Applying for a junior school

In this section

• Key dates
• National offer day
• Do I need to apply for a junior school?
• Before you apply - (making a late application)
• Apply for a junior school place 
• Applications for families arriving from abroad
• Parental responsibility and disputes

Key dates

• The deadline for on-time applications was Wednesday 15 January 2025. 
• National offer day was Tuesday 16 April 2025

National offer day: Wednesday 16 April

You must accept your offer by Wednesday 30 April to secure your child's school place. 

If you applied online:

•  you will receive an email on the evening of Wednesday 16 April, advising you to log back into your eAdmissions account to view and accept your offer
• you will not receive an offer letter in the post
• all relevant information will be available on the eAdmissions website. 

If you have changed your email address and do not receive an email, you can still log into your account on the evening of offer day.

Please note: If you applied online after Wednesday 15 January, you will not be able to view your outcome online. An offer letter will be sent via email or post in accordance with our late application timetable.

Access your eAdmissions account

If you submitted a paper application, your offer letter will be emailed with full instructions on how to accept your school offer.

For data protection reasons, our school placement and admissions team cannot advise parents/guardians of the outcome of their application over the telephone.

Please note: If you applied after Wednesday 15 January, you would receive an outcome via email following late allocations that begin during May.

Accept/decline school offer

Once you have accepted the offer, we will advise the school, who will contact you directly between April and July, with all the relevant admission information. 

Please note: Different schools send their information out to parents/guardians at various times.

If you do not respond to the offer within 5 days, you will be contacted again for a response. At that time if you do not reply, we will withdraw the offer we have made, and offer it to another child.

Declining your offer

If you applied online, you can decline the offer online. Please ensure you state the reason(s) for the decline, for example if you have moved out of the area. If you are unhappy with the school offer, you are strongly advised to accept it. This will not affect any of your higher preferences and your child will be placed on the waiting list for all schools you named as a higher preference.

Waiting lists

For Hillingdon community schools please contact the Hillingdon Council's school placement and admissions team for more information.

All Academy, Foundation, Free and Voluntary Aided (faith) schools hold their own waiting lists. If the school is outside the borough of Hillingdon, contact the borough in which the school is located, to query whether the waiting list is provided by the school or the local authority.  Please do not contact schools in Hillingdon any sooner than 4 weeks from national offer day, as waiting lists will not be available.

Please note: Any child who is not offered a place at their preferred school in Hillingdon, will automatically be added onto the waiting list.

Appeals

You have the right of appeal under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, against the refusal of a place at any of the schools for which you have applied.

You must contact the school directly to obtain all relevant information. If the school is outside of Hillingdon, please contact the school's borough to obtain the procedure and the date by which an appeal must be received by.

Appeals are heard by an independent panel and have no connection with the school concerned. Please contact the school directly for all appeal information, the process and any deadlines.

For Hillingdon community schools you must contact Hillingdon council. If your appeals is submitted before the appeals deadline of Wednesday 14 May then your appeal will be heard before the start of term in September.

Late rounds of allocation

You can still submit a late application online up until Tuesday 19 August.

Alternatively, you can request a paper application by calling the school placement and admissions team on 01895 556644 or by submitting an online query form below. However, your application will not be processed until after Wednesday 16 April.

For further information regarding when late rounds of allocation will be, please read our late rounds of allocation timetable (PDF, 62 KB).

Do I need to apply for a junior school?

All Hillingdon residents with a child in year 2 at any infant school must submit an application. Applications can be made for up to 4 junior schools; however, if you only wish to transfer your child to your linked Hillingdon junior school, you only need to include 1 preference.

Applications also need to be made for Hillingdon residents with pupils wishing to continue at a junior school in a different authority.

Residents of other boroughs wishing to apply for a Hillingdon junior school should contact their own local authority for details on how to make an application. This applies to all year 2 pupils who are currently:

• attending an infant school in Hillingdon or a neighbouring authority or
• attending a primary school and you wish to transfer your child to a junior school in September 2025.

This does not apply to year 2 pupils who are currently:

• attending a primary school in Hillingdon or a neighbouring authority, and you wish your child to move to year 3 in the same school or
• currently attending a primary school and you wish to transfer your child to a year 3 place at a different primary school in September 2025 (an in-year application will need to be made in this case).

Junior schools in Hillingdon give priority to pupils attending their linked infant school, but they do not reserve places for individual pupils. Therefore, it is very important that you apply on time to ensure you do not miss out on an offer.

Applications must be made for year 2 pupils wishing to continue in the following Hillingdon junior schools:

• Coteford Junior School
• Field End Junior School
• Grange Park Junior School
• Harefield Junior School
• Hillside Junior School
• Minet Junior School
• Newnham Junior School
• Whitehall Junior School
• Whiteheath Junior School
• Yeading Junior School.

Before you apply

Read the School admissions 2025 brochure (PDF, 2 MB) and Starting junior school 2025 leaflet (PDF, 332 KB).

These contain a lot of useful information on making your application, choosing your schools, frequently asked questions and all of the schools' individual criteria and contact details.

Apply for a junior school place

The closing date for on time applications was Wednesday 15 January 2025.

If you miss the deadline date, you can still submit a late application online until Tuesday 19 August 2025. However, your application will not be processed until after Wednesday 16 April 2025 (national offer day).

Apply for a junior school place (opens new window)

Please note:

• If you have difficulties making an application online, get additional support on how to create and complete an online application. 
• Information on how to apply online for a school place with eadmissions (PDF, 300 KB).
• If you choose to apply online, you must not complete a paper application as well.

Applications for families arriving from abroad, including from the EU

In most cases, children arriving from overseas have the right to attend schools in England. It is the responsibility of parents to check whether their child has a right, under their visa entry conditions, to study at a school before submitting an application. 

Read more about applications for families arriving from abroad

Parental responsibility and disputes

Our School Placement and Admissions team has seen a significant increase in the numbers of disputes between parents, relating to where their children should go to school. We understand that, when trying to come to a mutual agreement on child arrangements, parental disputes can be extremely upsetting for all involved (including the children). 

Protocol and guidance regarding parental responsibility (PDF, 179 KB) has been published to help parents understand the council's protocol for dealing with situations where parents disagree. This is general guidance intended to help parents understand their rights and responsibilities in line with the law. 

Can't find the information you're looking for?

If you're unable to find the information you are looking for, please complete our online schools query form.

Submit a schools query form