Guidance

Academies planning calendar 2025 to 2026

Updated 25 September 2025

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/academies-planning-calendar/academies-planning-calendar-2025-to-2026

September 2025

Trust action

Information and guidance to be published

Payments

October 2025

Trust action

  • Autumn school census day, 2 October 2025

  • Academies can begin consultation on admission arrangements for September 2027 from 1 October 2025 - academies must publicly consult for a minimum of 6 weeks by 31 January 2026 if they:

    • are proposing changes to their admission arrangements
    • have not consulted in the past 7 years
  • Academies in scope submit estimated pupil numbers for the 2026 to 2027 academic year
  • Academies must return the school census by 29 October 2025

Information and published guidance

Payment

November 2025

Trust action

Information and published guidance

Payment

December 2025

Trust action

  • Academies must return the school workforce census by 5 December 2025
  • Deadline for land and buildings collection tool submission 16 December 2025
  • Deadline for trusts to submit their 2024 to 2025 audited financial statements, auditor’s management letter, annual summary internal scrutiny report and accounts submission coversheet by 31 December 2025

Announcement

  • DfE announces the schools revenue funding settlement for 2026 to 2027

Payment

January 2026

Trust action

  • Academies accounts return submission deadline 28 January 2026
  • Spring school census day - 15 January 2026
  • school resource management self assessment check-list online form available
  • Trusts publish their 2024 to 2025 audited financial statements on their website by 31 January 2026
  • Academies expecting high needs place funding in 2026 to 2027 academic year to check place change published outcomes for use in funding allocations
  • Complete consultation on admission arrangements for September 2027 (if required) by 31 January 2026

Information and published guidance

  • Outcomes of requests from local authorities for changes to high needs places for 2026 to 2027 – academies have 2 weeks to submit a query about the outcomes
  • Guidance on estimating your funding for April 2026 to March 2027 openers
  • Revised general annual grants (GAGs) made available in MYESF for 2025 to 2026 following the early PNA exercise

Payment

February 2026

Trust action

  • Academies must submit their spring census return by 11 February 2026
  • Academies must agree their admission arrangements for entry in September 2027 by 28 February 2026
  • Academies must publish their admission appeals timetable for 2027 on their website by 28 February 2026

Information and published guidance

  • 2026 to 2027 general annual grant funding allocations guidance for all academies
  • 2026 to 2027 16 to 19 allocation calculation toolkits (ACT), including funding factors and student numbers
  • Allocations of mainstream NICs grant for special units or resource provision (SURPs) and new and growing schools

Payment

  • Positive early PNA payments made to academies for 2025 to 2026 - these payments are backdated to September 2025, with the remainder of the uplift profiled over the period from March to August 2025

March 2026

Trust action

Information and published guidance

Payment

April 2026

Information and published guidance

  • 16 to 19 funding regulations guidance, funding rates and formula guidance for 2026 to 2027
  • 16 to 19 student support eligibility and guidance, including 16 to 19 Bursary Fund guidance
  • Guidance and workbook for the budget forecast return
  • Provisional allocations of pupil premium for the 2026 to 2027 financial year

Payment

May 2026

Trust action

  • Summer school census day, 21 May 2025
  • Trusts must submit their audited financial statements to Companies House within 9 months of the end of the accounting period which is 31 May 2026

Information and published guidance

  • Main PNA statements for 2025 to 2026 are issued- this includes outcomes for positive and negative adjustments
  • Chart of Accounts 2025 to 2026

Payment

June 2026

Trust action

  • Budget forecast return form available
  • Academies must submit their summer census return by 17 June 2026
  • Academies agree repayment plans for PNA recoveries for 2025 to 2026

Information and published guidance

July 2026

Information and published guidance

  • 16 to 19 interactive census tool

Payment

  • Universal infant free school meals (comprising 2025 to 2026 final and 2026 to 2027 provisional payments)
  • Quarter 1 payment of pupil premium for 2026 to 2027 financial year
  • Main PNA positive payments made to academies for 2025 to 2026

August 2026

Trust action

  • Complete and submit the budget forecast return

  • By 1 August, academies must inform the local authority whether they intend to:
    • be part of the local authority’s in-year co-ordination scheme for the 2026 to 2027 academic year (if so, they must, by 1 August, provide the local authority with all the information that the local authority is required to publish on its website, including application forms) or
    • handle their own in-year applications for that period (if so, they must, by 31 August, publish information about making in-year applications on their website, including any forms that parents need to submit)
  • By 8 August, academies must provide the local authority with information on its admission arrangements for September 2026, to allow the local authority to compile the composite prospectus.
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