Transfer to secondary school

Secondary school offers for September 2025

If you applied online, you can log back into your admissions account online on 3 March 2025 from 8:30am to view your Secondary School allocation. Additionally, we will send you the offer by email on 3 March 2025.
If you completed a paper application form, we will send your school offer by post. Offer letters will be sent by second-class post on 3 March 2025.

When you get your school offer

You will need to either accept or decline the offered school place by 17 March 2025.

If you completed a paper application form

Accept or decline the offer made by emailing admissions@norfolk.gov.uk. Read our privacy notice to find out how we use your personal information.

If you applied online

Once you are signed in, go to your Account Management page.

If you are on a desktop, you can access this by clicking on your initials in the top right hand of the screen then select Account Management.
If you are using a mobile device, click on the three horizontal lines in the top right hand of the screen. Click on your name and email address and a drop-down menu will appear. Select Account Management.

Click the Applications tab and select Admissions from the drop-down list.

The Admissions page will provide a summary of any applications made where you will be able to respond to your offer.

You will need to either:

Accept the place: You must accept the offered school place within ten school days from the date of the offer (by 17 March 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 17 March 2025, we shall assume acceptance.
Or
Decline the place: You must 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 the autumn term 2025 is Wednesday, 3 September and your child should attend on that day unless you are informed otherwise.

If you are not 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 don't offer your child a place at one of your preferred schools, we will add their name to 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 10 March 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.

Please note that not all appeals are successful. Only 55 of the 192 appeals heard in Norfolk for the September 2024 secondary transfer round were successful.

How to appeal the decision

When children transfer to secondary school

Secondary schools are for 11 to 16 year olds (years 7 to 11). Some secondary schools also have sixth forms for 16 to 18 year olds (years 12 and 13).

Your child is due to transfer to secondary school when they are in their last year (year 6) at primary or junior school.

You need to apply for a secondary school place for September 2025 if:

your child currently goes to a primary or junior school, and
they were born between 1 September 2013 and 31 August 2014.

Transport and free school meals

We will tell the transport team which school we have offered your child a place at. The transport team will contact you if your child is entitled to home to school transport.

Find out more about school transport

If your child gets free school meals at their current school, this entitlement will automatically transfer to their new school from September.

Find out more about free school meals

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.

Secondary school admissions timetable

Important dates for secondary school admissions for September 2025:

Applications open - 11 September 2024
Applications close - 31 October 2024
National offer day (when you get your school offer) - 3 March 2025
Appeals closing date - 28 March 2025
Mini admission round starts (when we consider changes parents have made to their applications since the closing date) - 3 April 2025
Appeals hearings take place - May/June 2025
We maintain waiting lists for oversubscribed schools until 31 December 2025