The procedure for applying for junior places at junior and primary schools.
Primary admissions timescale – September 2026
- Week commencing 3 November 2025 - Information on application process distributed to schools.
- Monday 10 November 2025 - Online and telephone application facilities open.
- From week commencing 10 November 2025 - Preferences start to be recorded on the Admissions System and initial information available to schools on SAM.
- Midnight Thursday 15 January 2026 - Closing date for submission of applications.
- By Monday 26 January 2026 - Admissions and Transport Team send other Local Authorities details of Derbyshire children who have expressed preferences for their schools.
- By Monday 26 January 2026 - Admissions and Transport Team to have received from other Local Authorities details of their children who have expressed preferences for Derbyshire schools.
- By Monday 2 February 2026 - Admissions and Transport Team will have released all preference details to own admission authority schools where assessments are done by the school.
- By Friday 6 February 2026 - Admissions and Transport Team will have released preference details for checking by own admission authority schools where assessments are done by the Admissions and Transport Team.
- By Friday 13 February 2026 - Own admission authority school rankings to be complete on SAM, checked and confirmed to the Admissions and Transport Team. Schools should ensure that a Governors’ meeting to consider preferences is scheduled in order to meet this deadline.
- By Monday 9 March 2026 - Admissions and Transport Team to send to other Local Authorities potential offers of places in Derbyshire schools.
- By Monday 30 March 2026 - Admissions and Transport Team to receive from other Local Authorities potential offers of places in their schools.
- By Friday 2 April 2026 - Allocation process complete. Admissions and Transport Team to release details of children to be offered places (subject to the receipt of information from neighbouring Local Authorities). This information is confidential until National Offer Day.
- Thursday 16 April 2026 - National Offer Day. Decision available online and letters posted second class where appropriate.
- Thursday 16 April 2026 - Waiting lists for all oversubscribed schools established and administered by the Admissions Team.
- Friday 15 May 2026 - Closing date for appeals (20 school days from offer day).
- May 2026 onwards - Own admission authority schools to inform Admissions and Transport Team of the outcome of appeals to the independent appeal panels. Where appeals have been successful, the Admissions Team will deal with any resulting movement.
- Friday 17 July 2026 - Main round of appeals to be heard by this date.
- From Monday 7 September 2026 - Schools to notify the Admissions and Transport Team of any pupil allocated a place who does not take up the place offered or who leaves whilst the waiting list is maintained.
- 31 December 2026 - waiting lists cease to be maintained by Admissions and Transport Team.