A school admissions policy can look straightforward until you actually try to work out whether your child is likely to get a place.
The document may contain several pages of:
- priority groups;
- catchment rules;
- sibling definitions;
- distance measurements;
- supplementary forms;
- tie-breakers.
It is easy to skim the first page, see the word “catchment” or “sibling” and assume you understand how the system works.
Then one small definition changes everything.
Perhaps a sibling must still be attending when the younger child starts.
Perhaps distance is measured by a straight line rather than walking route.
Perhaps the faith school needs a separate supplementary information form.
Perhaps your postcode is close to the school but outside its actual priority area.
Admissions policies matter because when a school receives more applications than places, it uses its published oversubscription criteria to rank applicants.
Under the School Admissions Code in England, admission authorities must clearly set out those criteria and the order in which they are applied. The criteria must be reasonable, clear, objective and procedurally fair.
This guide is mainly about state-school admissions in England, where the statutory School Admissions Code applies to maintained schools, academies and free schools.
Here is how to read an admissions policy carefully without missing the clauses that actually determine whether your child gets a place.
Start with the correct year's admissions policy
This sounds obvious.
It is also one of the easiest mistakes to make.
Admissions arrangements are published for a specific intake year
If your child is applying to start school in September 2027, you need the arrangements applying to the 2027/28 intake, not an older policy that happens to be easier to find.
Why this matters
Schools can change:
- catchment areas;
- priority categories;
- feeder-school arrangements;
- faith requirements;
- published admission numbers.
Once admissions arrangements for a year have been formally determined, they generally cannot simply be rewritten unless specific legal routes for variation apply.
Check the heading and date before reading anything else
Look for wording such as:
Admissions Policy 2027/28
or:
Admission Arrangements for September 2027 Entry
If you are unsure, check the school website and your local authority admissions page.
Find the Published Admission Number
The policy should tell you how many pupils the school normally admits into the relevant year group.
This is usually called the:
Published Admission Number, or PAN.
For example
If a secondary school has a PAN of 240, it intends to admit 240 pupils into Year 7 through the normal admissions round.
PAN does not tell you your chances by itself
A school with 300 places may still be heavily oversubscribed.
A school with 120 places may receive fewer than 120 applications.
If there are fewer applicants than places
In general, all applicants should receive a place, except in certain selective-school circumstances. If there are more applicants than places, the oversubscription criteria are applied.
So after checking the PAN, move immediately to the section titled something like:
Oversubscription Criteria.
Read the oversubscription criteria in exact order
This is usually the most important part of the policy.
The categories are applied in the order written
A school might use:
- looked-after and previously looked-after children;
- children with exceptional medical or social needs;
- siblings;
- children living in catchment;
- other children ranked by distance.
You are not simply checking whether you meet one criterion
You are checking:
which category your child falls into and how many categories are above it.
For example
You may live very close to the school.
But if the policy gives:
- siblings;
- catchment children;
priority before general distance, families farther away may still rank above you.
Looked-after children receive very high priority
The School Admissions Code requires the highest priority, subject to the Code's provisions, to be given to looked-after and previously looked-after children, including certain children previously in state care outside England.
GOV.UK also explains that individual school criteria can additionally prioritise factors such as siblings, religion, entrance tests, feeder schools, pupil premium eligibility or staff children.
Do not assume “catchment” means simply living nearby
This is one of the biggest admissions misunderstandings.
A catchment area is a defined admissions area
It may be based on:
- roads;
- postcodes;
- mapped boundaries;
- priority areas.
Your house can be geographically close to a school while still being outside its formal catchment.
Check how catchment interacts with distance
A policy might prioritise:
- siblings in catchment;
- other catchment children;
- siblings outside catchment;
- everyone else by distance.
Another school may use an entirely different order.
Never rely only on estate-agent descriptions
“Within catchment for Excellent Academy” in a property listing is not admissions evidence.
Use the school's or local authority's official map or postcode checker.
If you need more background, see Understanding Catchment Areas and School Admissions Appeals in the UK.
Read the sibling definition carefully
“My older child goes there” can sound like a simple sibling criterion.
The policy may be more specific.
Check who counts as a sibling
The policy may define siblings to include:
- full brothers and sisters;
- half-siblings;
- step-siblings;
- adopted children;
- foster siblings.
There may also be a requirement that the children live at the same address.
Check when the sibling must attend
Some policies require the older sibling to still be on roll when the younger child starts.
That can matter if:
- one child is in Year 11;
- the younger child is entering Year 7 the following September.
Do not assume sixth-form pupils count
Some policies include them.
Others may define sibling priority differently.
Read the actual wording.
Check exactly how distance is measured
“We live 0.7 miles from the school” sounds precise.
It may still be the wrong measurement.
Schools can use different methods
For example:
- straight-line distance;
- shortest walking route;
- computerised geographic systems.
The measuring points also matter
Distance may be calculated from:
- the centre point of the home;
- the property's address point;
- the school entrance;
- a fixed school reference point.
Your phone's mapping app may therefore give a different result
Do not assume Google Maps or an online walking-distance calculator reproduces the admissions authority's method.
Read the tie-break rule immediately after the distance rule
Where two applicants are effectively the same distance away, the policy still needs a way of deciding who ranks first.
For example, Hertfordshire's current published rules use a random tie-break where applicants have identical measured distances.
Do not overlook medical or social priority
Some schools include a category for exceptional medical or social need.
Parents sometimes assume that:
“My child has SEND, so we automatically qualify.”
That may not be what the policy says.
Read the threshold carefully
The criterion may require evidence showing why:
this particular school
is significantly more appropriate than alternatives.
You may need supporting evidence
Depending on the policy, that might come from:
- a doctor;
- social worker;
- other professional.
Do not confuse this with an EHCP naming a school
The School Admissions Code states that children whose Education, Health and Care plan names the school must be admitted. They are not simply ranked somewhere within the normal oversubscription list.
For a broader SEND explanation, see SEN Support vs EHCP: What Is the Difference?.
Check whether the school needs a supplementary form
This catches parents out every year.
The common application form may not be the only paperwork
Some schools also require a:
Supplementary Information Form, often called a SIF.
This is particularly common with faith schools
The SIF may ask for information used to decide whether your child meets a faith-based oversubscription criterion.
For example:
- parish;
- place of worship;
- religious observance;
- confirmation from a faith leader.
Failing to send the SIF may not cancel your main application
But it can mean your child cannot be ranked under the priority criterion you expected.
Current council admissions guidance specifically warns parents to check whether schools require SIFs or supporting documents.
Check where the SIF goes
The ordinary application normally goes to your home local authority.
The supplementary form may need to go directly to the school or admission authority.
Follow the stated instructions.
For faith and selective schools, read the specialist criteria twice
These admissions policies can contain additional rules.
Faith schools
Check:
- who qualifies under each faith category;
- whether attendance at worship matters;
- which evidence is required;
- what happens if the school has unfilled places.
Grammar and selective schools
Check:
- test registration deadline;
- test date;
- qualifying standard;
- whether passing guarantees anything;
- oversubscription rules among qualified pupils.
Passing the test may only make your child eligible
A grammar school can still have more qualified applicants than available places.
Its admissions policy then determines which qualified pupils receive offers.
GOV.UK confirms that selective schools can include passing an entrance examination among their admissions criteria.
Understand how preference order interacts with admissions criteria
This is another area where parents lose places unnecessarily through misunderstanding.
In coordinated admissions, schools do not generally rank children higher simply because the parent put them first
Each school considers the application against its own admissions criteria.
If your child qualifies for more than one offer, your local authority then normally offers the school you ranked highest.
Current council guidance describes this as the equal preference system.
That means you should list schools in your genuine order of preference
Do not put a “safer” school first because you think it increases your chance of getting it.
If your child qualifies for both:
- your first preference;
- your third preference;
you should normally receive the first preference.
Do not repeat the same school in several preference slots
That does not give you several chances at the same school and may simply reduce the number of different schools you have applied to.
See Should You Put the Same School First on Every Admissions Form? for a fuller explanation.
Check the address rules and evidence requirements
Admissions authorities need a way to determine where the child normally lives.
Read the definition of home address
This can become particularly important where:
- parents are separated;
- the child lives between two addresses;
- the family is moving;
- the family owns more than one property.
If you are moving, check the deadline
Your local authority may require evidence such as:
- tenancy agreement;
- mortgage documents;
- property completion evidence.
GOV.UK notes that councils may ask for proof of a new address and evidence that you will actually be living there before the relevant school term.
Do not assume you can use a relative's address because it is nearer
Admission authorities can investigate address information where they believe an application may be misleading.
Use the child's genuine home address under the rules stated in the policy.
Look for feeder-school and other less obvious priority rules
Distance and siblings attract most attention.
Other categories can significantly alter the rankings.
A policy may include priority for
- feeder-school pupils;
- children eligible for pupil premium;
- children of service personnel;
- children of staff.
GOV.UK lists all of these among criteria schools may use, depending on their published arrangements.
Do not assume attending the nearby primary guarantees secondary admission
It matters only if the secondary school's published policy actually gives that primary school feeder status.
Likewise, attending a school's nursery does not automatically create a priority
GOV.UK explicitly reminds parents that they still need to apply for a school place even where the school is linked to their child's current nursery, infant or primary school.
Read the final sections: late applications, waiting lists and appeals
Parents often stop reading once they understand the oversubscription criteria.
The final pages matter too.
Check what counts as late
There should be information explaining what happens if the application arrives after the closing date.
Late applications can be disadvantaged
They may be processed after on-time applications unless the local authority accepts that there were qualifying exceptional reasons.
If you are already dealing with this situation, see What Happens If You Miss the Secondary School Application Deadline?.
Check the waiting-list arrangements
Look for:
- whether your child is automatically added;
- how long the list operates;
- whether you must request continued inclusion.
Remember that waiting lists are normally ranked by admissions criteria
They are not simply first come, first served.
A new applicant who meets a higher criterion can therefore enter above somebody already on the list.
See How School Waiting Lists Really Work.
Also note your right of appeal
If your child is refused a place at a school you applied for, the decision letter should explain how to appeal.
Use a simple admissions-policy checklist before submitting
After reading the policy, you should be able to answer these questions.
Policy
- Is this the correct admissions year?
- Who is the admission authority?
- What is the PAN?
Your child's priority
- Which oversubscription category applies?
- What categories come before yours?
- Is there evidence you need to provide?
Location
- Are you definitely in the catchment or priority area?
- How is distance measured?
- What address will be used?
Family circumstances
- Does a sibling qualify under the school's exact definition?
- Will that sibling still be at the school when your child starts?
Extra requirements
- Is there a SIF?
- Is there an entrance test?
- Is supporting professional evidence required?
Application
- What is the deadline?
- Have you used all useful preference slots?
- Have you ranked them in genuine preference order?
For secondary applications, see Secondary School Applications: A Checklist Before You Submit.
Frequently asked questions
What is an oversubscription criterion?
It is one of the published rules used to rank applicants when more children apply to a school than there are available places. The criteria must be published in priority order.
Does living in catchment guarantee a place?
No. If there are more catchment applicants than places available, the school may need to use sibling priority, distance or another stated tie-break to rank them.
Does living closest mean I will get a place?
Not necessarily. Distance may be lower down the priority list than looked-after status, siblings, catchment or other criteria.
Does having a sibling guarantee admission?
No. Sibling priority often helps, but it does not normally guarantee a place. Read exactly where sibling applicants sit in the school's priority order and how the school defines a sibling.
Does an EHCP guarantee admission?
If a child's Education, Health and Care plan formally names the school, the School Admissions Code says that school must admit the child.
What is a supplementary information form?
A SIF is an additional form used by some admission authorities to collect information needed to apply particular oversubscription criteria, especially faith-based criteria. It does not normally replace your local authority application.
Does putting a school first improve my chances?
Under the equal-preference system used in coordinated admissions, the school normally assesses your application using the same admissions criteria regardless of where you ranked it. Your preference order matters when you qualify for more than one offer.
Should I put my catchment school on the form?
You do not have to, but families should think carefully about having realistic options. Applying only to heavily oversubscribed schools does not guarantee an offer from one of them.
How do schools calculate distance?
It depends on the published policy. Methods can include straight-line measurements or specified route calculations, using defined home and school reference points.
Can the admissions policy change every year?
Admission authorities determine arrangements for each intake year and can consult on proposed changes where required. Always read the policy for the specific year in which your child is applying.
What if I think the policy itself is unfair or unlawful?
Parents and others can object to certain school admission arrangements through the Office of the Schools Adjudicator. GOV.UK explains the procedure and relevant deadlines.
Where do I find a school's admissions policy?
Check the school website and your local authority's school admissions pages. Maintained schools are required to publish information explaining how parents apply and how places are allocated when the school is oversubscribed.
Do I apply directly to the school?
For the normal primary and secondary admissions rounds in England, you usually apply through the local authority where you live, even when the school is in another council area. Some schools may additionally require a supplementary form.
What is the single most important part of an admissions policy?
For an oversubscribed school, it is usually the oversubscription criteria together with their exact definitions and tie-break rules.
Admissions policies are easier to understand when you stop reading them as general information and start reading them as a ranking system.
Ask:
What is the PAN?
Which category does my child fall into?
Which categories rank above us?
What does the school mean by sibling?
Are we actually in catchment?
How is distance measured?
Do we need another form?
What evidence is required?
And what happens if too many children qualify under the same rule?
Those small details often matter much more than how close the school looks on a map or how strongly you prefer it.
Read the policy once for the overall structure.
Then read the definitions and footnotes again.
That second read is often where the rule that matters most is hiding.
