How school places are allocated

All parents whose applications were received on time will be sent a letter on the dates listed above, advising them of the outcome of their application. Late applicants may not receive their offer letter on these dates.

This letter will be sent by the Southampton Admissions Team regardless of whether you have applied for a Southampton school or a Hampshire school. The letter will offer you a place on behalf of the appropriate admission authority.

Moving into a school’s catchment area does not guarantee a place at that school.

We cannot guarantee a place at any school. If you apply for your catchment school as one of your preferences then the chances of being offered a place there are high but it cannot be guaranteed.

Also, if your child attends a school outside of your catchment area, there is no guarantee of a place at the linked school. For more details of linked schools, please see the following pages:

• Linked infant schools

• Linked junior schools

• Linked secondary schools

If you do not apply for a place in your catchment school, the school cannot reserve a place for you.

You are strongly advised to give careful consideration to this when making your application. Details of the number of places available at each school can be found on the PANS and NOR page.

Distance from home to school will be the shortest walking distance measured by public roads and footpaths in a computerized mapping system using data supplied by Ordnance Survey.

You will also be sent a reply slip asking you to accept the place offered within 14 days.

This must be returned to the Admissions Team or your place may be withdrawn and offered to another child.

If you are not offered a place at a school you wanted, you will be given the reasons why a place could not be offered and you can make a formal appeal to an Independent Appeal Panel (please see our appeals page for further information).

Details of how to appeal are also included in the decision letter you will receive. The decision of the Independent Appeal Panel is final and binding on both the admission authority (the LA or the governing body of the school) and the parent.

A child may be "unplaced" because they were not offered any school that was requested or their parents did not complete an application form.

Any child who remains unplaced after their application has been processed will be allocated a place at their catchment school, if places are still available.

If there are no places available at their catchment school, they will be allocated a place at the nearest community school with places available to their home address, or the nearest own admission authority school which is prepared to offer a place.

If you miss the deadline for applications, for example if you move into an area after the closing date, your application will be classified as ‘late’ and processed after the ‘on-time’ applications.

If a school has places available after admitting all on-time applications, late applications will be considered as outlined in the admissions policy.