When is the secondary school application deadline?

Children born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016, who start Year 7 in September 2027. You apply through the council you live in, not the council the school is in, using its online admissions form. Most councils let you list between three and six schools in order of preference. The number is set by each council's scheme rather than nationally. Every school you list is considered, so a lower preference does not count against you.

One thing to watch this year: 31 October 2026 falls on a Saturday. The national guidance gives the deadline as 31 October and sets out a next-working-day rule only for offer day, not for the deadline, so treat Saturday as the date rather than assuming the weekend buys you until Monday. If you need to file over that weekend, check your own council's scheme first. Applications received after the deadline are treated as late, and late applications are only considered after every on-time one has been placed.

Several things happen in September and October that are easy to miss because they arrive as separate emails from separate places.

• Open evenings run through September and early October. Most schools hold

one; some hold two. They are the only chance to see the school before you rank it.

• Grammar school tests (the 11-plus) are sat in September, before the

application deadline, so that results can inform your preferences. Registration for the test usually closed in the summer term, sometimes as early as June.

• Faith schools and some others ask for a supplementary information form,

sent to the school directly, on top of the council application. It has its own deadline, usually the same date but not always.

• Independent schools are separate from all of this. They run their own

registration deadlines, often a year or more ahead, and their own entrance tests in the autumn or January of Year 6. Check each school; there is no common date.

• Wales: the same as England. The co-ordinated scheme requires the common

application form to reach the local authority by 31 October for secondary places, and 1 March is the statutory offer date.

• Scotland: there is no national application round. Children go to their

catchment secondary unless you make a placing request. Lodge it on or before 15 March and the council must give you a decision by 30 April; lodge it later and the council has two months, by which time the places may be gone. In either case, no reply by the deadline counts as a refusal.

• Northern Ireland: the transfer assessments are sat in November, in the

2026 round as two Saturday papers a week apart. Applications go through the Education Authority's online system, which opened in late January and closed at noon in the middle of February, with a short late window after that. Placement outcomes arrive in May.

In England and Wales, 1 March 2027. The email or letter tells you which school has offered a place. If it is not your first preference, your child is automatically placed on the waiting list for any school you ranked higher, and you can appeal.

Apply anyway, as soon as you can. Late applications are processed after the on-time round, so the popular schools may be full, but your council still has to find your child a place. If you have a good reason for being late (a house move, for example), tell the council in writing, because some will treat the application as on time.

Apply to the council you live in now, by the deadline. If you move before 1 March, tell them; most will reassess using the new address, though they will want proof.

Between the open evenings, the test dates, the council form, the school's own form and the offer day, a Year 6 autumn generates more deadlines than any other point in primary school, and they arrive from five or six different senders. The families who find it easiest are the ones with one calendar that both parents can see. Whatever you use for that, put 31 October in it today.