First steps to big school: Q&A with The Good Schools Guide
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For more than 40 years, The Good Schools Guide has been helping families find the best education for their children. With more than 1,600 reviews of state, private, specialist, boarding, international, and online schools across the world, hundreds of expert articles and a team of experienced education consultants, it is a trusted, independent source of information and advice.
We sat down with The Good Schools Guide to ask them everything families need to know about primary school applications.
Is there a general application timeline difference between state and independent schools?
Applications for state primaries in England are now open until 15th January 2027. Independent schools set their own admissions timelines. Most require an initial registration which, in the case of the most competitive London day schools, can mean names down at birth, or certainly by first birthdays. Most require registration at least one year before the child is due to start school. Families considering independent schooling should carefully check each school’s admissions timeline on each school's website.
Is it common to go to an independent school for primary and a state for a secondary?
For those families who have high-performing local state secondary schools, particularly grammar schools, the approach is often to concentrate expenditure at the primary level by paying for prep school. There are no guarantees though. Success at getting a grammar school place for Year 7 will usually depend on your child’s performance at the 11-plus entrance assessment, and often also on your home address relative to the school.
For applications, how does it work if you're looking to move to a new area and might not yet have a fixed address in the local catchment area before the January deadline?
If you are applying for a state school place then we always recommend getting settled in advance of the applications window as the process is complicated otherwise.
If that’s impossible then you must apply using your current permanent address, even if you are moving, and submit your application by the deadline.
Local authorities set a cut-off date, usually between late January and mid-February, by which time you must have moved and provided legal proof of your new address. If you meet this deadline, your new address will be used to calculate catchment and distance for the initial allocations.
If you move after the cut-off, your offer will be based on your old address. You can notify the council of your move, with supporting evidence, after National Offer Day and request to join waiting lists using your new address.
As rules vary between local authorities, our advice is to check your council’s website for its specific guidance.
On what basis does the local authority decide which child gets to go to what school? What are the admissions criteria?
Admissions criteria vary between local authorities and individual schools. Every school publishes its admissions policy on its website, and it is essential that parents understand the criteria for each school they apply to.
Your home's proximity to the school is usually fairly important. Some schools have a catchment area (watch out, your nearest school may not be your catchment school) but nearly all schools, when oversubscribed, use geography at some stage to rank applicants.
Children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) naming the school must be admitted. For other applicants, looked-after or previously looked-after children receive the highest priority, with siblings already at the school often next in line. Faith schools may have additional criteria based on church attendance. Always read each school's admissions policy.
Your local authority’s primary school admissions guide, usually available to download, also sets out the criteria for schools in your area. It typically includes previous years’ admissions data, showing whether schools were oversubscribed, how places were allocated and the distance from school of the last child admitted. Catchment area maps are also included where applicable.
You can read more here:
https://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/uk-schools/advice/primary-school-admissions
Would you get accepted to a Catholic school if you do not go to church?
All Catholic schools and some Church of England/Anglican schools give priority to faith in their oversubscription criteria. Some prioritise regular church attendance by both parents and child, while supporting evidence, such as baptismal certificates or letters from faith leaders, may also be required.
Some faith schools allocate up to 100 percent of places on the basis of faith, but many do not. The Church of England has numerous schools that do not use faith-based admissions criteria. Ultimately, it depends on the individual school and demand for places.
As faith schools are often popular, oversubscription criteria are likely to come into play.
Where do you find a school’s catchment area?
Many schools, particularly those in London, do not have formal catchment areas. Those that do will publish a map or list of postcodes on their websites, and some local authorities include them on their school admissions guides, available to download from their websites. Local authorities may also publish the distance from school of the last child admitted in previous years.
Read more here:
Can you delay the start of a summer born child from September to the January or summer term rather than deferring a full year?
Yes, you can request a deferred entry. Read our article to understand your options fully: https://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/uk-schools/advice/delaying-or-deferring-childs-start-at-primary-school
We are nearing the start of the application process, how do we find out the open days for each primary? Do we need to get in touch or are there standard days?
Each school will run different open days which are usually advertised on their individual websites. The Good Schools Guide holds the details of many within our school reviews too.
How can you compare the academic results of a state and independent school?
There is no straightforward way to compare results, as independent schools don't always sit the same exam as those taken in the state sector. For example, practically no private junior schools sit key stage 2 SATs but they are compulsory in state primaries.
Most schools publish their results on their own websites, while state school results can be found on the government’s school performance tables. Value-added scores are particularly revealing, but all results should be considered in the context of a school’s intake, provision and class sizes.
When you rank schools on a state primary application form, if I don't get choice 1 will that put me at a disadvantage of getting choice 2?
No. Each school considers your application against its own admissions criteria, regardless of where you have ranked it. If your child qualifies for a place at more than one school, you will be offered the one you ranked highest.
Is there a way of using an independent school as a back-up if we don’t get our preferred state option?
We are finding most independent schools have acceptance dates before the mid-April state school offer date.
Most independent schools understand families may be applying to state schools too and may extend their deadline for acceptance. Be aware, if you do decline the independent school place, you will lose your deposit/registration fee in most cases.
