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Hertfordshire County Council

Making an application

When you apply, you can list up to 4 schools in order of preference (we call this "ranking" your schools).

Research schools to help you make the right school preferences for your child.

This includes looking at a school's admission rules (how they work out who will be offered a place).

Find school admission rules

 

It's also important to think about how your child gets to school. Very few children can get free home to school transport.

Make sure your child is entitled to a place in a state school before you apply. Check your visa status

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 (ranked) 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 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.
  • Schools and academies responsible for their own admissions provide us with a list of pupils they will offer places to.
  • We offer places on behalf of all schools in Hertfordshire.

 

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 secondary application form. You can include schools both in and outside of Hertfordshire.

If you only apply to 1 school, your child will 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 transferring to Year 10 in September, you can use the secondary school application form to apply for Studio Schools and UTCs outside Hertfordshire, or you can apply direct to The Elstree Screen Arts (UTC) in Borehamwood. These are schools for 14-19 year olds.

If your child is currently on roll at a school that they can continue to attend in September (for example, an all-through school or middle school), an alternative school place will not be offered.

 

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

New schools and additional places

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

Schools get a list of every application made 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).

Find admission rules and Supplementary Information Forms for academies and voluntary aided or foundation schools

 

University Technical Colleges (UTCs) and Studio Schools admit pupils directly into Year 10 (pupils can remain until Year 13) and, at GCSE, offer a similar curriculum to secondary schools. 

UTCs are set up by universities and businesses. They specialise in 1 or 2 technical subjects which are offered alongside GCSEs.

Studio Schools have employer involvement in the curriculum and focus on developing skills for employment, involving personal coaching and work experience, alongside GCSEs.

All schools must provide impartial careers advice and guidance to all students in Years 8-13 to inspire them to fulfil their potential and ensure they're aware of all opportunities open to them. We strongly recommend that your child discusses their options with a careers advisor and considers the GCSE curriculum available at their current school.

Your child may be very happy at their existing school and can, of course, remain there. However, if you wish to apply for a place at a UTC or Studio School, take a look at university technical colleges (PDF, 91KB) and Studio Schools (PDF, 81KB) in and around Hertfordshire.

You'll find more information from individual school websites and www.utcolleges.org.

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.

Find contact details for neighbouring councils

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 secondary school places through a separate process.

You can apply as usual for a mainstream secondary school place but your application will be handled by your SEN officer in the local special needs team.

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

Your child’s SEN officer will consider the information received with your child’s Year 5 annual review (or Year 4 in a middle school). You will have already received an amended EHC plan, based on that information.

When that amended EHC plan was issued, your SEN officer will have asked you for your preferred school. At the start of the autumn term your SEN officer will send you an amendment notice. This will show you the changes that need to be made to your child’s EHC plan before they move up to secondary or upper school.

Let your SEN officer know your preferred secondary or upper school at this point, if you haven't already done so.

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

Following this, your SEN officer will finalise your child’s EHC plan and name a secondary or upper school in section 1 of the EHC plan.

You should get this document before the end of the autumn term, in advance of the legal deadline which is 15 February in the year your child moves up to secondary or upper 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 SEN officer.

Hertfordshire's Local Offer

Our "local offer" shows the services, groups and information available for parents and carers of children and young people aged 0-25 with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND).

Browse Hertfordshire's Local Offer

 

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.

For community and voluntary controlled schools, we decide whether your application is successful. 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 that 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 usually make this decision for applications made to their school.

 

Summer born children

If your child is summer born and educated a year below their chronological age group, or is currently being educated a year below their chronological age group for another reason, you need to apply in year 5 to request a delay for their application for a secondary school place until the following academic year (September 2026).

However, the decision to admit a child out of year group a year later than usual, remains a matter for the admission authority of individual schools.

 

Schools responsible for their own admissions

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

Find school contact details

 

Schools outside Hertfordshire

If you're interested in applying for a place at a school outside of Hertfordshire, you must contact the relevant authority to discuss whether they will accept your out of year group application.

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

To maximise the chances of your children being allocated places at the same school, it is recommended that you list the same schools in the same order across all applications. If one of your children is offered a place at a school and you've applied for the same school for the other child or children, we'll try to offer a place for the others. However, if you have children of different sexes and you apply for single-sex schools, it is possible that one child will be allocated a place and the other will not.

For community co-educational schools (boys and girls), we will offer a place to the other children.

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

For single sex academies that we allocate places to, a place will be offered to children of the same sex unless the place allocated to the first child was offered under the random allocation procedure.

In this case, places will not initially be offered to other children of the same sex in the family as this would compromise the random element of the allocation process. However, the academy may decide to offer an additional place after the allocation process has been completed.

It is not possible to allocate a place at a school that is not ranked on the application form, unless a non-ranked allocation has to be offered.

 

Which address to use

Give your child's permanent address at the time you apply.

If you move after applying, you must send us proof of your new address.

Proof can be:

  • a solicitor's letter upon completion (exchange of contracts not accepted) confirming your completion date was on or before 2 December 2024 or
  • a signed rental agreement (for at least 12 months) showing the start of your tenancy on or before 2 December 2024. If it's not possible to provide a 12 month tenancy agreement because of the nature of the agreement, we'll request alternative proof of address and verify it with the Shared Anti-Fraud Service, as necessary.
  • evidence that you have relinquished residential ties with the address you originally declared on your application form.

You must also send us proof that you and your child live at the new address.

It's not enough to simply change your address on your application.

We can't use your new address for allocation purposes if we receive your proof of completion date or tenancy start date (along with evidence that you are living there) later than 2 December 2024.

Schools which are their own admitting authority may have different dates and requirements regarding change of address. Check the individual school’s admission arrangements.  

 

Fraudulent addresses or false information

We may ask for proof of your address at any time. We will withdraw the offer of a school place if a fraudulent address has been used.

Tell us if you move during the application process. It's not enough to just change your address on your application.

We may also withdraw the offer of a school place if information is deliberately withheld.

Examples of cases that will be fully investigated and applications withdrawn

  • Renting or buying a property close to a popular school but retaining another property.
  • Living with a relative but retaining another property.
  • Renting or buying a property close to a popular school and moving home prior to school starting in September 2025.

If a school place was allocated to an older child using fraudulent information, we won't consider an application under the sibling rule for any children applying from that family.

Any offer that has been made on the basis of false or intentionally misleading information will be withdrawn, even if the place has already been accepted or the child has started at the allocated school.

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 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 2 applications are received with different addresses and/or different preferences, neither will be processed until the address issue is resolved.

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.

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).

 

Late applications

You're much less likely to get your preferred school if you apply late.

You can't alter a late application made online. Email transfer.admissions@hertfordshire.gov.uk if you need to alter your late application.

We don't deal with applications received after the deadline until all on time applications have been considered.

If you have exceptional reasons for applying late, include the reasons and evidence when you apply. A panel will decide whether your application will be treated as late or on time – we'll let you know.

31 October 2024 – deadline for applying on time.

2 December 2024 – last date to submit a written explanation of why your application was late, for your application to be agreed as on time.

30 January 2025 – applications received after this date will not be offered a school place until 28 April – 2 May 2025.

 

On allocation day


3 March 2025 – find out which school you've been allocated.

We will email you (if you confirmed your email address).

Or login to the admissions system to check.

 

If your child is not offered a place at any of your preferred schools and you live in Hertfordshire, you will usually be allocated a place at the nearest suitable school to your home address with places still available. This might not be a school in Hertfordshire and could be a school or academy responsible for its own admissions.

 

When you get your offer

17 March 2025 is the deadline to accept or decline your offer.

If you don't accept or decline, we may offer your place to someone else. We'll then offer you a place at the nearest school that still has places.

We advise you to accept the place offered so your child definitely has a school in September. This doesn't affect your chances of getting a school you prefer later, either through the continuing interest process, or through a school place appeal.

 

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