Admission to reception classes
Reception Class offers for September 2025 are now available.
- If you applied online, you will be able to see the offer from 8.30am on 16 April 2025 in your admissions account online. We also sent you the offer by email on 16 April 2025.
- If you completed a paper application form, we have sent your school offer by post. We sent offer letters by second-class post on 16 April 2025.
When you get your school offer
If you completed a paper application form, please accept or decline the offer made by emailing the admissions team.
If you applied online, please log in to your admissions account online. Please click the Applications tab and then go to Admissions from the drop-down menu.
The Admissions page will provide a summary of the applications made where you will be able to respond to the offer.
If you need to contact the Admissions Team, please include your child's full name and date of birth in your correspondence.
You will need to either:
- Accept the place: then you must accept the offered school place by 30 April 2025. We recommend that parents and carers accept the offered school place, even if they plan to submit an appeal or amend their preferences. If you have not responded by 30 April 2025, we shall assume acceptance.
or
Decline the place: then you must also provide information on the educational provision you are making for your child. If you decline a place because you are waiting for a higher preference, or a place following an appeal, you may leave your child without a school place for September 2025. It will be your responsibility to provide suitable education for your child.
The first day of autumn term 2025 is Wednesday 3 September 2025. Your child should go to school on that day unless the school tells you otherwise.
If you have not been offered a place at one of your preferred schools
If we have been unable to accommodate any of your preferences an alternative school has been offered. This represents the nearest school with a place available to your home address.
You will need to either accept or decline the offered school place.
Waiting lists
If we haven't offered your child a place at one of your preferred schools, we will add their name to the waiting list for that school in case a place becomes available. We will keep their name on the waiting list until 31 December 2025.
From 28 April 2025, you will be able to view your child's position on the waiting list for any school which had a higher ranked preference than the school offered. Please be aware that positions on waiting lists can change daily and we will aim to update this information at the beginning of each week.
Appealing the decision
You have the right to appeal the decision if we do not offer your child a place at one of your preferred schools.
Transport and free school meals
We will tell the transport team which school your child will be going to. The transport team will contact your if your child is entitled to home to school transport.
Find out more about school transport.
All children in reception, year 1 and year 2 automatically get free school meals.
Find out more about free school meals.
Late applications
If your child is due to transfer to Junior school in September 2025 and you haven't applied, you can make a late application online or by completing a paper application form. Please note, late applications will have a lower priority for a school place than those applications that were received on time.
If you cannot apply online, you can request a paper application form using our general enquiry form.
When children start school
Most children start school in the September after their fourth birthday.
You need to apply for admission to reception for September 2025 if your child was born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021.
You must apply for a reception class place even if your child currently goes to a nursery class at a school. Going to a nursery attached to a school does not increase your chances of getting a reception class place at that school.
If you want your child to start later, you still need to apply for a reception class place at the same time as everyone else.
Find out more about when your child starts school.
Wraparound Childcare
To support more working families, wraparound childcare for primary school children may be available. This includes regular before and after school provision that runs during the term from 8am until 6pm or later, either on a school site or at another local setting.
Tax-free Childcare or Universal Credit Childcare can be used to help pay for wraparound childcare. Speak to your child's school or calling Norfolk County Council's Family Information Service on 0344 800 8020 or emailing fis@norfolk.gov.uk to find out more.
The admissions process in Norfolk
You can find full information and answers to frequently asked questions in the parent's guide to admissions in Norfolk (PDF, 399 KB).
Contact the admissions team
If you need to contact us, you can use the general enquiry form.
Reception class admissions timetable
Important dates for admissions to Reception for September 2025:
- Applications open - 23 September 2024
- Applications close - 15 January 2025
- National offer day (when you get your school offer) - 16 April 2025
- Appeals closing date - 26 May 2025
- Mini admission round starts (when we consider changes parents have made to their applications since the closing date) - 20 May 2025
- Appeals hearings take place - June/July 2025
- We maintain waiting lists for oversubscribed schools until 31 December 2025
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