Primary school admissions

Starting primary school September 2024

If you applied for a reception year school place for September 2024, you will receive an email with the outcome of your application by 11am on Tuesday 16 April 2024. The email will contain a link to log in to your portal account to accept your offer and/or apply to join waiting lists.

If you have any queries, our telephone helpline is open from 9am to 4pm. Be patient as we expect a high volume of calls.

Accepting or declining the offer

You are strongly advised to accept the offer you receive on Tuesday 16 April. This means you can always be sure you will have a school place. If you accept the offer we have made, it does not stop you joining a waiting list or submitting an appeal for another school. 

If you decline the place you have been offered, and you are not offered a place at your preferred school from the waiting list, we will only be able to offer you a place at the nearest school with a vacancy.

If you want to decline the offer because you have made other arrangements, such as attending an independent school or choosing to home educate, you can tell us this in the portal. 

Waiting lists

If you have been refused admission to a preferred school you can add your child’s name to the waiting lists on the portal. If you want to add a school that you have not previously applied for, or that was listed as a lower preference than your allocated school, you should email us and we will do this for you.

Waiting lists are not run on a first come first served basis. Waiting lists must run until the end of December at least. Places must be allocated in line with the oversubscription criteria for that school.

Your right to appeal

Admission authorities must offer the parent’s preferred school whenever possible but this can only be done when there are enough places for everyone. Where the number of applications received are more than the number of places available at a school, then the oversubscription criteria must be applied.

This may mean that all of the available places are offered to applicants with a higher priority than your child. This is the only reason your application can be refused. If this happens, you have the right to appeal to an independent appeal panel.

Get more detailed information about Primary school admission appeals.

Late applications

The closing date for primary school applications was 15 January 2024. If you missed this deadline for any reason, you can still submit an application. Any application received, or change made, after 15 January is classed as a late application.

This means it will only be considered after all the applications received on time have been processed. Late applications will be considered in line with the published admission arrangements and with regard to the number of available places.

Catchment areas

Most Trafford schools and academies have a catchment area. These schools give priority to the children that live in their catchment area. Faith schools may also have a catchment area, usually based on the local parish, but catchment area priority is only usually given to children that meet the faith criteria.

You can apply for any schools you want but your catchment area school is the school where you will have the highest priority. It is important that you know what catchment area you live in and include that school (or schools) in your application.

Details of the catchment areas for faith schools are available direct from the schools.

If your child lives in another local authority you can still apply for Trafford schools, but you must apply via your own home local authority (where you pay your council tax). 

All applications must be made through the Trafford application portal:

Apply for a school place

Compulsory school age

Most children start in reception class in the September after their fourth birthday. If your child was born between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020, they are eligiible to start school from 1 September 2024.

The latest they may start is when they reach compulsory school age. A child reaches compulsory school age on the prescribed day following their fifth birthday (or on his or her fifth birthday if it falls on a prescribed day). The prescribed days are 31 December, 31 March and 31 August.

Key dates

  • 15 January 2024 - Closing date for applications
  • 16 April 2024 - National offer day where all applicants receive their offer of a place
  • May 2024 - Review of allocation of vacancies

Allocation of places

Each school has a set number of places to allocate. If more people apply than the number of places available, it is oversubscribed. When this happens, the school uses the oversubscription criteria to decide who gets a place. This is the case for places in the initial allocation and also in the review process. You can find the oversubscription criteria for each school in their admission policies.

Special educational needs

If your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) there is a different process for starting primary school. You should receive information about this process from your early years setting in the autumn term. If you have not received this, you can contact Trafford’s EHC Assessment Team at myEHC@trafford.gov.uk.

Admission arrangements

Each year we consult on our admission arrangements and formally agree them:

Contact us