Starting secondary school September 2025

If you have a child born between 1 September 2013 and 31 August 2014, you must apply for your child to start secondary school in September 2025.

Secondary school applications
There have been reports of processing issues when applying for a secondary school place. If you come across any problems making a new application, visit eAdmissions support online or call the helpdesk on 020 8255 5555 then choose option 1.
We apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience.

In this section

Starting secondary school in September 2026

From  Monday 1 September you can apply for a school place for September 2026. If your child is due to start secondary school in September 2026, our secondary school admissions leaflet 2026 (PDF, 291 KB) provides all the key information you need to apply.

This leaflet includes:

  • how to apply for a school place
  • help for families new to the UK
  • extra forms some schools may need
  • how school places are decided
  • when and where school open evenings are happening

Key dates

  • The deadline for on-time applications was Thursday 31 October 2024.
  • National offer day was Monday 3 March 2025.

National offer day - Monday 3 March

You must accept your offer by Monday 17 March to secure your child's school place.

If you applied online:

  • you will receive an email on the evening of Monday 3 March advising you to log back into your eAdmissions account to view and accept your offer
  • you will not receive an offer letter in the post
  • all relevant information will be available on the eAdmissions website. 

If you have changed your email address and do not receive an email, you can still log into your account on the evening of offer day.

Please note: If you applied online after Thursday 31 October 2024, you will not be able to view your outcome online. An offer letter will be sent via email or post in accordance with our late application timetable.

Access your Admissions account

If you submitted a paper application, your offer letter will be emailed or posted to you on Monday 3 March, with full instructions on how to accept your school offer.

For data protection reasons, our school placement and admissions team cannot advise parents/guardians of the outcome of their application over the telephone.

Please note: If you did not submit an application before Thursday 31 October 2024, you will not receive an outcome until the end of March.

Accept/decline school offer

Once you have accepted the offer, we will advise the school, who will contact you directly between April and July, with all the relevant admission information. If you have accepted an offer from a school in another local authority, then we will still notify them on your behalf.

If you do not respond to the offer by Monday 17 March, you will be contacted again for a response. At that time if you do not reply, we will withdraw the offer we have made, and offer it to another child.

Declining your offer

If you applied online, you can decline the offer online. Please ensure you state the reason(s) for the decline, for example if you have moved out of the area. If you are unhappy with the school offer, you are strongly advised to accept it. This will not affect any of your higher preferences and your child will be placed on the waiting list for all schools you named as a higher preference.

Waiting lists

All Hillingdon secondary schools hold their own waiting lists. If the school is outside of the Hillingdon borough, please contact the borough in which the school is located, to query whether the waiting list is provided by the school or the local authority. Please do not contact schools in Hillingdon any sooner than 4 weeks from national offer day, as waiting lists will not be available.

Please note: Any child who is not offered a place at their preferred school in Hillingdon, will automatically be added onto the waiting list.

Appeals

You have the right of appeal under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, against the refusal of a place at any of the schools for which you have applied.

You must contact the school directly to obtain all relevant information. If the school is outside of Hillingdon, please contact the school's borough to obtain the procedure and the date by which an appeal must be received by.

Appeals are heard by an independent panel and have no connection with the school concerned. Please contact the school directly for all appeal information, the process and any deadlines.

If your appeal is submitted before the appeals deadline then your appeal will be heard before the end of term.

Late rounds of allocation

For further information regarding when late rounds of allocation will be, please read our late rounds of allocation timetable (PDF, 96 KB).

Before you apply 

Grammar school information for September 2025

View our designated page on grammar schools for advice and support. 

How to apply

To give your child the best possible chance of being offered their preferred school place, ensure your application is received on time. 

The closing date for on-time applications was Thursday 31 October 2024.

You can still submit a late application online until August 2025. However, your application will not be processed until after Monday 3 March 2025 (National Offer Day).

Apply for a secondary school place (opens new window)

Please note:

Proof of address

You are required to submit Proof of address (PDF, 101 KB) alongside your application.

Please note: When you apply online, you will not be able to attach any documentary evidence until after you have submitted your application. 

Applications for families arriving from abroad, including from the EU

In most cases, children arriving from overseas have the right to attend schools in England. It is the responsibility of parents to check whether their child has a right, under their visa entry conditions, to study at a school before submitting an application. 

Read more about applications for families arriving from abroad

Supplementary information forms 

Some schools (such as faith schools) require the completion of a supplementary information form (SIF). This is so that they can decide which pupils should have the highest priority when making offers.

SIFs are available directly from each school and their website. They must be returned to the school or to the address provided by the school by the specified deadline, which may differ between schools. 

The following schools require SIFs to be completed in order to process applications. SIFs can only be considered if they have a direct bearing on oversubscription criteria, or for the purpose of selection by aptitude or ability. 

Schools must still accept applications without a completed SIF, because all schools have to consider 'other applicants'. 

Visit the schools' individual websites for supplementary forms and deadline dates. 

*SIF only required if applying for a place under the aptitude criterion.

The following school operates a fair banding system to allocate places. The places within each band are based on year 6 students taking a Non Verbal Reasoning Test (NVRT).

  • Swakeleys School for Girls

Statistics

The following provide information on furthest distances offered for secondary schools. 

Parental responsibility and disputes

Our School Placement and Admissions team has seen a significant increase in the numbers of disputes between parents, relating to where their children should go to school. We understand that, when trying to come to a mutual agreement on child arrangements, parental disputes can be extremely upsetting for all involved (including the children). 

Protocol and guidance regarding parental responsibility (PDF, 179 KB) has been published to help parents understand the council's protocol for dealing with situations where parents disagree. This is general guidance intended to help parents understand their rights and responsibilities in line with the law. 

Can't find the information you're looking for?

If you're unable to find the information you are looking for, please complete our online schools query form.

Submit a schools query form

Related topics
Grammar schools
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Page last updated: 10 Jul 2025
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