How are places allocated?

You can view a summary of how September 2022, 2023 and 2024 places were allocated at oversubscribed schools.

For secondary September 2024 entry, 91% of parents in Staffordshire were allocated a place at their 1st preferred school with over 93% being offered a place at one of their top 3 preferences.

For middle to high school (year 9), 100% of parents in Staffordshire were allocated a place at their 1st preferred school (excluding those unsuccessful applications made for The JCB Academy in Rocester).

Schools do not operate a first preference first or first come, first served admissions policy - this is in accordance with the law. This means that every school listed in your application has been considered separately and fairly against the individual school’s published admission arrangements.

If you can be offered a place at more than one preferred school against the published admission arrangements, a place will be allocated at your highest preferred school. If a place cannot be offered at any of your preferred schools, a place will be allocated at a school where places are still available. 

Is any priority for admission given to children who attend particular primary or middle schools?

Places are allocated in strict accordance with the published admission arrangements and whilst we acknowledge that schools do work closely with their local pyramid schools, these close links do not automatically form part of the admission arrangements and places are not automatically allocated with these links in mind.

Pupils attending any of the schools listed in the published admission arrangements of particular secondary and high schools are not guaranteed admission, they simply have a higher priority for admission than other children who may for instance reside outside the defined catchment area or do not have any elder sibling attending the school.

How can I find out the catchment school for a certain address?

We have a search facility to enable you to check the catchment schools for various addresses and view an individual school catchment area. Your nearest school may not be your catchment area school. Please note there is no guaranteed admission to your catchment area school, allocations will be dependent on the availability of spaces in the relevant year group. Catchment areas are also subject to review and may alter from year to year. There are some schools in Staffordshire who do not operate a catchment area for admissions purposes.

What is the relevance of a published admission number?

Each school has a published admission number (PAN), which is the maximum number of pupils that the school can admit taking into account the accommodation and resources available. Each school’s published admissions number can be found within the admission arrangements or in the Information to Parents Booklet. 

What is the ‘Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme’?

The scheme indicates the way in which we co-ordinate our admission arrangements with other neighbouring authorities and schools that are their own admissions authority. The purpose of the scheme is to ensure that each pupil living within Staffordshire receives only one offer of a school place, whether that be at a school within the county or one maintained by a neighbouring authority.

What if I am moving home?

If you are applying for a community or voluntary controlled school for a September 2025 start, you needed to provide satisfactory evidence of a new home address (e.g. a solicitor’s letter confirming a completion date) by 27 January 2025, in order for this to have been taken into consideration when deciding on the offer of a school place. Otherwise decisions have been made based on the address supplied by your child’s primary school. Please note that an ‘intention to move’ is not satisfactory evidence of residing within an oversubscribed school’s catchment area when allocating available places.