or sister at the school
• belong to a particular religion, at faith schools
• pass an entrance exam, at selective schools such as grammar schools
• came from a particular primary school, called a feeder school
• are eligible for pupil premium or service pupil premium
• have a parent who has worked at the school for 2 years or more

Different schools use different rules. Read each school's criteria on the council's website before you list your preferences.

If your child has an EHC plan (an Education, Health and Care plan, for children with special educational needs), and the plan names a school, that school must give your child a place.

What happens on offer day, and what if you are refused

On offer day the council tells you which school your child has been offered. You must accept the offer by the deadline in the letter. If you do not, the place can be taken away and given to another child.

You can accept a place and still try for a different school. You have two options, and you can use both at the same time.

Waiting lists. Ask the council or the school to put your child on the waiting list. Schools must keep a waiting list for at least the first term of the school year. Your position on it can change, because it is based on the same oversubscription criteria, not on the date you joined.

Appeal. An appeal is a formal request to have the refusal looked at again by people who are independent of the school. How it works:

• You get at least 20 school days to appeal, counted from the date of the refusal letter.
• A panel of at least 3 independent people hears your case.
• The panel must hear it within 40 school days of the deadline for sending in your evidence, and you get at least 10 school days' notice of the hearing.
• You normally get the decision within 5 school days.
• You can appeal once for each refusal.

The panel looks at whether the school followed its own admission rules properly, and whether your reasons for wanting the school are stronger than the school's reasons for not taking another child. For reception, year 1 and year 2 there is a legal limit of 30 children per class, so those appeals are harder to win.

Free school meals

In England, every child in a government-funded school in reception, year 1 and year 2 gets a free school meal automatically. You do not need to be on benefits.

For older children, free school meals depend on benefits. You may qualify if you get Universal Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, the guaranteed element of Pension Credit, or support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, which covers many people in the asylum system. From the start of the 2026 to 2027 school year, a child qualifies if the family gets Universal Credit, whatever the household income.

You apply through your local council's website. Even if your child is in reception, year 1 or year 2 and already gets free meals, tell the school if you receive one of these benefits. It brings extra funding to the school.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Education is run separately in each nation. The deadlines, the offer days, the appeal rules and the free school meal rules above are for England.

If you live in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, the basic idea is the same, which is that you go through the local authority or education authority and state school is free. But the dates and the details are different. Check the official website for your nation, or ask the council where you live.

A short checklist for a new arrival

1. Find out which council covers your address.
2. Go to the council's website and look for school admissions.
3. If the school year has started, apply as an in-year admission. Do not wait for the next round.
4. Read the oversubscription criteria for the schools you want, then list several schools in order of preference.
5. Accept any offer by the deadline, even if you want a different school.
6. If you want a different school, join the waiting list and consider an appeal.
7. Apply for free school meals if you think you qualify.

Nobody at the school gate needs to see your visa. Getting your child into class is one of the fastest ways for a family to settle in.