Please be aware, demand on our secondary school places application system is currently extremely high. If you are experiencing difficulties accessing the system, please try again later. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
If you applied online for your child to start secondary school in September 2025 decisions will be emailed on 3 March 2025. From midnight, you can also log into your account to see your allocated school place.
Please note that at peak times on 3 March it may take some time to open the decision e-mail and we are working hard to rectify this.
Make a change to your application or apply online
For children transferring to secondary school in September 2025, applications should have been made by 31 October 2024. The closing date has now passed but you can still apply for a secondary school place.
Apply for a secondary school place
If you've already applied to us, you can still make changes to your application.
School preference
The information in our parents' guide to secondary admissions can help you to choose a school and make an application.
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. It 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.
In law there's no automatic right to place a child in any particular school. 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 councils:
- High Peak Borough Council
- Derbyshire Dales District
- Chesterfield Borough Council
- North East Derbyshire District Council
- Bolsover District Council
- Amber Valley Borough Council
- Erewash Borough Council
- South Derbyshire District Council
You should not apply to us if you pay your Council Tax to Derby City Council or any other council not listed. We do not forward applications made to us in error to your home authority.
If you don't 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) your child's school place will be arranged by the local authority's SEND assessment service (SENDAS).
If you have any queries please speak to your SENDCO in school, or view school admissions for children with special educational needs.
Non-Derbyshire residents should contact their home council.
Parental agreement
We expect parents to consult with each other and agree on the school(s) for which they wish to express a preference. We don't 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 will 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.
Find your normal area school
Supplementary information forms
Some Derbyshire schools have supplementary information forms which you can 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. View our school transport policy.
Transfer to out of county high schools and university technical colleges
If your child attends a school outside of Derbyshire which operates a different pattern of education and they're due to transfer to secondary school phase in September 2025, for example, your child is due to transfer from middle school to high school, you can apply to us.
If you want to apply for a school place for your child to attend a university technical college you'll need to apply directly to the academy.
Appeals
If you can't get a place for your child in the school you wanted, you can make a school admissions appeal. Your appeal will be heard by an appeal panel independent of the school and the council.
Changing secondary school at other times
You may want to apply for a place at a secondary school for your child at other times, for example if you have recently moved.
Find out everything you need to know about changing schools and how to make an application.