Choosing a secondary school

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

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

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

Preferences

You can choose up to five schools when you apply. You should put the school you really want first on your list.

Schools never find out which order you put them in. All preferences are considered equally, and a place will be offered at your highest preference possible, where places allow.

Example 1

You apply for:

• School 1
• School 2
• School 3

Your child is added to the list for each of your three chosen schools, which are ranked according to their individual admission criteria. We then check which schools can offer a place.

If all three can, you will be allocated a place at your first choice, school 1.

If only two schools can, you will be allocated a place at the one you ranked higher.

If none can, you will be allocated a place at the nearest Trafford school with availability.

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 they don't, we will look at your second choice.

If you live too far from Sale High School, we may not be able to offer you a place. If you live near enough to Ashton-on-Mersey School, you could be offered a place.

Catchment areas

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

The catchment radius for secondary schools changes every year. You must ask the school directly about their catchment area.

We recommend you apply for your catchment area school, even as your last preference.

If you live in the catchment area for more than one school, we recommend including them all in your list. This will not stop you from being offered a place at the school you have listed higher, but it will increase your chance of being offered a local place.

Allocation of places

Each school has a set number of places to allocate. 

If applications exceed availability, the school is oversubscribed and applies its oversubscription criteria to decide who gets a place. This criterion is applied both during the initial allocation and also in the review process. 

These criteria are outlined in each school’s admission policy. Find out more about admission policies for secondary schools in Trafford.

Waiting lists

All available places are allocated on National Offer Day.

Any vacancies that arise afterwards are filled through the review process, during which you can choose to join a school’s waiting list.