When is secondary school offers day - and what parents need to know

• There is now just a little over a week to go until parents find out which state secondary school can offer their child a place

• If you’re happy with the outcome you may still need to take quick action

• If you’re not, you may be able to appeal a school’s decision

• In some circumstances, families who applied late might still get an offer on the day

Your child’s secondary school will see them through some of the most significant years of their lives.

It will be responsible for helping to shepherd them through the turbulent teenage years, and all of the social, emotional, physical and mental growth that comes with them. It will also see them through important qualifications like their GCSEs, and perhaps even their A Levels - which is why it’s so important they go to one that is the right fit for them and for your family.

Parents of this year’s primary school leavers will shortly find out which schools are able to offer their child a place come September - when the 2025/26 school year begins - with England’s national secondary school offers day coming up fast. 

Here’s what you need to know this year:

This year, secondary school places will be announced on Monday, March 3.

There may be a few different ways you may be notified, depending on which local authority area you live in, and how you applied. Usually, your offer will either arrive by email or in the post on the day.

This letter or email you receive on offers day should explain what steps you need to take next, according to the Department for Education. You will have a few options here, depending on what the outcome was. 

If you’re happy, you can accept the offer and secure your child’s place at that school. You should be given instructions on how to do this. It is worth keeping in mind that you may need to accept the place by a given deadline - and if you miss it, your offer may be withdrawn and the place given to someone else.

If your child didn’t get into the school you wanted, you can also ask to be added to their waiting list. If another family doesn’t accept their offer, then your child might be able to take their place.

You can also appeal the school’s decision. If you choose to appeal, your case will go before an independent panel assembled by the school’s admission authority. The panel will give both you and the admission authority the chance to make your case as to why your child should - or should not - be admitted.

It will then make a decision, which is legally binding. If your appeal is upheld, your child will be offered a place.

The decision of the appeal panel is binding – if the appeal is upheld, the admission authority must offer the child a place at the school.

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The national deadline for secondary school applications for the 2025/26 school year was October 31, 2024. However, not all families will have managed to get their applications in by this date, for one reason or another.

If you got your application in late, depending on your local authority’s policies, there are some situations where you may still get a school placement offer by March 3. Using Yorkshire’s Calderdale Council as an example, families who have moved into the area after applications closed, those where a single parent has suffered a long-term illness, or service families returning from overseas will often be treated like on-time applications - if they can provide proof.

Any received later - including now until shortly after offers day - will often be considered alongside requests for children who applied on time to get reallocated to a different school. These families will usually get a ‘second round’ offer by late March - with the exact dates depending on which council area you live in. You should check your local authority’s school admissions page for more information.

If you still haven’t managed to get an application in by March, you can essentially apply any time up until the end of the school year. At this point, many councils say they will deal with applications as they come in. But with popular schools often becoming oversubscribed, they warn that applying late means there may be no vacancies at the schools you apply for - at which point you may have to either join a waitlist or accept an offer elsewhere.

Leaving it too late can also potentially mean a late start to the school year. Surrey County Council, for one, warns that applications received towards the end of the summer term or during the summer holidays may not receive an outcome until the start of the autumn term, due to school closures during the summer break.

Although national offers day is on March 3 across England, dates and deadlines for accepting offers, appealing a decision, or getting late applications in can vary by local authority area. You can find out which you live in and get access to their website to find the relevant information by entering your postcode online here.