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Get a place for your child at a primary or secondary school - applications, deadlines, admission criteria, appeals and complaints.
If you live in England contact your local council to find: state-funded…
All schools have admission criteria to decide which children get places.…
Most children start reception full-time in September after their fourth…
Follow your local council’s application process to: apply for a primary…
If your child does not have a place, contact your local council for…
You’ll be sent a letter with the decision about your child’s school. If…
You can complain about the way the appeal was carried out, but you can not…
Advice for state-funded school admission authorities, independent schools, local authorities and parents.
Next phase of DfE’s world-leading attendance drive will provide new data for schools to help them spot trends in children’s attendance for earlier intervention.
Find out the requirements for the registration of independent schools, also known as private schools.
Information about academy admissions and the role of the Department for Education (DfE).
How schools can share daily attendance data.
Information that schools maintained by a local authority must or should publish on their website.
How and when to apply for childcare places and schools.
Types of school and how they're run - community schools, academies, free schools, faith schools, state boarding schools.
You can be prosecuted if your child has unauthorised absence from school - truancy, help with getting your child to school, and legal action to enforce school attendance
Every state school in England will now share their daily attendance registers across the education sector.
How to object to admission arrangements and how admission authorities can apply for an in-year variation or appeal against a direction to admit a child.
Applying for a school place, home schooling and travel costs
Attendance in education settings since Monday 23 March 2020 and early years settings since Thursday 16 April 2020.
An overview of Ofsted's registration process for adoption agencies, fostering agencies, children’s homes, residential family centres and residential holiday schemes for disabled children.
Join an attendance hub to get support and resources to improve your approach to managing attendance and significantly reduce absence in your school.
How local authorities should submit data for the annual school preference collections.
Information for primary schools on how to register pupils for key stage 2 (KS2) national curriculum tests in 2024.
Information that academies – including any educational setting with academy arrangements – and further education (FE) colleges must or should publish on their website.
How local authorities should collect and submit data for the annual attendance measures census.
Don’t include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details.
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