What is the primary school application deadline in England?

The national deadline for on-time primary school applications is 15 January in the year your child is due to start Reception the following September. Applications are made through your local authority.

When is primary National Offer Day?

Primary National Offer Day is 16 April, when families are told which primary school place they have been offered.

Can I delay my child starting Reception?

Yes. Children are not required to be in school until the term after they turn five, so you can defer your child's start or begin part-time while keeping the place, up to the start of the term after their fifth birthday. Summer-born children may also be admitted a year later by agreement with the admissions authority.

Applying for a Primary School Place in England: Everything Parents Need to Know

From the 15 January deadline to oversubscription criteria and deferring entry, here is how primary school admissions work in England and how to give your child the best chance of a place.

Applying for a Reception place is many families' first encounter with the school admissions system. Like secondary, it runs on national dates and a local authority application, but the deadlines fall earlier in the year.

The key dates

Autumn before your child starts: applications open on your local authority's website for children due to start Reception the following September (generally children who turn five during that school year).
15 January: the national deadline for on-time primary applications.
16 April (National Offer Day): families are told which primary school place they have been offered.
Spring/summer: accept your place, join waiting lists, and appeal if you wish.

How places are decided

If a school has more applicants than places, it applies its published oversubscription criteria in order. A typical order is:

Looked-after and previously looked-after children
Children with an Education, Health and Care Plan naming the school
Exceptional medical or social need
Siblings already at the school
Distance from home to school, usually as the final tie-breaker

Faith schools and academies may set their own criteria, so always read the individual school's policy for the year your child will start.

The distance tie-breaker

For most community primaries there is no fixed catchment — distance is simply the tie-breaker once the other criteria are exhausted. The practical guide is the previous years' 'last distance offered', which your local authority publishes. Three or four years of that figure tells you far more than a line on a map.

Your right to defer or go part-time

Children do not legally have to be in school until the term after they turn five. If your child's fifth birthday falls later in the year, you can defer their start until then (though not beyond the start of the term after they turn five, and not into Year 1) or start them part-time, while keeping the Reception place. Summer-born parents can also discuss admitting their child a year later, out of their normal age group, with the admissions authority.

Give yourself real choices

Name several schools in genuine order of preference — listing only one does not help you get it.
Visit before you rank; a warm, well-run school matters more at this age than any league table.
Check the school's recent KS2 results and Ofsted outcome as one input among several.

SchoolFinder lets you find and compare local primaries — results, Ofsted and parent reviews together — so your preference order is based on evidence.