Leicester scheme for the admission arrangements for pupils to schools 2026/27

1.1. This scheme for admission to school applies to parents or guardians who are resident in Leicester City and are applying for their child to start school at the normal admissions round. The “normal admissions round” covers applications for a place into a relevant age group at any state-funded school, in rank order on the common application form provided by Leicester City Council, i.e. starting school for the first time in Reception, Year 3 at a junior school or Year 7 at a secondary school. These applications are made by the national deadlines for the local authority to offer a school place on National Offer Day. For information about National Offer Days, see section 5.

1.2. Parents are able to express a preference for a maximum of four schools in rank order. The application can include schools outside the Leicester City Council because a parent can apply for a place for their child at any state-funded school in any area. For late changes of school preference, see section 3.

1.3. Parents are strongly recommended to use all four preferences open to them and include their catchment area school in their application. It increases their chances of securing a place at a local school if all of their higher preferred schools are full.

1.4 All school preferences are collated and parents will receive an offer from Leicester City Council at the highest preference school at which a place is available, regardless of the schools applied for.

1.5. To provide every parent with a single offer of a school place offer, Leicester City Council will be working collaboratively with the governing bodies of voluntary aided, free schools, academies in the city and neighbouring local authorities. List of different types of school is available on Schools’ Directory
at Find schools in your catchment area (leicester.gov.uk).

1.6. This scheme will not affect the duty of the governing bodies of academies, voluntary aided and free schools to set and apply their own admission arrangements.

1.7. Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) are not covered by this scheme. They will be given priority admission over all others.

2.1. All applications from Leicester residents for admission to any state-funded school must be made on the online common application form available on our admissions website. A paper application form is also available on request.

2.2. Parents of Year 6 children, residing in Leicester City and attending Leicester primary or junior schools will be given details of how to apply by their school, at the beginning of year 6. Children transferring to a junior school will be given details of how to apply at the beginning of Year 2 by the infant school. For those starting school in reception, details are posted to early year settings.

2.3. Parents who reside outside Leicester City should apply to their home authority in which they live, i.e. the authority to whom they pay their council tax.

2.4. Leicester resident parents can state a maximum of four preferences, in their rank order, at any one time for any combination of the following schools:

• Community
• Voluntary Controlled
• Voluntary Aided
• Trust
• Academy
• Free School

A list of different types of school is available on Schools’ Directory at Find schools in your catchment area (leicester.gov.uk).

2.5. In all cases the application must be received by the closing date of 31 October 2025 for admission to a Secondary School and 15 January 2026 for admission to start at a Primary, Infant or Junior School. Please see Annex 1 and 2 for detailed timetable information.

3.1. Late applications are applications for entry in a relevant age group which are submitted before the first day of the first term in the admission year but have not been made in time to enable Leicester City Council to offer a place on National Offer Day.

3.2. For late applications, parents also apply to and receive an offer from Leicester City Council.

3.3. For applications / changes of preference made after the closing date, the application may still be considered as on-time but only if there are good reasons for this and if it is submitted by 11 January 2026 for Secondary applications and 1 March 2026 for Primary, Infant or Junior applications.

3.4. Independent supporting evidence of the good reason must be provided, or it will be treated as late. Dates detailed in 3.3 are also the closing dates for parents to provide proof of address if they are to be considered from a new address in the first round of the allocation process.

4.1. By December 2025 for Secondary applications and February 2026 for Primary, Infant and Junior School applications, Leicester City Council will send to own admission authority schools and other Local Authorities responsible for admission to any school stated on the application, details of the applicants for their schools.

4.2. The respective admission authorities, where the schools are oversubscribed, will rank all applications in accordance with their determined arrangements and their Published Admissions Number (PAN).

See Appendix 4 for Leicester City Council Admissions Arrangements for admission to community and controlled Infant and Primary Schools 2026/2027.

See Appendix 5 for Leicester City Council Admissions Arrangements for admission to community and controlled junior schools 2026/2027.

See Appendix 6 for Leicester City Council Admissions Arrangements for admission to community and controlled Secondary Schools 2026/2027.

For voluntary aided schools, academies and free schools, the governing body or Academy Trust are responsible for determining their arrangements. List of these types of school including their contact details is available on Schools’ Directory at Find schools in your catchment area (leicester.gov.uk).

4.3. During December 2025 for Secondary applications and February 2026 for Primary, Infant and Junior applications, Leicester City Council will aim to have received from academies, free, trust and voluntary aided schools a list of children who have been ranked by the school.

4.4. By January 2026 for secondary applications and March 2026 for primary, infant and junior applications, Leicester City Council will:

1. make determinations on which provisional offers will be made
2. inform other relevant local authorities of those provisional offers.

4.5. Where Leicester City Council cannot make a single offer for any of the preferences expressed by a parent resident in Leicester City, a place will be allocated to the child at the nearest Leicester City school with places available, starting with their catchment area school.

4.6. During February 2026 for Secondary applications and March 2026 for Primary, Infant and Junior applications, Leicester City Council will inform the relevant Local Authorities of any provisional offers for residents in their authority.

5.1. National Offer Day is 2 March 2026 for Secondary applications and 16 April 2026 for Primary, Infant and Junior applications.

5.2. School place offers will be sent by email on National Offer Day to those applicants who have elected to receive their offer by email. A paper copy of the offer will also be sent to all applicants by second class post.

6.1. Any parent whose child is refused a higher ranked school place is entitled to appeal against the decision.

6.2. Leicester City Council along with a decision to refuse their child a place at a school for which they have applied, it will include the reason why admission was refused, information about the right to appeal, the deadline for lodging an appeal and the contact details for making an appeal.

6.3. If parents wish to appeal, they must set out their grounds for appeal in writing. Full details of the appeals process can be found on our website.

6.4. An appeal is heard by an independent panel, who will consider evidence from applicants and Local Authority. The panel make its decision after hearing both sides, and the decision they make is legally binding on all parties.

6.5. If parent is refused a place at a non-Leicester City school and they wish to lodge an appeal, they will need to contact a relevant Local Authority about the appeal process for that school.

7.1. Leicester City Council will maintain a waiting list for majority of Leicester City schools where the number of applications has exceeded the places available in their intake year. List of schools that maintain their own waiting lists can be found at www.leicester.gov.uk/admissions.

7.2. For entry into the normal admissions round, the waiting lists will be established on the Offer Day and will be maintained up to the end of term in July 2027. After this time the waiting lists will close, and parents will need to make a new application if they still wish for their child to transfer schools.

7.3. This waiting list position may go up or down as the waiting list is ordered in accordance with the published admissions criteria and not the length of time an applicant is on the list.

8.1. Infant classes (those where the majority of children will reach the age of 5, 6 or 7 during the school year) must not contain more than 30 pupils with a single school teacher. Additional children may be admitted under limited exceptional circumstances. These children will remain an ‘excepted pupil’ for the time they are in an infant class or until the class numbers fall back to the current infant class size limit.

8.2. The excepted children are:

1. children admitted outside the normal admissions round with Education, Health and Care Plans specifying the school
2. looked after children and previously looked after children admitted outside the normal admissions round
3. children admitted after initial allocation of places, because of a procedural error made by the admission authority or local authority in the original application process
4. children admitted after an independent appeals panel upholds an appeal
5. children who move into the area outside the normal admissions round for whom there is no other available school within reasonable distance
6. children of UK service personnel admitted outside the normal admissions round
7. children whose twin or sibling from a multiple birth is admitted otherwise than as an excepted pupil
8. children with special educational needs who are normally taught in a special educational needs unit54 attached to the school, or registered at a special school, who attend some infant classes within the mainstream school.

9.1. Free, voluntary aided and academy schools may require additional information which is not contained on the on-line application and may relate to the church or religious observance / worship for which the child is a member.

9.2. In additional to the on-line application each free, voluntary aided and academy school may have their own supplementary information form for prospective applicants to complete. Details are provided on the school’s own websites as well as at leicester.gov.uk/admissions.

9.3. These supplementary information forms are not application forms for admission to a free, voluntary aided or academy school. The forms will be labelled as an important part of the admission process as they are essential to enable these schools to apply their own oversubscription criteria. Schools requiring additional information should make it very clear that receipt of such a form does not constitute an application.

9.4. Parents who intend to express a preference or preferences for a free, voluntary aided or academy school must follow the procedure set out below:

1. obtain a copy of the supplementary information form from the free/voluntary aided/academy school(s) for which they intend to express a preference on the common application form.
   
   
2. complete the supplementary information form(s)
   
   
3. complete the on-line application at leicester.gov.uk/admissions by the 31 October 2025 for secondary transfer and 15 January 2026 for first time admissions and transfer from infant to junior schools
   
   
4. return the supplementary information form(s) to the preferred voluntary aided/ academy or free school(s) by 31 October 2025 for secondary transfer and 15 January 2026 for First Time Admissions and transfer from Infant to Junior Schools

9.5. The supplementary information provided by parents will be used by the free/ voluntary aided/ academy schools in applying their admission criteria. This information would be over and above the standard information supplied through the on-line application.

9.6. Where a supplementary information form is not submitted to the free/ voluntary aided/ academy school in support of the online application, it may affect the consideration of the preference expressed by the governing body of that school.

10.1 The School Admissions Code requires admission authorities to provide for the admission of all children in the September following their fourth birthday. Where a child has been offered a place at a school,:

1. child is entitled to a full-time place in the September following their fourth birthday
   
   
2. the child’s parents can defer the date their child is admitted to the school until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which it was made;
   
   
3. where the parents wish, children may attend part-time until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age.

10.2. Parents may also seek a place for their child outside of their normal age group, for example, if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health.

10.3. The parents of a summer born child* may choose not to send that child to school until the September following their fifth birthday and may request that they are admitted out of their normal age group – to reception rather than year 1 at the age of 5.

The term summer born children relates to all children born from 1 April to 31 August. These children reach compulsory school age on 31 August following their fifth birthday (or on their fifth birthday if it falls on 31 August). It is likely that most requests for summer born children to be admitted out of their normal age group will come from parents of children born in the later summer months or those born prematurely.

10.4. When applying for a school place outside of a normal age group, parents are required to make an application for their child’s normal age group by deadline, 15 January 2026, but also submit a request for admission outside the normal age group at the same time.

To notify the Council of your wish for your child to enter a year outside of their normal age group, please contact the School Admissions Service:

Email: [email protected] Telephone: 0116 454 1009 (option 1)

10.5. Although, it is best for parents or carers to make a request for delayed entry alongside an application for a school place in the normal admissions round, we accept that this is not always possible. We will, therefore, still consider a request where the parent asks for admissions outside the normal age group which is made after the deadline.

10.6. Parents are expected to provide the admission authority with information in support of their request. This should demonstrate why it would be in the child’s interests to be admitted outside of a normal age group.

This could include looking at evidence or issues such as:

• information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development
• where relevant, the child’s medical history and views of a medical professional
• any evidence from a health or social care professional who is involved in the care or treatment of the child for example speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, social worker, paediatrician
• whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group
• whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely
• Whether the child’s premature birth has caused health problems or developmental delays that mean the child would benefit from a delayed school start.
• the view of any nursery or other early years setting the child attends and any records of the child’s development.
• The progress the child has made in an early years setting, including the rate of progress.
• What can the nursery setting provide the child that a reception class would not?

In some cases, parents may have professional evidence that it would be appropriate for them to submit this, for example, when a child receives support from a speech and language therapist. However, there is no expectation that parents will obtain professional evidence that they do not already have.

It is not necessary for a child to have medical or special educational needs in order for it to be in their interests to be admitted outside of a normal age group.

10.7. All schools and teachers are trained to teach children with special educational needs and schools must use their best efforts to make suitable provision available for all pupils who have Special Educational Needs (SEN) or a disability as set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 Years.

Parents are encouraged to visit the schools to which they intend to apply. Teachers and Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) will be able to explain the provision on offer to the children in the reception class, how it is tailored to meet the needs of the youngest children, and any other support that is available. They may also be able to allay any concerns a parent may have about their child’s readiness for school or help a parent consider whether a child needs more time to develop before starting school.

10.8. If a parent makes a request for a school place outside of a normal age group, the admissions authority is responsible for making the decision about whether the child should be admitted out of their normal age group.

Admission authorities must make decisions on the basis of the circumstances of each case and in the best interests of the child concerned. This will include taking account of:

• parent’s views
• information about the child’s academic, social and emotional development
• where relevant, the child’s medical history and views of a medical professional
• whether they have previously been educated out of their normal age group
• whether they may naturally have fallen into a lower age group if it were not for being born prematurely
• views of the head teachers

10.9. Admission authorities must also consider requests that are not accompanied by professional evidence. In such cases the supporting information might simply be the parent’s statement as to why they have made their request. A lack of professional evidence, or limited evidence, does not mean that requests will be refused outright.

10.10. When informing a parent of a decision on the year group the child should be admitted to, the admission authority must set out clearly the reasons for their decision.

10.11. If a request for a school place outside of a normal age group is agreed, the application for the normal age group will be withdrawn before a place is offered. Parents must make a new application for a school place during the main admissions round the following year.

10.12. Where an admission authority agrees to a parent’s request for their child to be admitted out of their normal age group and, as a consequence of that decision, the child will be admitted to a relevant age group (i.e. the age group to which pupils are normally admitted to the school). The local authority and admission authority must process the application as part of the main admissions round, unless the parental request is made too late for this to be possible, and on the basis of their determined admission arrangements only, including the application of oversubscription criteria where applicable.

10.13. As children, whose school start has been delayed (admitted to reception rather than year one at the age of 5) move through the system, they will reach transition points. For children who have attended an infant school, this will be when they move up to junior school. For other children, this will be when they reach secondary age. Parents will need to apply once again for an outside normal year group place alongside an application for a school place and should do so when their child’s ‘correct’ cohort are making applications for a school place. This means that for a summer born child who started in reception a year later than is usual, parents would apply for a secondary school place and for an out of year group place when the child is in Year 5 rather than Year 6.

10.14. Admission authorities must consider these requests in the same way as the original request but must also take into account the fact the child has been educated in a different year group up until this point.

10.15. If the request is refused, the parent must decide whether to accept the offer of a place for the normal age group (with the option of deferring entry to later in the school year or part time attendance initially for first time admissions), or to refuse it and make an in-year application for admission to year one for September following the child’s fifth birthday.

10.16. Parents have a statutory right to appeal against the refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied. Please see section 6 for details. This right does not apply if they are offered a place at the school, but it is not in their preferred age group.

11.1. For a school application to be considered under the social medical criterion, applicants must complete a separate application form, along with written evidence. Social and Medical form will be emailed upon selecting Social and Medical criterion within the application form.

11.2. Examples of the written evidence to be provided along with a completed social and medical application are:

1. Supporting documentation from a medical professional
2. Supporting information provided by a social worker
3. Supporting information provided by a Police officer
4. Court order

11.3. In each case, the connection between a child’s need and the specific school must be made and applicants must clearly demonstrate why this one specific school can meet the child’s needs in a way that no other school can. Evidence relating to the social or medical circumstances of the parent can be considered, but only if this impacts on the child and their need to attend one specific school.

11.4. Evidence must be provided by the application deadline (31 October for Secondary Transfer or 15 January for Reception and Junior Transfer).

Any evidence submitted following the application deadline will not be considered until after National Offer Day (in March for Secondary Transfer and in April for Reception and Junior Transfer. See Annex 1 and Annex 2 for National Offer dates.

11.5. Priority under this criterion can only be given for one specific school but we still recommend that applicants list four schools on their application form to maximize their chances of securing one of their preferences. If an applicant seeks to apply the criteria for more than one school, by definition, it is not only one school that can meet the need and this criterion would not apply.  We may have to share the information provided with the offered school.

11.6. There will be a two-stage assessment process for eligibility under this criterion

11.7. During the first stage the application will be considered by the admissions team to establish whether the following criteria, as outlined in section 11.2, is met.

1. Clear reason provided why only the chosen school can meet child’s needs in the way that no other school can; and
2. Supporting evidence provided, in with section 11.1
3. Request made no later than the closing dates, in line with section 11.3

11.8. If applicants meet the eligibility for stage 1, the application will be considered during the second stage by a panel of senior officers. If they do not meet the criteria, the application will be considered as a normal application and considered under the usual admission rules.

11.9. During the second stage, a panel of senior officers will determine whether the evidence provided is sufficiently compelling to meet the above requirements. You will be notified of the panel’s decision in writing and the letter will indicate which criterion we will use to process your application.

11.10. All Leicester City schools have experience in dealing with children with diverse social and medical needs, and so a parent’s case must be clearly exceptional in order to be considered under this criterion.

11.11. It is expected that the following groups of children will usually meet this criterion if the relevant evidence can be provided:

1. Children who are the subject of child protection plans and where the requested school is necessary to avoid the abuser.
   
   
2. Children of parents/carers who are fleeing domestic violence and where the requested school is necessary to avoid the abuser, whose application is verified by a senior social worker or who meet Leicester City Council’s procedures for housing reallocation for recognized domestic violence.

11.12. There is no separate right of appeal if an application has not met the social and medical criterion, but parents will have their usual statutory right of appeal for a school place. Please see section 6 for full details of the appeals process.

12.1. Applications for admission to a Leicester City school outside the normal admission round can be made online at leicester.gov.uk/admissions. A paper application form is also available on a request.

12.2. Leicester City Council (LCC) residents wishing to apply for a place at a maintained school or academy in a different Local Authority (LA) must apply directly to the LA where the school is situated.

12.3. Non-Leicester City residents who wish to apply for a place at Leicester City Council school should apply directly to Leicester City Council.

12.4. Parents are able to express a preference for a maximum of four schools in their rank order. A parent can have a maximum of four preferences at any one time.

12.5. All admission authorities consider the applications against their own oversubscription criteria.

12.6. The offer of a place at a Leicester City school will be made by Leicester City Council.

12.7. Please refer to Leicester Scheme for the Admission Arrangements for in-year admissions to Schools for detailed information about the in-year admissions process.

• Closing date for applications - 31 October 2025
• Local authority to send applications to academies, free aided schools and other local authorities - November 2025
• Academies, free and aided schools return ranked lists to Leicester City Council - December 2025
• Leicester schools informed by Leicester City Council of the final results, which may include offers to pupils living in other local authorities - 2 March 2026
• Offers sent to parents by Leicester City Council - 2 March 2026

• Closing date for applications 15 January 2026
• Local authority to send applications to academies, free aided schools and other local authorities - February 2026
• Academies, free and aided schools return ranked lists to Leicester City Council - February 2026
• Leicester schools informed by Leicester City Council of the final results, which may include offers to pupils living in other local authorities - 16 April 2026
• Offers sent to parents by Leicester City Council - 16 April 2026

1. Looked After and Previously Looked After Child:

A ‘looked after child’ is a child who is (a) in the care of a local authority, or (b) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions at the time of making an application to a school.

‘Previously looked after children‘ are children who were looked after but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or became subject to a child arrangements order or special guardianship order). Previously looked after children mean such children who were adopted (or subject to child arrangements orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after and those children who appear (to the admission authority) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.

A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society.

2. Siblings:

By siblings we mean a brother or sister, half brother or sister, adopted brother or sister, stepbrother or sister, foster brother or sister or a child of the parent/carers partner. In every case the child must be living in the same family unit at the same address. Private fostering arrangements are not counted for admissions purposes. Siblings must be on roll at the point of entry.

3. Home / Permanent Address:

This is a child’s permanent address or where the child lives for most of the time Monday to Friday during school terms, at the time of application. ‘At the time of application’ means the closing date for applications (31 October 2025 for Secondary Applications and 15 January 2026 for Primary, Infant and Junior applications).

Informal accommodation arrangements with family and friends are not accepted, unless a parent can prove that their child lives elsewhere with someone who has legal care and control of their child. We will need legal evidence of this.

An address used for childcare arrangements cannot be used as the home address for the purpose of applying for a school place.

We will check the home address provided in an application against our records and those held by other organizations. Parents can be asked to provide a proof of their address, i.e. evidence of the name being on the electoral, proof of Council Tax payment or utility bill etc.

We will refuse to accept an address that might be considered to be only a temporary address for the purpose of obtaining a place at a popular school where:

• The original home is still owned or rented, and the new address is a rented property within the area of a popular school.
• Only part of the family moves unless this was due to a divorce or permanent separation arrangement. We will need legal evidence of this.
• A child moves to a home address which is different from their parent/s or legal guardian, unless it was due to a formal fostering or safe care arrangement with social services intervention. Where this is a formal arrangement, official confirmation must be submitted with your application. If the applicant does not have formal documentation, the admission authority will request further information.

We can only accept one application per child and parents are expected to agree school preferences before applying. The admissions team cannot become involved in any disputes or differences over the application.

Where there is a disagreement between the parents, or there is uncertainty about the child’s living arrangements, Local Authority as the admission authority will decide on the balance of probabilities, where the child lives for the majority of the week.

We have the right to withdraw any offer of a school place up to one term after admission if it is shown that it was obtained based on a fraudulent or misleading application.

4. Distance measurement:

Distance is measured on a straight-line basis using a geographical information system measuring from the GEO code reference point for the child’s home address to the GEO code reference point for the school. A GEO code is a position on a map.

5. Tiebreaker:

In the event that two applicants within a category live exactly the same distance from the school and only one place remains, the place will be offered to one applicant on the basis of lots drawn by an officer of the city council who is not involved in the administration of school admissions.

6. Multiple births:

If the final place available at a school is offered to a twin or triplet and the remaining sibling(s) would ordinarily be refused, places will be offered to the remaining sibling(s) at the same school. Trust, voluntary aided, free and academies operate their own oversubscription criteria and they are explained in each school’s individual arrangements.

7. Deferred entry:

By law, a child must be in receipt of full-time education from the start of the school term following their fifth birthday - this is called compulsory school age. Delaying a child’s entry into school is called ‘deferred entry’. Parents/carers can request to defer their child’s entry to school to any date up until they are of compulsory school age. Parents/carers should apply for a place for their child in the normal way. Parents/carers can also request with a school that their child takes up a place part time until they reach compulsory school age.

8. Summer born children:

Children born from 1 April to 31 August are known as Summer Born Children. They become of compulsory school age at the start of the term following their fifth birthday.

9. Compulsory school age

Children reach compulsory school age on 31 December, 31 March or 31 August following their fifth birthday; whichever comes first. If a child’s fifth birthday is on one of those dates, then they reach compulsory school age on that date.

10. Catchment area

A geographical area, from which children may be afforded priority for admission to a particular school. Information about the catchment area for each school can be found at Find schools in your catchment area (leicester.gov.uk).

11. Published Admissions Number (PAN)

Published Admissions Number means the number of children in any relevant year group intended to be admitted in the academic year as determined