Year 7 - secondary school applications

Apply to transfer to Year 7 at secondary school for September 2024.

Choosing your secondary school

Make an application to secondary school

Parents of children born between 1 September 2012 and 31 August 2013 (inclusive) need to apply for a secondary school place for September 2024.

Visit the transferring or moving school page if you want to move your child to another school now (in-year transfers).

Consider schools in your catchment area

Many, but not all, secondary schools have catchment areas.

Where your child has a catchment area school, they are more likely to get a place, but it isn't guaranteed. If there are more applications than places, we follow the school's published admission rules to decide priority. We advise that you list your catchment school as one of your preferences if there is one for your address. 

You can find details of catchment areas for schools that use them on our list of schools page.

Warning

Attending their catchment school does not guarantee that your child will get free home to school transport.

Think about how your child will get to school

Free home to school transport

We provide free home to school transport in limited circumstances as detailed in our policy.

Secondary school children are eligible for free home to school transport where:

  • they attend their nearest available school (not always their catchment school) and 
  • the school is over three miles from their home address.

We may provide transport where the distance to the nearest available school is less than three miles, and we have listed the route as dangerous. Visit the Travelling to school pages for more information and the transport policy.

Nearest available school

When assessing for free transport, we do not measure the distance to the nearest school in the same way as the catchment school. So, the nearest school may not be your child's catchment school.

Think about how your child will get to school if you apply to a school that's further than your nearest available school.

When a new school is built, this can affect a child’s eligibility for school transport.

To find out where your nearest school is, contact us. 

List of (existing) schools

Find details for every existing state-funded Oxfordshire school on our list of schools page. You can find each school's location, contact details, catchment area (where it has one), admissions rules and history of allocation data.

How places were allocated in previous years

The catchment area is one of the ways that places at schools are decided. There are other factors, such as whether a child has a brother or sister at the school or whether they have special educational needs. Religious or faith schools could use the religion of your child or family as a deciding factor.

Find the admission rules for all state-funded secondary schools, and how places were allocated on the individual school pages.

Independent school

If your child is going to attend an independent school, you must tell us the school name in writing as soon as possible. This will make your place available for another child.

Send us the details using this contact form.

Home educating

If you are going to educate your child at home let us know as soon as possible by contacting the Admissions Team. This will make your place available for another child. Contact the Elective Home Education Team for further details about home education.

Leaving Oxfordshire

If you are leaving the area and no longer require a school place in Oxfordshire, contact us as soon as possible. This will make your place available for another child.

Further advice

For further advice on the secondary school application process, please see the Moving On booklet (pdf format, 536Kb)