Primary, junior and middle school places

School admissions across the country

• School admissions are coordinated by local authorities to ensure that children across the country are offered a single school place on the same day. This system is fairer, with more parents being offered one of their preferred schools earlier.
• All applications are considered at the same time. Admission rules are applied equally, regardless of how you ordered the schools on your form.
• We will only use your order of preference (rank) if it's possible to offer your child a place at more than one of your preferred schools. If this is the case, we'll offer you a place at the highest ranked school possible.
• The allocation process is automated for all community and voluntary controlled schools. Officers aren't involved and don't influence decisions. The only exceptions are when deciding whether a child qualifies for a place under Rule 2 and when allocating a school not ranked on your application form.

How you apply

List the schools you want to apply for on 1 form, ordered by preference. If you are a Hertfordshire resident, you must use the Hertfordshire primary application form. You can include schools both in and outside of Hertfordshire.

If you only apply to 1 school, you'll only be considered for that school.

Schools won't know the order you rank them or which other schools you've applied for. If you appeal, the appeals panel will know because your application form and allocation letter will usually form part of the paperwork prepared for the appeal process.

If your child is currently on roll at a school that they can continue at for September (for example, if your child is applying for a junior or middle school place but is attending a primary school), an alternative school place will not be offered.

Infant class size

It's against the law for infant classes (Reception to Year 2) to be taught in a class with more than 30 pupils. This is taken into account when allocating school places and at appeals.

Linked infant and junior schools

Most junior schools prioritise applications from pupils already attending their “linked” infant school. Check the rules for junior schools.

School place planning

You can email education.planning@hertfordshire.gov.uk about the provision of school places in your local area at the time of your application.

This feedback is given to our county councillors who agree each year how many school places are provided in each area.

School place planning – find out more

Most academies and voluntary aided or foundation schools have their own rules to prioritise applications.

Schools get a list of every application for their school, but they don't see your order of preference.

They apply their own admission rules to applications and allocate places.

They may also ask for additional information on an extra form (sometimes called a Supplementary Information Form).

Attendance at a school’s nursery class does not guarantee a place in the Reception class of a school.

You need to apply for a Reception place, even if your child has a place at the nursery class.

Every year some children attending a nursery class don't get a place in the school’s Reception class. This is because we receive more applications for Reception places than for nursery places.

Schools must ensure their admission arrangements don't disadvantage families who couldn't take up a nursery place at the school, for example, those who moved to an area after nursery places were offered.

If you live in Hertfordshire, you apply to us. Even if you're applying for a school outside of the county.

If you live outside Hertfordshire, you must apply to your own council. Even if you're applying for Hertfordshire schools.

Contact details for neighbouring councils

Mainstream schools

All schools in Hertfordshire can cater for children with a wide range of needs, whether those needs are to do with learning, behaviour or a disability.

Children who have special educational needs but don't have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan should apply for a school place in the usual way.

Children with an EHC plan that names a specific school are allocated school places through a separate process.

You can apply as usual for a mainstream primary, junior or middle school place but your application will be handled by your EHC coordinator in the local special needs team.

You will not get an allocation letter and allocation information will not be available online.

If your child is starting school this year (a Reception place at an infant, first or primary school), discuss the process with your child’s named EHC coordinator.

If your child is already at an infant or first school, your child’s EHC coordinator will have considered all the information received with your child’s statutory assessment or most recent annual review. You will have already received an EHC plan based on that information.

When the EHC plan was issued, you'll have had an opportunity to tell your EHC coordinator of your preferred school for September.

At the start of the autumn term your EHC coordinator will have sent you an amendment notice. This will show you the changes that need to be made to your child’s EHC plan before your child starts or moves school.

During the autumn term, your EHC coordinator will consult with your preferred school and send them a copy of your child’s EHC plan. The headteacher has 15 days to respond.

Following this, your EHC coordinator will finalise your child’s EHC plan and name a school in section 1 of the EHC plan.

You should get this document before the end of the autumn term to meet the legal deadline of 15 February in the year your child transfers school.

Children with an EHC plan are not automatically eligible for transport. All cases are considered against the home to school transport policy.

If you have any questions about this, please contact your child’s EHC coordinator.

Special schools

If you think your child's needs would be better met in a special school, you can find out how to request a special school place on Hertfordshire's SEND Local Offer.

Our "local offer" is aimed at helping parents and carers of children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) find information and support services in Hertfordshire.

If you have more than one child applying for a school at the same time, make a separate application for each of them.

The School Admission Code confirms that twins or multiple birth children are an exception to infant class size legislation. That means community and voluntary controlled schools will offer a place to twins or multiple birth children if one of them is offered the last place available and you've applied to the same school for the other child or children.

Foundation, voluntary aided schools and academies will have their own policies. Contact the school direct. Find school contact details.

Use the address where the child lives most of the time, if they live at more than one address (for example, due to parents separating).

We'll only accept 1 application for each child.

If a child lives at 2 addresses equally, parents/carers should make a single joint application naming one address.

If the child's living arrangements change after you apply and they now spend the majority of the week living with a different parent at a different address, send us evidence of the child's new permanent address. We can't use it for allocation purposes otherwise.

This evidence must show that the child lives at the address and that the new arrangement is permanent.

If we receive more than 1 application with different details and parents don't agree, send us court documentation to evidence the address that should be used for admission allocation purposes. If two applications are received, with different addresses and/or different preferences, neither will be processed until the address issue is reconciled.

If we get a paper application and an online application for the same child, we'll process the online application.

Contact us if your child’s address has been disputed and you have court documentation to support their current address and / or living arrangements.

If at any point information is withheld, it may lead to the offer of a school place being withdrawn.

We will accept applications from within the UK and abroad from families of UK service personnel or other crown servants.

When you apply, include an official letter from either:

• Ministry of Defence (MOD)
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)
• Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).

The letter must give your relocation date and a unit postal or quartering address in Hertfordshire. We'll then process your application from that address.

We’ll consider applications, and offer families a place in advance, if the application is accompanied by an official letter that declares a relocation date but does not provide a quartering or unit address because the family will be residing in private accommodation, as long as the parents provide evidence of the address and that the child will be living there. In these cases, if the family does not already have a permanent private address in Hertfordshire, the military base or alternative “work” address in Hertfordshire will be used for allocation purposes.

We'll also consider accepting applications from families who can show they intend to return and permanently live in Hertfordshire before the start of the new academic year (September).

If you're overseas and applying for a school in Hertfordshire, include evidence to show when the child will be a permanent resident in Hertfordshire. Until we have sufficient evidence, your overseas address will be used for allocation purposes.

If you own a property in Hertfordshire but you live elsewhere (for example, you're working abroad), we won't use your Hertfordshire address until we have proof that the child lives there permanently.

If you send evidence after the date for late applications, we can't take this into account before national allocation day.

A panel of our senior officers will make a decision and let you know within 6 weeks of the closing date (for on time applications).

Freedom of movement into the UK for European Economic Area and Swiss citizens ended at the end of 2020. EEA (Irish citizens aside) and Swiss national children entering the UK after the end of 2020 are now treated the same as other foreign nationals. This means they will no longer have the right to enter the country to access a state-funded school unless they fall within certain immigration categories. Find out more about visas and immigration and the EU Settlement Scheme for European Economic Area and Swiss citizens.

Children must either:

• hold full British citizen passports (not British Dependent Territories or British Overseas passports)
• have a UK passport describing them as a British citizen or British subject with the right of abode.

Contact us if your family has no fixed address (for example, traveller families or those living on canal boats).

Generally, children should be educated in their normal age group (that is their correct chronological year). The curriculum should be amended as necessary to meet the needs of individual children.

If you think your child should be educated in a different year group, when you apply send us supporting evidence from relevant professionals and family stating why your child must be placed outside their normal age group.

For community and voluntary controlled schools, we'll decide whether your application is accepted on the basis of the evidence submitted. A panel looks at the information you send, including:

• the views of parents and the headteacher
• the child's social, academic and emotional development
• whether the child has been educated out of their normal year group previously.

If your child is already being taught out of year group and you're applying to a new school, you should check the individual admission arrangements of the schools you wish to apply for, to check their policy for children out of year group.

There is no guarantee your application for your child to be taught in a different year group will be accepted.

If your application is not accepted, it does not mean that your child will be refused a school place. It just means your application will be processed for the usual year group.

There is also no right to an independent statutory appeal for a place in a specific year group at a school. How a school places pupils in classes is for the headteacher and individual school to decide.

Academies, voluntary aided and foundation schools are responsible for their own admissions and they make this decision for applications made to their school.