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How to apply for a primary or junior school place

How to apply for a primary or junior school place

You must apply for a primary school place if:

your child is due to start primary or infant school in September 2025
your child in year 2 at infant school and is due to start year 3 at a junior school in September 2025

You need to apply even if:

your child already attends the nursery class of the school
your older children go to the school
your child is attending an infant school that is linked to the junior school to wish them to join

You can name a maximum of 3 different schools. Listing more than one:

won’t affect your first preference
will increase your chances of an offer at your preferred school

In some cases, the admissions process will be different:

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
If your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) then the process for admissions is different. Find out more about admissions for children with SEND
Applying from overseas
In most cases, foreign national children in the UK have the right to attend schools in England. See Applications for overseas children before applying.

Deadlines

We recommend that you contact schools to arrange visits from September 2024.

Infant, junior or primary school deadlines for the academic year 2025-26
Date	What happens
12 September 2024	Applications open
15 January 2025	Closing date for school applications
14 March 2025	The deadline to apply late for a school place with a good reason, for example if you've moved into the area
16 April 2025	National offer day
20 May 2025	Deadline to make an appeal

What happens if you apply late

If you apply after the closing date, the request will be dealt with after all on-time preferences have been processed. This may affect your chances of securing a preferred school.

If you move into the area after the closing date you should apply for a school place as soon as possible. If you send us evidence of your house move at the same time, we may be able to consider this application as being on-time.

Community areas

Every Community and Voluntary Controlled school in East Sussex has a ‘community area’. Children who live in this area have priority for admission to that school ahead of children living outside the area. Some own admission authority schools and academies use community areas as well

Living in a community area does not a guarantee your child a place.

Find a primary school or community area

Other own admission authority schools and academies prioritise children according to other criteria.

Summer born children

If your child was born between 1 April to 31 August 2021, you may decide that you do not want them to start school until September 2026, when they reach statutory school age. In such circumstances, your child would normally be admitted to Year 1 and would miss the Reception year.

However, if you wish your summer born child to be admitted to Reception instead of Year 1 when they reach statutory school age in September 2026 (so they would be educated out of their chronological year group) you may complete our form for delayed admission to Reception for summer born children [93.6 KB] [docx] to request this. You should complete it at the same time as applying for a school place for September 2025 to ensure your child does not miss out on a place in Reception if the request is refused.

Apply for a school place

The easiest way to apply for an infant, junior or primary school place in East Sussex is online.

Apply for a school place

If you are new to the system, you will need to create an account to get started. You can save your progress and sign in to your school account at any time.

See How do I create an account?

When you submit your application, we will email you to confirm receipt.