Secondary application guidance

If you live in Trafford and your child will start in Year 7 in September 2024, you must apply to Trafford for your school place. We sent out information by post to all Trafford residents on the 1 September with information about how to apply.

You need to include all your preferred schools on the application to Trafford, even if you want to apply for a place at a school in another local authority area. We co-ordinate applications for all Trafford residents and work together with other areas as required.

If you live outside of Trafford, you will receive information from the area where you live.

Children will only receive an offer of a place at one school.

Preferences

You can choose up to 5 schools and you should choose the school you really want first. By law, all areas use an equal preference system. This means schools must consider all preferences expressed for their school, without taking into consideration which order you put them in. Schools never find out whether they were your first, second, third, fourth or fifth preference. All your preferences are considered equally, and a place will be offered at your highest preference possible, where places allow.

Example 1

You apply for

Ashton-on-Mersey School
Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College
Sale Grammar School

Your child’s name is placed on the list for each of the 3 schools. The lists are sorted into order based on each school’s admission criteria. We look at the lists and see which of your preferred schools can offer you a place.

If all 3 can offer a place, we will allocate your first choice school, Ashton-on-Mersey.
If only 2 schools can offer you a place, we will allocate a place at your highest preference of the 2 schools.
If none of your chosen schools can offer a place, we will allocate a place at the nearest school in Trafford with a vacancy.

Example 2

You live in Sale and apply for

Sale Grammar School
Sale High School
Ashton-on-Mersey School

If your child qualifies for entry to Sale Grammar School, you could be allocated a place there. If you child does not qualify for entry we will not be able to consider your first choice of Sale Grammar School and so we would move on to look at your next choice. If you live too far from Sale High School, we may not be able to offer you a place there so we then look at your third choice. If you live near enough to Ashton-on-Mersery School, you could be offered a place at that school.

Catchment areas

You can apply for any school you like, in any order, regardless of where you live. However, you must remember that people in a catchment area will often be given a higher priority.

You are advised to apply for your catchment area school or your nearest local school, even if it is as your last preference. If you live in the catchment area for more than 1 school, you are advised to include them all in your list of preferences. This will not stop you being offered a place at another school you have listed higher. It does mean you have the best chance of being offered a local place.

Submitting your application

To start your application, go to our parent portal. You must complete a short registration process and will be sent a code to verify your email. Enter the code to complete your registration.

Within the online application:

To select a school in Trafford, start to type the school name in the box provided.
To select a school in another area, use the ‘search for school outside local authority’ function.

You can submit a reason for your preference for a particular school. We can only allocate places in line with the oversubscription criteria for each school and so your reason should relate to the criteria for that school.

If you do not have access to the internet contact us on 0161 912 5007.

Confirmation email

Once you have submitted your online application you will receive an email to confirm your application has been received. If you do not receive this email, your application has not been received and you should email us at school.admissions@trafford.gov.uk or call 0161 912 5007.

Late applications

It is the parent or carer's responsibility to make sure you apply by the deadline date. Applications received after 31 October 2023 are late applications. This means they will only be considered after all on time applications have been processed.

Changing your application

Changes up to 31 October 2023 - you can log into your online account at any time and make a change to your application.

Changes after 31 October 2023 – we will only consider these after all the on-time applications and changes have been considered. We will use the last application you submitted by the deadline date.

If more than one aplication is received for a child, we will only consider the last application received.

Home address

A child’s home address is where they normally and permanently live on a full time basis. It cannot be the address of a grandparent, other relative or childminder.

If parents are separated, Trafford must decide how the application will be considered. If this is not defined in an individual school’s admission policy, then Trafford will apply their policy.

Trafford’s policy states if parents are separated, the application will be considered from the address where the child lives, even though the child may regularly spend some time at another address. Where it is claimed that the child’s residency is shared equally between two addresses, parents may decide which address will be used for the application.

Changing your address

You must inform us immediately if you change your address as this may change your child's priority for a particular school. If you move home, your application will be reviewed and as a result, any offer of a place may be withdrawn.

If you change address after the 31 October 2023, your application will be considered from your previous address until the initial allocation of places is completed on 1 March 2024. If you are not offered a place for your child at your preferred school, you can then apply for vacancies in the review process which takes place after 1 March 2024.

This will be subject to checks for proof of residency and the effective disposal of your previous property. Schools may have different deadlines for when you move. You should always check the processes and policies for individual schools.

Fraudulent or misleading applications

We assume the information you provide on your application will be factually correct. Any attempt to undermine the fairness of the school admissions system by providing false information is taken very seriously. We will always investigate possible fraudulent applications.

If we find out that a place we offered was based on a fraudulent or misleading information, for example a false claim to be living at an address, the place may be withdrawn and offered to another chid. A place may also be withdrawn even after your child has started school.

Children of UK service personnel and crown servants

For families of service personnel (UK armed forces) with a confirmed posting to Trafford, or crown servants returning to live in Trafford from overseas, a school place can be allocated in advance of you arriving into the area.

Your application must be accompanied by an official letter that declares a relocation date, together with evidence of your address. If a preferred school is oversubscribed, the advised address will be used when considering the application against the oversubscription criteria.

How we use your data

Find out more about how we use your data in the school admissions service privacy notice.

Allocation of places

All available places will be offered in the initial allocation process on 1 March 2024. No places are held in reserve for late applicants. Any vacancies which arise after this are filled through the review process. You will have the option to join the waiting list for any school as part of the review process.

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.

Important advice for Sale and Altrincham residents

All secondary schools in the Altrincham and Sale areas are significantly oversubscribed. It is frequently the case that some catchment area children do not achieve places in their preferred schools. If you live in one of these areas we strongly advise you carefully read the additional advice and follow it.

All applications are to be made through the Trafford application portal:

Apply for a school place