State School Admissions for International Families

Every state school in England has published admission arrangements setting out its oversubscription criteria — the order in which places are allocated when more families apply than there are places. These arrangements are legally binding and must comply with the statutory School Admissions Code. They are published by the admission authority: the local authority for community and voluntary controlled schools, or the school or trust itself for academies, free schools, foundation and voluntary aided schools.

For a typical community school the order runs: children in care and previously in care; children with an Education, Health and Care plan naming the school; sometimes children with exceptional medical or social need; then siblings already at the school; then, for everyone else, distance from home to school measured by the authority's stated method.

You apply through the local authority where you live — not the authority where the school is — and you may name several preferences on one form. Naming a school you have no realistic chance of reaching does not harm your other preferences, but it does waste a slot, which is why the distance data below matters so much.

• Apply through the council where the child lives, even for schools in a neighbouring borough.
• You express preferences; you do not choose. All preferences are considered against each school's own criteria.
• Academies and faith schools set their own criteria — read each school's arrangements, not just the council booklet.
• Distance is usually measured in a straight line from a fixed point at the home to a fixed point at the school; the method is stated in the arrangements.
• Every applicant has a statutory right of appeal to an independent appeal panel if a preference is refused.

Each admission authority publishes, for each school and each year, how far from the school the last offered place was — the 'last distance offered' or 'cut-off distance'. This is the number that tells you whether an address is realistic, and almost no relocating family asks for it.

Ask the council for the last three years of last-offered distances for every school on your shortlist, before you sign a tenancy and long before you buy. Three years matters because a single year is noise: a popular school's radius can move by hundreds of metres between cohorts depending on the number of siblings and the local birth rate.

Read the number pessimistically. A radius that was 640 metres last year is not a promise of 640 metres next year, and in central London the trend at the most sought-after schools has generally been to shrink. If your intended address sits at or just inside last year's line, treat it as a coin toss rather than a plan.

• Request last-offered distance per school, per year, for the last three years — councils publish this and will supply it.
• Also ask how many places were allocated on the sibling criterion, which reduces the number left for distance.
• Ask which measurement method the authority uses — straight line or walking route — as they produce different radii.
• Distances shrink as well as grow. Leave margin; do not buy on the edge of a cut-off.
• Being inside a radius is never a guarantee. Catchment is a description of last year's outcome, not an entitlement.

This is the point that most surprises international families. Admission is based on where the child lives at the time of application, and councils require documentary evidence of that address. An intention to move to a borough is not an address, and a hotel, a serviced apartment or a relative's home you do not live in will not normally do.

Requirements vary between councils, which is why we tell every family to read their specific authority's proof-of-address rules rather than a general article. Most accept a signed tenancy agreement or evidence of a completed purchase, often supported by council tax, utility bills or a bank statement at that address. Some councils are stricter about private tenancy agreements than about council or housing association ones, and some require the tenancy to have a minimum remaining term.

Councils actively investigate address fraud, and where a place is obtained using an address the family does not genuinely occupy, the offer can be withdrawn — including after the child has started. There is no discreet workaround here, and any adviser who offers you one is exposing your child, not helping you.

• Expect to need a genuine UK residential address before an application can be properly considered.
• Usual evidence: signed tenancy agreement or completed purchase, plus council tax or utility bills at that address.
• Rules differ by council — check the specific authority's published proof-of-address list before you commit to an area.
• Some authorities will process an application from an overseas address for the normal round but allocate on the overseas address, which in practice means no local school.
• Address fraud is investigated and offers are withdrawn. Live where you say you live.
• Service families and Crown servants returning to the UK have specific protections — check the School Admissions Code and the council's arrangements.

There are two entirely different processes, and relocating families almost always end up in the harder one.

The normal admissions round applies to children starting Reception, or moving into Year 3 or Year 7 at the standard transfer point. Applications open in the autumn of the preceding year and close in the following winter, with a single national offer day. Secondary applications typically close on 31 October and primary applications in mid-January, with offers in March and April respectively — confirm the exact dates for the relevant year with your council.

An in-year application is anything else: arriving mid-year, or joining a year group other than at the standard entry point. Here you are not competing for an allocation round, you are asking whether a school has a vacancy in that specific year group today. In central London, popular schools frequently have none, and you may be offered a place at whichever school in the borough has space. Fair access protocols exist to ensure no child is left without a school, but they do not guarantee the school you wanted.

The planning implication is blunt: if you can arrive in time for the normal round, do. It is the difference between competing on a published rule and hoping for a vacancy.

• Normal round: Reception, Year 3 and Year 7 entry, applied for roughly a year in advance, single offer day.
• In-year: everything else — decided by whether a vacancy exists in that year group.
• Secondary normal-round applications typically close 31 October; primary in mid-January. Confirm dates each year.
• If you will arrive mid-year, ask councils and schools directly about current vacancies by year group before choosing an area.
• Waiting lists are ranked by the same oversubscription criteria, not by how long you have waited — moving closer can move you up.
• You have a right of appeal in both processes; for infant classes the grounds for a successful appeal are much narrower because of statutory class size limits.

Not every state school allocates on distance alone, and the exceptions can work in a relocating family's favour.

Faith schools — Church of England, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and others — are state funded and free, and typically prioritise practising members of the faith, usually evidenced by a supplementary form signed by a religious leader confirming a period of regular attendance. That period is often measured in years, so this is not a route that can be assembled after arrival, but families who already practise should ask early. Many faith schools also admit a proportion of children of other faiths or none, generally on distance.

Selective grammar schools remain in some areas of England, though not in most central London boroughs; they admit on performance in an entrance test taken in the year before entry, sometimes with a distance criterion applied afterwards. Registration deadlines for these tests fall earlier than the main application deadline and are easy to miss.

We do not publish school rankings or recommend named schools. Use the official performance data and inspection reports, visit, and talk to the school directly — then judge for yourself.

• Faith schools: free, state funded, usually requiring evidenced practice over a defined period — start early or not at all.
• Grammar schools: entrance test in the year before entry, with registration deadlines earlier than the main round.
• Some schools use random allocation or banding rather than pure distance — read each school's arrangements.
• Check performance data on the GOV.UK Compare School and College Performance service and inspection reports on the Ofsted site.
• A school's inspection grade is one signal among several; visit in term time and ask about intake, mobility and support for children new to English.

Put the pieces together and the sequencing becomes obvious. You need a genuine UK address before you can apply. The address determines the outcome. The reliable data on which addresses work — last-offered distances — is historical and imperfect. And the most expensive, least reversible step available to you is buying a house.

Renting inside your target radius lets you apply, see the actual outcome, test the real school run, and only then buy. If the place comes through, you buy nearby with confidence. If it does not, you have lost a tenancy, not a stamp duty bill.

We say this knowing that a rental instruction earns us a fraction of what a purchase earns, and that recommending it delays our own fee by a year or more. It is still the right sequence for most families arriving with school-age children.

• Rent inside the radius, apply, get the outcome, then buy — in that order.
• A failed application costs you a tenancy decision, not an irrecoverable stamp duty payment.
• Renting also lets you verify the door-to-door school run in term-time traffic before buying around it.
• If you buy first and miss the place, your options are an appeal, a waiting list, an in-year vacancy elsewhere, or fees.
• Read our rent-before-you-buy guide for the current rules on advance rent, deposits and notice.

This guide reflects the statutory framework and published guidance current as at August 2026. Admission arrangements are set locally and change every year — always confirm with the specific local authority and school.

• GOV.UK — Schools admissions
• GOV.UK — School Admissions Code
• GOV.UK — Apply for a primary school place
• GOV.UK — Apply for a secondary school place
• GOV.UK — Compare school and college performance in England
• Ofsted — Find an inspection report
• GOV.UK — Find your local council