Reception and Junior entry
When can your child start school?
- Children can start school (Reception) in the September after their fourth birthday.
- Advice and guidance on delaying or deferring your child’s start at school is available with the information on the Compulsory School Age (CSA).
You need to apply for September 2025 if your child:
- was born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021 (for a place in Reception).
- If your child will be in Year 2 at an infant school in September 2024 (for a place in a junior school).
Please note: if your child is in Year 2 at a primary school (i.e. not an infant school) and you want to apply for a junior school place, you will need to apply instead via the In-Year process.
The applications process opens on 1 November 2024 and the deadline for applying for a Reception or Junior place is 15 January 2025. If you apply by this date, you will receive your child's school offer on National Offer Day (16 April 2025).
Applications made after this date will be classified as late and not considered until after 16 April 2025, by which time many schools will be full and you are much less likely to be offered a place at your preferred school.
To make a late application please apply online.
There is an extended deadline of 1 February 2025 if your address changes before then. So if you have moved house and are submitting an application before 1 February 2025, please include relevant documentation of your move with your email (tenancy agreement or completion letter from solicitor) as we will then be able to class your application as on time.
Our Starting School in Reception or Moving to a Junior School video (YouTube) has lots of useful information and guidance on submitting your application.
If you missed any of our recent webinars for parents and carers applying for a primary school place, you can watch the recordings on our admissions YouTube channel.
How to apply for a primary school place
The information below has everything you need to know about the application process and guidance on what you should do before making your application.
You can only use this system if your child lives within Warwickshire. If you do not live in Warwickshire, you must apply through your home authority (who you pay your council tax to).
November
January
The deadline for applications is 4.00pm on 15 January 2025.
If you apply by this date, you will receive your child’s school offer on National Offer Day (16 April 2025).
- Last year there were over 700 late applicants. If you apply late, you are much less likely to be offered a place at one of your preferred schools.
- The late application policy, detailed in the admission arrangements, will apply to those applications made after the closing date.
February
The extended deadline for changes in address is 4.00pm on 1 February 2025.
If your address changes after the 15 January deadline, you have until 1 February to either amend your original application or submit a new one. You can do this via the parent portal.
You’ll need to be living in the new property by 1 February and send us either a full copy of a signed tenancy agreement or a copy of your purchase completion letter.
April
If you applied by the deadline, you will receive your school offer on National Offer Day, 16 April 2025.
On this day, we'll send you the name of the school that your child has been offered for September 2025.
You do not need to let us know if you plan to accept this offer. Look out for any updates from the school and visit their website for information on term dates, uniform and any transition arrangements.
Your offer letter will tell you how you can refuse the offer. If you do not refuse the offer, our records will show that the offer has been accepted.
If your child has not been offered a place at one or more of your higher preferred schools, or any of the schools you applied for, this will be because the school(s) received more applications than there were places available and other children met the admission criteria more closely than your child. However, your child will have been added to the waiting list(s) for those schools. More information on these is below.
April - August
During this time we will be processing late applications and allocating any available places from waiting lists. You might also want to start thinking about your child's transition to their new school. More information and support can be found at warwickshire.gov.uk/transitions.
Waiting lists
We operate waiting lists for school places. If you have not been offered your first preference school, you will automatically be placed on the waiting list for your higher preference schools., For example, if you applied for three schools and were offered your third preference, you will automatically be on the waiting lists for both your first and second preferences.
Please note that a child’s position on a waiting list can move up and down, as late applicants are added to waiting lists and any vacancies are reoffered. Given this, we are unfortunately not able to provide any information on waiting list positions while we work on these. Please be assured that if we can allocate your child a place at a school listed as a higher preference on your application than the school currently offered, we will contact you.
June - July
Appeals are heard by independent appeal panels.
Lodging an appeal
You can appeal for any higher preference school for which you have been refused a place. The deadline to submit an appeal for a hearing to take place before the end of the summer term is 2 June 2025.
Even if you plan to appeal, we advise you to accept the offer you have been made, so that your child has a secured place for September 2025. Doing so will not affect any appeal you make, or your place on any waiting lists.