Choosing your preferred primary schools

What you need to do

When choosing your preferred primary schools:

list up to 6 schools in order of preference
include any community, foundation, free or voluntary-aided faith schools
do not include independent, fee-paying schools (contact these schools direct to apply)
include any schools located outside the borough
you do not need to list 6 schools, but the more you list, the better your chance of being offered a place

Advice on choosing your preferred schools

Choosing your preferred schools is entirely up to you. There’s no guarantee you'll receive an offer of a place at one of your preferred schools. Much depends on:

how many people apply for places at each school
whether applicants have brothers or sisters already attending the school
other factors set out in our determined admission arrangements

Ranking a school higher than other applicants does not mean you have a better chance of being offered a place. We consider each of your preferred schools against the admission criteria for that individual school.

We will not pass on to any school the detail of:

other schools you’ve applied for
how you ranked the schools you’ve applied for

To improve your chances of receiving an offer from one of your preferred schools, we recommend that you:

be realistic
include schools nearest to your home
list 6 schools, if possible
avoid schools where your child is unlikely to be offered a place
do not include schools that you do not want your child to attend
do not list the same school more than once as we delete duplicate entries

Places offered in previous years

We publish information about the number of applications schools received in previous years, and how far away schools have made offers.

This can give you some idea of how likely it is you will get a place. But this is only a guide, not a prediction. It can help you make more realistic choices, but you are entitled to express a preference for any school.

View our primary school offers map to see where schools made offers last year