Starting Primary or Secondary School in September 2025
It is an important decision for many families when considering which schools to apply for when your child is starting school in reception, or transferring to secondary school Year 7 from primary school Year 6. Sefton Council has prepared two guides which provides parents/carers with lots of helpful and important information to guide you through the school admissions process.
It is very important that you read both guides before submitting an application for your child’s school place. To help decide which schools you would like to apply for you should:
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- Read the Parents Guide - applying for school places 2025.
- View Sefton Primary & Secondary Schools Admissions Information Guide to find schools in your area.
- Look at the admissions criteria for all the schools you are considering.
- Think about which criterion your application would be considered under and review the numbers of successful applications in each criterion for previous years. This should help inform your choices and chances of a successful application.
- Contact the school to enquire about open evenings/days or personal visits.
- Look at other sources of information such as school website and Ofsted reports.
- If applying to a faith school complete the supplementary information forms (which you should request directly from the school) if you want to be considered under a faith criterion. You will see if this is required for your preferred schools by reading the Schools Information Guide.
- Look at whether you child would qualify for home to school transport for the schools you are considering - this can be found in Section C of the Guide for Parents.
Applying for a primary or secondary school place - Guide for Parents
The Guide for Parents includes information about:
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- The closing dates and deadlines for applications (also shown below).
- How applications should be submitted.
- How the Local Authority processes both primary and secondary applications.
- What happens if your application is late.
- What to do if you are moving house during the application period.
- How and when you will receive your offer of a school place around the national offer days.
| Parents Guide Applying for School Places 2025 |  (pdf 796KB) |
Once you have read the Parents Guide you can then view the Sefton Schools Admissions Information Guide.
Sefton Primary & Secondary Schools - Admissions Information Guide
The Primary and Secondary Schools Admissions Information Guide includes:
- Types of schools within Sefton, including the area in which they are located.
- Colour coded area maps of all Primary & Secondary schools within Sefton.
- The contact details for all Sefton schools.
- The Published Admission Number for 2025 entry for all Sefton schools.
- The admissions criteria for all Sefton schools for 2025 entry.
- Catchment area maps are included for the small number of schools that have catchment areas as part of their admissions criteria.
- Previous admissions patterns for most schools over the last 3 years.
| Sefton Schools Admissions Info Guide 2025 | (pdf 9.04MB) |
If you have read both information guides and are ready to apply for your child’s school place you can register & apply online via the Citizen Portal by following the link under the 'Do it Online' section on this page.
Citizen Portal online applications for 2025 entry into Reception and Year 7 will open on 1st September 2024. You MUST apply through your home Local Authority regardless of where the school you are applying for is located. As long as you live within Sefton, you apply through Sefton even if your preferred school(s) is outside of Sefton. If you do not live within the Sefton area you must apply through your home Local Authority for a Sefton school.
If you have not used Sefton's Citizen Portal before you must first register by confirming your email address and setting up a password (in exactly the same way as many other websites). You must keep a note of your password as you will need this again to log into the Citizen Portal on Offer Day to view the school place offer.
IMPORTANT: If you have used Sefton's Citizen Portal before please check your details are correct, including your home address by selecting 'My Account' on the homepage before you start a new application.
Please also read the frequently asked questions for further information.
Important Dates for September 2025 Admissions
You MUST your submit your application online via the Citizen Portal by the national closing dates which are:
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Closing date for applications to start Secondary School is 31 October 2024.
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Closing date for applications to start Primary School is 15 January 2025.
Please submit your application as early as possible and no later than the closing dates above. It will NOT be possible for you to apply via the Citizen Portal after these closing dates.
Frequently Asked Questions for primary and secondary allocation of school places
If you have already registered on the Citizen Portal and you have forgotten your password, use the citizen portal link, enter your username (which is your email address) and click on the link for ‘forgotten password’. You will receive an email with further instructions and a link to reset your password. The forgotten password email can take up to 10 minutes to arrive, do check your junk/spam email folders for the reset email as well.
If, after following the above process, you are still having difficulty accessing the online system, please contact the School Admissions Team for further advice.
The national offer dates are 1 March 2024 for Secondary School (Year 7) places and 16 April 2024 for Primary School (Reception) places.
- If your child can be offered a place at more than one of your preferred schools we will offer you the place at your highest preferred school listed on your application form that we can.
- If your child cannot be offered a place at any of the schools listed as preferences on your application form we will offer your child a place at the nearest qualifying school to your home address with an available place.
- If you applied via the Citizen Portal you will be able to log into your account and view the school offer information online from the national offer date (shown above). If you opted to be sent the school offer via email we will also send an email on the national offer date. The email will confirm the name of the school at which your child has been offered a place.
- If you have not been offered your highest preferred school further details about submitting an appeal are available on the School Admissions Appeals page.
- If you did not apply via the Citizen Portal, a letter will be sent to your home address via 1st class mail on the national offer date. The letter will confirm the name of the school at which your child has been offered a place. In normal circumstances the letter should be received within 48 hrs.
Please note we will not disclose any offer information over the telephone (or in response to email enquiries) and you will have to wait for the letter to arrive at your home address.
You do not have to accept the place offered at a Sefton* school. Sefton will automatically consider the place as being accepted. You should only decline the place offered if you have secured a place at another school, or no longer require a school place for your child in the Sefton area. Further information will be included within the school offer notification. You should NOT decline the place offered if you are going to appeal for a place at another school. If you have secured a place for your child at another school or opted for alternative education provision, please inform the Admissions Team as soon as possible after the national offer date. This will enable the place allocated to your child to be then offered to another child.
*If you have been offered a place at a school outside of Sefton you MUST check if you need to accept the place with the relevant Local Authority where that school is located.
For current vacancy information, please contact the Admissions Team using the 'Contacts' email link on this page and provide your child's full name and date of birth and the name(s) of the schools that you are interested in.
Alternatively you can telephone the School Admissions Team on 0151 934 3590 however please note that the phone lines will be extremely busy on and around the national offer dates. We would prefer contact via email please use the 'Contacts' email link on this page.
If you wish to request an alternative school for your child you MUST complete a Late Application/Change form - see next section for more information. You can also access the relevant form under the 'Do it online' link on this page (this facility is only available after the national closing dates have passed).
Yes, you must complete a late application/change form which will be made available under the 'Do it online' section on this page after the national closing dates have passed. Choose the Primary form to request a school place or alternative school for a Reception age child, OR the Secondary form to request a school place or alternative school for a child transferring from Year 6 to Year 7 in September.
Your child will automatically be added to the waiting list for any Sefton school you have been refused a place at (providing it was a higher preference than the school you were offered). If you have been refused a place at a school in other Local Authority areas you must check the procedure for being included on a waiting list with the Admission Authority for that particular school(s).
For further information on the operation of waiting lists for Sefton schools please refer to the Guide for Parents.
Full details are available on our School Admissions Appeals page.