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The procedure for applying for secondary school places for children transferring from primary and junior schools to secondary education.

Secondary admissions timescale September 2023

  • July 2022 – admissions and transport team inform schools of the number of children in their normal area.
  • Week commencing 5 September 2022 – information on application process distributed to all Year 6 children and school prospectuses available in primary schools.
  • Monday 12 September 2022 – online and telephone application facilities open.
  • From week commencing 19 September 2022 - preferences start to be recorded on Admissions System and initial information available to schools on SAM.
  • Midnight 31 October 2022 – closing date for submission of applications.
  • By Monday 7 November 2022 - admissions and transport team send other local authorities details of Derbyshire children who have expressed preferences for their schools.
  • By Monday 7 November 2022 – admissions and transport team to have received from other local authorities details of their children who have expressed preferences for Derbyshire schools.
  • By Monday 28 November 2022 – admissions and transport team will have released all preference details to own admission authority schools where assessments are done by the school.
  • By Monday 5 December 2022 - 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 Monday 12 December 2022 – 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 Thursday 15 December 2022 - own admission authority schools where we assess to have confirmed their agreement to our assessments. Schools should ensure that a Governors' meeting to consider preferences is scheduled in order to meet this deadline.
  • By Tuesday 3 January 2023 – admissions and transport team send to other local authorities potential offers of places in Derbyshire schools.
  • By Monday 9 January 2023 – admissions and transport team to receive from other local authorities potential offers of places in their schools.
  • By Friday 10 February 2023 – allocation process complete. Admissions and transport team to release details of the children to be offered places (subject to receipt of information from neighbouring local authorities). This information is confidential until National Offer day.
  • Wednesday 1 March 2023 – National Offer day. Decision available online and letters posted second class where appropriate.
  • Wednesday 1 March 2023 - waiting lists for all oversubscribed schools established and administered by the admissions and transport team.
  • Wednesday 29 March 2023 – appeals to be requested by this date (legal requirement 20 school days from closing date).
  • April 2023 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 and transport team will deal with any resulting movement.
  • Friday 16 June 2023 - main round of appeals to be heard by this date.
  • From Monday 4 September 2023 – 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.
  • Sunday 31 December 2023 – waiting lists cease to be maintained by admissions and transport team.

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