Starting primary or secondary school in September 2025

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 3 March 2025 for Secondary School (Year 7) places and 16 April 2025 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.

To accurately measure home to school distances Sefton Local Authority uses a bespoke Geographical Information System with a distance measuring tool known as ‘Route Finder’. The distance is determined in every case by measuring the shortest road walking route from the child’s home address to the nearest school gate. This is not necessarily the route that would be used by a vehicle. All distances are measured in the same way, using the same road network and software, so that those distances can be compared on an equal footing, for every pupil. 

Publicly available measuring systems such as online maps/GPS trackers & similar applications, which parents may use for comparison, are usually less accurate and will NOT be taken into account by the local authority.

A full explanation of how the local authority measures home to school distances is available in the Frequently Asked Questions section within the Parents Guide to School Admissions which is available to view on this page.

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 Parents Guide to School Admissions.

Full details are available on our School Admissions Appeals page.