Starting primary or secondary school

Children born between 1 September 2020 - 31 August 2021 start full time school in September 2025.

• Apply online if you live in Solihull
• Closing date for applications: 15 January 2025
• Offers will be made: 16 April 2025
• Number of schools you can apply for: 5

Children attending the nursery do not usually get a higher priority for a place

We strongly recommend you include your catchment-area school even if it is your lowest preference when you apply for a place. If you are not offered a place at one of your preferred schools you will be offered a place at the nearest school with a vacancy after all the offers are made. This could be some distance from your home. Our advice on making a realistic application can help you apply.

Some schools organise a slow, phased start during the first two weeks of September to help children settle in. You should contact your child’s school to find out when they are due to start reception as it may be later than the start of the school term.

Read our reception booklet for more information.

Deferred entry to school

Provision must be made for the admission to school of all children in the September following their fourth birthday. Where a place at a school has been offered:

• Your child is entitled to a full-time place in the September following their fourth birthday;
• You can defer the date your child is admitted to the school until later in the school year, but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year for which it was made; or
• If you wish your child may attend part-time until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age.

A child reaches compulsory school age on the prescribed day following his or her fifth birthday (31 December, 31 March and 31 August).

Admission outside normal age range

In Solihull it is usual for children to be taught in the year group according to their chronological age. This is entirely appropriate for the vast majority of children whose needs can be supported by experienced school staff and the opportunities offered by the early years foundation stage curriculum.

Occasionally, it may be in the best interests of the child to teach him or her out of their chronological year group. This may be because of serious illness or severe learning difficulties.

Parents of summer-born children, defined by the DfE as children born between 1 April and 31 August may request that their child be taught out of the normal age group. This request may be supported by professional evidence such as a speech and language therapist or it may simply be the parent’s statement as to why they are making their request.

Parents wishing to make a request are advised to follow this process:

• Apply for a place for your child’s normal age group at the usual time
• Submit a request for admission out of the normal age group at the same time and by the closing date, by emailing admissions@solihull.gov.uk for local authority school or direct to an academy or voluntary aided school
• Admission authorities will respond to the request before national offer day
• If the request is agreed the application for the normal age group will be withdrawn before a place is offered
• If the request is refused the application will proceed for the normal age group and you must decide whether to accept the offer of a place, or to refuse it and make an in-year application for admission once your child reaches statutory school age
• If your request is agreed, this is not an offer of a school place, you must make a new application as part of the main admissions round the following year

One admission authority cannot be required to honour a decision made by another admission authority on admission out of the normal age group. Parents, therefore, should consider whether to request admission out of the normal year group at all their preference schools, rather than just their first preference school.

Once a request is submitted, the admissions authority is responsible for making the decision about whether the child should be admitted out of their normal age group. For maintained schools this will be the local authority, for voluntary aided schools or academies this will be the Governing Body or Trust.

The admissions authority will take account of the child’s individual needs and abilities to consider whether these can best be met in reception or year one. In effect, this means that the authority is making a decision about whether it would be in the child’s best interest to miss the reception year.

In making this decision the admissions authority will take account of:

• The views of the parent
• Information on the child’s academic and social and emotional development
• The child’s medical history and views of medical professionals, if relevant
• Whether the child was born prematurely and to which year group it would have fallen into if it was born on time; and
• The views of the Head Teacher

Parents have a statutory right to appeal against the refusal of a place at a school for which they have applied. This right does not apply if they are offered a place at the school but it is not in their preferred age group.

If you are unhappy with the decision that has been reached following your request, you can make a complaint using the local authority complaints procedure for maintained schools or the schools complaints procedure for voluntary aided schools and academies.

If you are not satisfied with the way the local authority has handled your complaint, you may then refer their complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. In the case of an academy, you may refer your complaint to the Education and Skills Funding Agency who will consider the complaint on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education.

The Department for Education has issued advice and guidance for parents of summer born children.

Children born between 1 September 2017 - 31 August 2018 attending an infant school transfer to a junior school in September 2025.

• Apply online if you live in Solihull
• Closing date for applications: 15 January 2025
• Offers will be made: 16 April 2025
• Number of schools you can apply for: 3

Children on the roll of one following infant schools by the closing date for applications are guaranteed a place at the linked junior school as long as you apply on time.

Read our junior booklet for more information.

Children born between 1 September 2013 - 31 August 2014 transfer to a secondary school in September 2025.

• Apply online if you live in Solihull - if you live outside of Solihull you must apply through the borough that you live in, you can still apply for schools in our area
• Closing date for applications: 31 October 2024 - late applications are dealt with after all on time applications have been considered
• Offers will be made: 1 March 2025 (Or the next working day where 1 March falls on a weekend or bank holiday)
• Number of schools you can apply for: 6
• Check school websites to find out about open days and evenings in September and October 2024

We recommend you include your catchment-area school even if it is ranked as your lowest preference. If you are not offered a place at one of your preferred schools you will be offered a place at the nearest school with a vacancy after all the offers are made. For the 2024 academic year, children who did not apply for their catchment school and were not offered one of their preference schools were offered a school over 5 miles away. Your catchment area school is likely to be full with applicants who have applied.  

Look at the admission arrangements for the school that you wish to apply for to find out how places are offered and whether any additional processes are required to apply for that school. You should also read How we process your application, which provides important information on the process.

Our advice on making a realistic application will help you to make your application.

Read our secondary booklet for more information.

Children aged between 14 and 19 have a range of educational options that lead to valuable qualifications and can progress to further learning at university or college, apprenticeship or employment. Children can remain in school or you can explore other options that are available from the beginning of year 10.

If you want your child to remain at their current secondary school you do not need to apply.

University Technical Colleges are set up by universities and businesses and specialise in one or two technical subjects. At GCSE they offer a similar curriculum to a typical 11-18 secondary school, including English and maths as well as their specialist subject. Studio schools are similar to UTCs in that they have employer involvement in the curriculum and focus on developing the skills needed for employment, involving personal coaching and work experience, alongside a similar curriculum to a typical 11-18 school.

Children born between 1 September 2010 - 31 August 2011 can, if they wish, move to a UTC or other provider and start year 10 in September 2024.

If you want to apply for a place from the beginning of year 10 you should contact the UTC or academy direct to find out how to apply.

You can apply online for WMG Academy Solihull and WMG Academy Coventry.

Look at the schools website to view their admission arrangements.

Every property in Solihull is within a catchment area of a school for each age group. 

Most schools offer a priority to children that live in its catchment area, but this does not guarantee that you will receive an offer for your catchment school.

Our online maps will help you find the catchment area for your address. Our maps are the most reliable way to check your catchment. Catchment area information on house selling sites may not be accurate.

No one has the right to choose the school their child will go to but you can tell us what school you would like your child to attend. Most schools receive more applications than places available. All of the applications are put in priority order, according to the oversubscription criteria and places are offered in this order.

Before you apply you should:

• Look at the oversubscription criteria for your preferred schools and work out which priority would be given to your application
• Read our guide to definitions that can help you understand the words used within the oversubscription criteria
• Check your distance from the school using our online maps
• Apply before the closing date
• If the school you want to apply for is a faith school it is likely that they will give priority to children who are baptised Catholic and/or those who live in the parish Solihull Catholic schools require you to fill in a supplementary information form as well as include the school name on your application
• Rank the schools in preference order, putting your favourite school first

If you live in Solihull we strongly recommend that you include your catchment-area school, even if it is your lowest preference - if you don’t the school is likely to be full with applicants who have applied. If you do not qualify for a place at any of your preferred schools you will be offered a place at the nearest school with a vacancy after all the offers are made. For the 2024 academic year alternative offers made were around five to six miles from home.

• Compare your priority and distance to how places have been offered in previous years - this will give you an indication of how successful your application may be, however it does not guarantee that this year’s admission will be the same
  • Secondary places - Go to each school’s page to see this information on a map
  • Junior places
  • Reception places

Making a realistic application example

This is an example and does not imply the outcome of an application.

Imagine you are applying for School A - find out your priority by checking your circumstances against the oversubscription criteria like this:

Your application has priority 6 and you live 1.6 miles from the school. The last person offered a place at School A for last September was priority 6 - 1.194 miles. This means that your child would not have been offered a place because you live too far away. However, this is only a guide and does not mean your application would be unsuccessful every year. The number of places available in priority 6 will change depending on how many applications are made and how many children live in the catchment area.

The distance of the last person offered a place could also change, for example, it will not always be 1.194 miles for School A. You can still apply for this school and if it is the school you want the most you should put it first on your application, but you should include other schools where you may have a better chance of being offered a place.

Priority is given, at some Solihull schools, to children with exceptional social or medical reasons. You should check the oversubscription criteria for the school you want to apply for to see if this priority applies.

If you think there may be exceptional social or medical reasons you can find out more and what to do next on the definitions page.

If your child has an education, health and care (EHC) plan you will apply using a different process. You can find out more by contacting our EHCP team on 0121 704 6690.

If you are currently living overseas and would like to make an application for Secondary, Reception or Infant to Junior transfer for September 2025 intake, this is the process for you to follow.  You will need to apply via email, not via our online system as this is for Solihull residents only. We will need the following information from you to add an application to our system;

• Your child’s full name (as per the information on the passport) making clear which is the forename, middle name and surname.  A copy of the name page of your child’s passport will help us to ensure that we have their name and date of birth registered correctly
• date of birth (day/month/year),
• current address (overseas),
• parent name and contact details,
• order of school preferences. 6 preferences maximum for Secondary and 5 for Reception/Infant to Junior transfer.
• For any faith schools please send information directly to schools, such as certificates of baptism, you will find a supplementary information form on the school's website.

We do not require any documentation at this stage of the application process.

On arrival in the UK, we will require the following information

• proof of arrival (boarding card)
• details of your new address and the date that you moved in.
• documents to verify that address (see the information on the proof of address section of our website).

We do not require a school report for this type of application.

For overseas arrivals in any other year group (in-year) please refer to our moving schools during the school year page.

If you want to change your application you must send any updates to us by email at admissions@solihull.gov.uk. We will send you an email confirming your changes. Any changes we make for you will not show online. Your online outcome, on offer day, will show your changes.

If you make changes to your application involving schools outside Solihull the details will be sent to the council for the area who will have their own process.

If you have missed the closing date and the online system has closed you should email school admissions at admissions@solihull.gov.uk with your name, your child's full name, date of birth, address, the school they are attending now and the schools you would like to apply for. You can apply for up to 6 secondary schools or 5 primary schools.

For schools with more applications than places available, late applications will be processed after all on-time applications have been considered.

We do not publish the time that the emails will be sent so our online system can cope with the amount of visitors.

You can find out how the places have been offered at Solihull schools in the most recent allocations:

• Secondary places
• Junior places
• Reception places

For secondary and 14-19 offers, you must accept the place by doing one of the following:

• accept your place on the parent portal
• email admissions@solihull.gov.uk

For reception and infant to junior transfer offers, you do not need to accept your place.  This has been done for you.  You will only need to contact us if you do not wish to accept your place as you have secured an alternative offer for your child.

We will send your child’s details to the school and they will contact you in the summer term with details of events leading up to your child starting in September.

You should only decline the offer if you have another school place for your child. You must email admissions@solihull.gov.uk or write to school admissions telling us your child’s name, date of birth and the school they will be going to.

You should let us know as quickly as possible so another child can be given a place. You cannot provide this information over the phone.

Your child will automatically be on the waiting list of a Solihull school or academy if they have been refused a place. Waiting lists will be created during the two weeks after the offer date, after which you can contact us to find out where your child is on the list. You can contact us by email at admissions@solihull.gov.uk.

Waiting lists are in priority order against the admission criteria for the school or academy. Your child can move up or down the waiting list. For example, if another child joins the waiting list and has a higher priority for a place, because they live in the catchment area or live closer to the school than you, they will go above your child on the waiting list. If there is a vacancy this will be offered to the child at the top of the waiting list.

Children on the waiting list for Tudor Grange Academy Kingshurst Academy are not in any order because places are offered by random allocation.

Your child will stay on the waiting list until July. You will need to email us at admissions@solihull.gov.uk during July if you want to remain on the waiting list for the new school year.

If you don’t contact us during July your child will be taken off the list. In September, your child’s name will be transferred to the in-year waiting list and given the appropriate oversubscription criteria. You will be required to email each half term to remain on an in-year waiting list. More information will be provided at the time.

You can appeal if you are unhappy with your secondary, junior or reception offer. You can find out more about appealing, or who to contact for a form. 

You are responsible for giving us correct information. If you provide false information, this could lead to your child's offer of a place being withdrawn.

It’s important that the information you provide is accurate and honest so we can treat each child’s application fairly and equally. When we receive your application, we carry out several checks and may ask for proof of your address. If you move address at any point, you must let us know. 

If we find that we have offered a place due to false or misleading information, this will be withdrawn. This can happen even after your child has started school.

If you think someone has used fraudulent information to obtain a school place you can provide details via email to admissions@solihull.gov.uk. Your identity will remain anonymous.

If your child is offered a place at a school which is not your catchment-area school they are unlikely to be eligible for travel assistance. If will be your responsibility to get your child to and from school.

You can find out if your child would be entitled to help with transport to and from school if they are offered a place.