Secondary school places

1 Overview

This information only applies if you want to apply for your child to start Year 7 at secondary school in September 2025 as they are in Year 6 at a primary or junior school.

If your child has an EHCP you cannot apply using this form. You should already have received information from the Special Educational Needs Assessment Team (SENAT) in Chichester. Please contact them if you have any questions.

If you live outside West Sussex, you cannot use this site to apply. You must apply via your own council. This will be shown on your Council Tax documents. Please contact them for further advice. Any applications from outside West Sussex will not be processed.

If your child needs a school place in a different year group or at another point in the year, you need to apply to move schools.

2 Find your catchment area school and other local schools

Before applying for your child's secondary school place:

3 Before you apply

You must read the Information for parents booklet, the appendix and the additional guidance pages before applying.

It is the responsibility of parents or carers to apply for a school place. You do not need to have a letter from the county council.

Follow our checklist to ensure you have completed all the necessary steps before applying.

Application for a school place checklist (PDF, 90KB)

4 Preferences

You can apply for up to three different schools. Rank the schools in order of preference - the first school listed should be the one you would most like your child to go to.
We advise that you use all three preferences and enter your catchment school as one of your preferences.
Please be realistic with your preferences. If you choose an oversubscribed school, the further away you live the less likely you are to be offered a place.
If you select a school as a preference that is not your nearest/catchment school, this may impact on your eligibility for transport. Please see the school transport pages for further information.
Do not include a school that you do not want as a preference as you may be offered this school.
If you apply after the closing date you are far less likely to get a place at one of your preferred schools.
After the application deadline you cannot change your preferences unless there is a genuine unforeseeable reason for doing so, for example, if a sibling changes school.

5 Apply for a place

You can apply for a secondary school place from 9.00am on Monday 2 September 2024 until 11.59pm on Thursday 31 October 2024.

Any applications where 'Yes' is ticked for this question will not be processed.

Making an online application

To make an application online you will need an email address.

All applications require a new account to be set up on the Parent Portal unless you have already set up an account, in which case you will need to log in.

Please note that we are experiencing a technical issue where you cannot enter schools from some other local authorities as the current school or preferred school. Please bear with us, an update will follow as soon as it's available.

Apply online for secondary school place (external link)

You can save your application and return to it to make amendments before submitting it. You must ensure that you submit the completed application before the deadline of 31 October 2024.

To return to your application go to [Account Management page Sign In - Synergy (westsussex.gov.uk)]

If you need to edit your child’s details or make any other changes to your application after you have submitted it, it must be re-submitted again before the deadline of 31 October 2024.

Applying using a paper form

If you are unable to use the online application form contact the Pupil Admissions Team to request a paper application form. A form will be emailed to you, which should be returned by email.

You can request that a paper form is sent to you, but you are not encouraged to return it to the Pupil Admissions Team unless you use recorded delivery post.

Claims regarding missing forms will not be investigated unless you can provide evidence that it was received by the Pupil Admissions Team. We are not responsible for forms lost or delayed in the post and recommend that you keep a copy of the form and evidence of posting.

Applying after the closing date means that your preferences will be considered after all the preferences received on time have been allocated.

6 Offer dates

You will be notified of the outcome of your application by email or letter, depending on how you applied. No information will be provided over the phone.

Applications received before 11.59pm on 31 October 2024

If you applied online we will email you the outcome of your application on Monday 3 March 2025. Emails will be sent throughout the day so we can't give you an exact time.
If you applied by paper form you will be emailed the result later this day if an email address was provided with the application. The admissions office will contact you to request an email address if one is not specified on the form.
If you do not have an email address you will receive a letter by second class post.

Applications received after 11.59pm on 31 October 2024

If we received your application out of time (between 1 November 2024 and 28 November 2024) we will consider your preferences after reviewing all the applications we received on time.
If you applied online we will email you the outcome of your application on Monday 3 March 2025, as long as you provided an email address in your application. Emails will be sent throughout the day so we can't give you an exact time.
If you applied by paper form you will be emailed the result later this day if an email address was provided with the application. The admissions office will contact you to request an email address if one is not specified on the form.
If you do not have an email address, you will receive a letter by second class post.
Applications received on or after Friday 29 November 2024 are late and outside the normal admissions round. They will not be processed until after 31 March 2025. You will be contacted after this date.

7 Applying after the closing date

Applications will close on Thursday 31 October 2024.

Information about applying after that date will be available here.