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Secondary School Allocation Day
Friday 26th February 2016
Secondary School Allocation Day
The School Admissions Code (2006) was devised to ensure co-ordination and fairness of school admissions across the country and came into force in February 2007. Appendix 3, Section 10e [referring to Secondary Schools] states that: "Places must be offered on 1 March in the year during which a child will be admitted to school by the home local authority." This means that ALL offers of a secondary school place are made by all local authorities in England on 1st March (or the first weekday after 1st March).
If you filled in a paper application form, the Local Authority will inform you by letter, they are not able to send out the letter until 1st March so you will not find out your child's secondary school until 2nd March at the earliest; however, if you did apply using a paper form, you can telephone your local admissions office on 1st March and they will be able to tell you the result. If you applied online then you should get an email on 1st March telling you which school your child has been allocated, you should also be able to find out the results by logging onto your account on your local authority's online admissions system. You should be able to access this account via your local authority's home page, but having said that I have just failed to find it anywhere on the Torbay Council site. Fortunately, I had already saved the link on my browser so the Torbay Council link is: https://www.torbay.gov.uk/CitizenPortal_LIVE/Account/Login?ReturnUrl=%2FCitizenPortal_LIVE%2F
Soon after National Allocation Day, your child's allocated school will probably send you a letter asking you to confirm that you still want the place for your child - after all it is at least four months since you have applied and things may have changed since then. As some people will not accept their child's place (perhaps they are moving house or have moved) there may be an opportunity for children who have been unsuccessful in getting their first choice. If your child does not get their first choice you should contact that school and find out where your child is on their waiting list. If you have a strong reason for believing that the application process was somehow unfair to your child you could make an appeal - your local authority's admissions office will be able to give you information on how to go about doing this.
As I write this I am awaiting the results of my youngest child's secondary school application so I sincerely hope that both you and I will get the results which we are hoping for.
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