Admission to Primary Education 2024-25 and Junior Transfer September 2024
If you applied online for your child to start school for the first time during the 2024-25 academic year or to transfer to junior school this September, decisions will be emailed on 16 April 2024.
School preference
Parents have a legal right to express a preference for which school they want their child to attend.
This is not the same as being able to choose, but means that if a parent expresses a preference for a particular school, and there are places available, then a place should be offered at that school.
However, in law there is no automatic right to place a child in any particular school, and it may not be possible to offer a place at a preferred school.
Applying for your child's school place
You should only apply to us if you pay your Council Tax to one of the following district or borough councils:
- High Peak
- Derbyshire Dales
- Chesterfield
- North East Derbyshire
- Bolsover
- Amber Valley
- Erewash
- South Derbyshire
You should not apply to us if you pay your Council Tax to Derby City Council or any other council. We do not forward applications made to us in error to your home authority.
If you do not live in Derbyshire you can find your local council.
Children with education health and care plans (EHCP)
If your child has an education health and care plan (EHCP) you should contact the SEN team, email education.senadmin@derbyshire.gov.uk as their transfer is dealt with through their education health and care plan.
You should not complete the application form on this page.
Non-Derbyshire residents should contact their home council.
Parental agreement
We expect parents to consult with each other and agree on the school or schools for which they wish to express a preference. We do not investigate whether applications have been agreed, or resolve disagreements between parents.
Where the child spends time at 2 different addresses with their parents and each parent makes an application, we'll process the preferences of the parent who cares for the child for the greater part of the school week (where the child normally sleeps between Monday evening and Friday morning).
Where we are unable to determine the home address and where there is no parental agreement or court order, we will be unable to process the application further until the matter has been resolved.
We encourage parents to resolve any disagreements quickly as delay may affect the availability of places at preferred schools.
Once we have offered a school place, any disagreement on the child's school placement is for the parents to resolve between themselves.
Normal area / local area school
It is advisable to include your child's normal area school / local area school as one of your preferences, although it does not have to be your first preference.
If you do not include the normal area school as one of your preferences, then a place may not be available there if your other requests cannot be agreed.
You can get information on the normal area / local area school for your home address:
Supplementary information forms
Some Derbyshire schools have supplementary information forms which you may wish to use to support your application.
Home to school transport
Consider how your child will travel to school. If none of your preferences can be agreed, you'll be offered a place at the nearest Derbyshire school with places available. This could involve you paying transport costs to a distant school.
You can find out more about school transport in the parents' guide to primary admissions.
Apply for a primary or infant school place
If your child was born between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020 your child will be eligible to start school in September 2024.
You should have applied for their infant or primary school place by 15 January 2024. The closing date has now passed but you can make a late application from 9am on 23 January 2024 until midnight on 31 August 2024.
Our parents guide to primary admissions will help you to choose a school and make an application.
Apply for a junior school place
If your child was born between 1 September 2016 and 31 August 2017 and is in their final year at infant school they'll transfer to junior school in September 2024.
You should have applied for their junior school place by 15 January 2024. The closing date has now passed but you can make a late application from 9am on 23 January 2024 until midnight on 31 August 2024.
If your child attends a school outside of Derbyshire which operates a different pattern of education and they are due to transfer primary school phase in September 2024 this information also applies to you. You should make a late application to us.
Our parents guide to primary admissions will help you to choose a school and make an application.
Making changes to your application
You'll be able to make changes until your late application is downloaded by us.
The application status you can see will change from 'submitted to LA' to 'LA has received the application' once this is completed.
Once your late application has been downloaded, you can still make changes to your application.
Make a change to your application
Getting your offer
We'll let you know which school your child is being offered a place at on 16 April 2024 by email.
Appeals
If you cannot get a place for your child in your preferred school you can make a school admission appeal.
Changing school at other times
If you're moving to Derbyshire or want to apply for your child to move schools other than at the normal admission or transfer time, you can find out how to change schools.