What to Do After Primary School Offer Day

Primary national offer day is 16 April each year, or the next working day if it falls on a weekend or bank holiday. For children starting Reception in September 2027 (born between 1 September 2022 and 31 August 2023), offers arrive on Friday 16 April 2027. The application deadline is Friday 15 January 2027. If you have not applied yet, our primary admissions timeline covers the whole process.

For September 2026 entry, 92.4% of primary applicants were offered their first preference and 98.7% were offered one of the schools they listed (DfE, June 2026). London is the hardest place to get a first choice: 85.0% in Inner London and 90.0% in Outer London. Whatever your result, this guide explains what to do next and when.

What to do after offer day, at a glance

The one step that applies to almost everyone is to accept the place you were offered. It gives your child a school for September, and GOV.UK is clear that accepting another offer has no bearing on an appeal. You can also join a waiting list even if you have been offered a place at another school.

If you got your first choice

Read your offer letter or email carefully. Councils handle acceptance differently. Some ask you to respond by a set date: Bristol, for example, asks families to respond by 30 April 2027. Others, such as Durham, need no action if you are happy with the place. If a response is required and you miss the deadline, the place may be withdrawn and given to someone else.

The school will then get in touch about uniform, meals, start times and how the first weeks will run. Many schools hold welcome sessions or settling-in visits in the summer term. If your plans change, for example you move house or choose a different school, tell your council as soon as you can so the place can go to the next child on the waiting list.

If you got a lower preference

This is the most common outcome for families who miss their first choice, and it is often less of a setback than it feels on the day. You listed this school because you thought it could work, so give it a fair look before deciding anything.

Reputations can lag behind reality. A new head, a recent inspection or a change in leadership can change a school a great deal. Ask to visit, talk to current parents, and read the school's latest inspection report. Open the school's FindMySchool profile for its inspection outcomes, results and admissions data where available, and use our comparison tool to set it beside your first choice on the things that matter to your family.

Accept the place and stay on the waiting list for your higher preferences. Many councils add you to those lists automatically (Leeds and Buckinghamshire do, for example), but some, such as Newcastle, ask you to request it in writing. Your offer letter will say which applies.

If you got none of your preferences

For September 2026 entry, 1.3% of primary applicants were not offered any school they listed. In this case your home council offers a place at a school that still has room, often the nearest one with space. It can feel alarming, especially if you do not know the school, but you still have several routes:

• Accept the allocated place so your child has a school.
• Get on the waiting lists for the schools you prefer, including ones you did not originally list.
• Visit the allocated school before judging it.
• Look for schools with places left and apply to them (see below).
• Decide whether you have grounds for an appeal.

Many councils publish, after offer day, how many applications each school received and the furthest distance offered. That tells you how realistic a waiting list place is. Our guide to catchment areas and distance explains how these figures work.

Waiting lists and late offers

For many families the waiting list is more likely to deliver a place than an appeal, especially for Reception. The key rules come from the School Admissions Code:

• Lists are ranked by the school's oversubscription criteria, not by when you joined. Each new child is ranked in, so your position can go down as well as up.
• Schools must keep a waiting list until at least 31 December of the school year of admission. Many keep theirs for longer.
• Looked-after and previously looked-after children placed through the council's Fair Access Protocol take priority over the list.

Places come up between April and September as families move, choose independent schools or change their minds, and they can still come up after term starts. GOV.UK confirms you can accept a waiting list offer even if your child has already started at another school.

Two things catch families out. First, some councils withdraw your current offer automatically when a higher preference comes through from a waiting list, so remove your child from any list you no longer want. Second, not every council will tell you your position: some publish it online, some only on set dates, and some not at all.

Councils also run further rounds of offers after offer day, often called reallocation. Durham's reallocation day for 2027 entry is Friday 7 May 2027, while Leeds reallocates weekly. Late applications are considered after the on-time ones: Bristol, for example, sends offers for applications made after 15 January 2027 from May 2027. Our full guide to how school waiting lists work covers positions, chances and what happens when you are offered a place.

Looking at other schools

Sometimes the best next step is not fighting for your original choice but finding a school you had not considered. Until term starts, a new application for Reception usually goes through your council as a late application. From the first day of the autumn term it becomes an in-year application. A school with places must normally offer one, and you must be told the outcome in writing within 15 school days.

Search for schools near you to find nearby schools, or browse our primary school rankings by area. If you would like a shortlist based on what matters to your family, School Match suggests primary schools from your priorities and location. It needs a free FindMySchool account, and your top match on your first search is free. For a school in another council area, contact that council's admissions team, as the process may differ.

When an appeal makes sense

Appealing is your legal right, but it is not the right move for every family. For September 2025 entry, 15.0% of primary appeals heard by a panel succeeded, and just 8.1% of appeals for infant classes (DfE, August 2026).

Reception appeals are hard because the law caps infant classes (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) at 30 pupils per school teacher. When a school refuses a place for that reason, the panel can uphold your appeal only if:

• admitting your child would not actually take the class over 30
• the admission arrangements were unlawful or were not applied correctly, and your child would otherwise have been offered a place
• the decision to refuse was perverse, which the Appeals Code describes as "beyond the range of responses open to a reasonable decision maker"

So the strongest Reception appeals show a mistake: a wrong distance measurement, a missed sibling link, a missed medical or social priority, or a faith criterion applied incorrectly. Check the school's admissions policy to see how it measures distance and applies each criterion, and ask the admission authority how your application was ranked. It must answer reasonable requests for the information you need.

For junior schools and older year groups, where the infant class limit does not apply, the panel can also weigh your reasons against the harm of admitting another child. Specific, evidenced needs that this school meets and others cannot carry weight. Convenience, childcare or a general preference for a higher-rated school rarely do.

How the appeal works

Every admission authority must publish its appeals timetable by 28 February. The School Admission Appeals Code sets the minimums:

Write your case clearly and attach your evidence. The hearing notice sets a deadline for any further evidence, and anything sent after it may not be considered. Before the hearing you receive the appeal papers, including the admission authority's case, so read them and note anything that contradicts the published policy or your own facts.

The panel has a chair and at least two other members, including at least one lay person and one person with experience in education or who is a parent of a school pupil. None of them can have links to the school or council that could raise doubts about their impartiality, and an independent clerk advises them. The notice tells you whether the hearing is in person, by video or a mix. You can be represented or bring a friend or family member for support.

Where a school has many appeals, the admission authority's case may be heard once in front of all the families, before each family presents its own case. The panel must not decide any of those appeals until it has heard them all, so your decision may take longer. You can appeal for every school that refused your child, but only once per school in the same school year. Our step-by-step guide on how to appeal a school place covers building your case in more detail.

If your child has special educational needs

If your child has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan that names a school, that school must admit them, even if it is full. If your child has significant needs but no plan, you, their nursery or a professional can ask the council for an EHC needs assessment. The council has 20 weeks from the request to issue a final plan (GOV.UK), so it rarely resolves things before September, but it is worth starting in parallel. If you disagree with the school named in a plan and cannot resolve it with the council, you appeal to the SEND Tribunal, not an admission appeal panel.

For an appeal without a plan, you need professional evidence that links your child's specific needs to what this school offers. A letter from a paediatrician or educational psychologist that names the school and explains why it is the right setting carries far more weight than a general statement that your child needs extra support.

If your appeal is unsuccessful

The panel's decision is binding. You cannot appeal again for the same school in the same school year unless the admission authority accepts a new application because of a significant and material change in your circumstances and refuses it again. Stay on the waiting list, because places can still come up over the summer and after term starts.

If you think the hearing was not run properly, you can complain about the appeals process. For maintained schools (community, foundation, voluntary aided and voluntary controlled), complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. For academies and free schools, use the Department for Education's academy appeal panel complaint form. A complaint cannot overturn the decision, but it can lead to a new hearing with a different panel.

Deferring or starting part-time

Every child can start Reception full-time in the September after their fourth birthday, but children do not have to be in school until they reach compulsory school age. Once you have been offered a place, you can defer your child's start until later in the school year, but not beyond the point they reach compulsory school age and not beyond the start of the summer term. If you prefer, they can attend part-time until they reach compulsory school age. Accept the place first and then agree the arrangement with the school.

Parents of summer-born children (born 1 April to 31 August) can instead ask for their child to start Reception a year later, rather than going straight into Year 1. The admission authority decides each request. Our guide to when your child starts school explains the options.

Preparing your child for September

However things work out, your child will take their cues from you. Keep conversations about school positive and practical. If you are pursuing a waiting list or an appeal, there is no need to share that uncertainty with your child.

Visit the school together when you can and find out how settling in works. Read books about starting school, practise the journey and talk through the new routines. Your involvement will shape how your child feels about school far more than any league table.

Key dates for September 2027 entry

Every council publishes its own dates, forms and appeals guidance, so always check yours. Find it at gov.uk/find-local-council. For secondary school, offers for September 2027 arrive on Monday 1 March 2027: see our secondary admissions timeline.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Admissions and appeals are governed by the School Admissions Code 2021 and the School Admission Appeals Code 2022. See also the DfE's advice for parents on admission appeals and our full guide to school admissions in England.